A KIND-hearted community champion is throwing open the doors of his restaurant to say a big thank you to the people who have supported him for the past four decades.

George Hussein, who has run Fish Central in King Square, Finsbury, since 1968, is launching a lunch club for the OAPs of EC1.

Mr Hussein, the businessman who is also behind the next-door King’s Bakery, said: “When we first came here, the shops were all boarded up and covered with graffiti.

“This club is for the people who I love and respect and cherish. They are the people who when I was starting out, used to come into the fish and chip shop.

“All these people are my friends so I want to give something back to them.”

The EC1 Lunch Club will enable members to get a subsidised lunch at Fish Central or King’s Bakery between 11.30am and 1pm.

It is open to anyone aged 65 or over who lives in EC1 – and is being launched on Monday, January 10, with a free lunch for anyone who joins up.

It is not the first time Mr Hussein has been behind a lunch club for OAPs.

Until April, he also ran a not-for-profit lunch club at St Luke’s Community Centre in Central Street, Finsbury. The lunch club was so popular that pensioners petitioned to save it when they heard it was changing hands.

Mr Hussein said: “We used to do lunches every day. People used to queue up for them. When we were served with notice to quit, the customers mounted a petition. Since then, we have tried to think of something to do to give back to the community.”