ES News email The latest headlines in your inbox twice a day Monday - Friday plus breaking news updates Enter your email address Continue Please enter an email address Email address is invalid Fill out this field Email address is invalid You already have an account. Please log in Register with your social account or click here to log in I would like to receive lunchtime headlines Monday - Friday plus breaking news alerts, by email Update newsletter preferences

A Winston Churchill-themed cafe has had to remove a mural of the wartime hero after repeated vandalism.

Diners at Blighty UK cafe in Finsbury Park drink from Churchill mugs underneath model Spitfires and Union flags. They can admire a Second World War air raid shelter and pose for pictures alongside a sculpture of the wartime PM, whose extraordinary achievements are currently being celebrated in hit movie Darkest Hour.

The cafe boasted a striking street art mural of Churchill’s two-fingers pose alongside the slogan “double shot”, claiming that he was ordering a double espresso. It had to be scrapped after vandals repeatedly defaced the design by spraying abuse including “scum”, “warmonger” and “imperialist”.

Protesters are also objecting to Blighty India, a second cafe in nearby Tottenham, for its neon portrait of Gandhi, Bollywood posters and Indian flags, and to the chain’s branding celebrating Commonwealth countries.

They say the company is “using history in a light-hearted fancy-dress manner” and that the cafe represents a “garish colonial view of India”.

Co-owner Chris Evans, who styles himself as Horatio Bevans, grandson of a wartime fighter pilot, defended his cafes’ themes and said that the vandalism of the mural and a petition against his chain had been an “unnecessary headache” while trying to expand.

He said: “We never imagined that Churchill or Gandhi would attract complaints. We thought they were both widely liked and admired figures.

“After all, Darkest Hour cinema audiences are giving standing ovations to Churchill’s ‘We shall fight on the beaches’ speech.

“The Churchill mural was just a bit of fun with the idea that he had two fingers up ordering a double espresso. It is simply silly to say we are celebrating British imperialism.

“We are just an independent cafe chain put together by people who work hard to make it happen and people seem to want to bring politics into it to try and drag us down.

“All we are doing is celebrating a true British hero in Churchill and the ties between Britain and Commonwealth countries.”

The protesters are calling for Tottenham MP David Lammy to intervene. In their online petition, they claim that the cafes “insensitively evoke memory of the Empire”, writing: ‘We understand that many see the Commonwealth as a celebration of a group of countries but it has little to do with cafes.

“While Blighty does make a point of sourcing its coffee from countries in the Commonwealth, we feel its framing of the Commonwealth is an outdated concept using its history in a light-hearted ‘fancy-dress’ manner.

“We would like to step in now and ask them to adjust their brand whilst there’s still only two branches.”

The term Blighty was first used by soldiers in the Indian army as a corruption of the Hindi word “bilāyat”, meaning foreign land.

The Standard has contacted police for a comment.