London's oldest restaurant Rules, where Edward VII hid with his mistresses, is donated to the National Trust in an £11m deal
The dining room of Rules restaurant on Maiden Lane, Covent Garden, which Jean Pierre Mayhew has donated as an £11 million freehold gift to the National Trust after four decades of ownership.Edward VII and Lillie Langtry. Rules restaurant, which counted the king among its celebrated patrons across 228 years, will continue to trade under catering owner Ricky McMenemy as the National Trust's commercial tenant…
J-P Mayhew has owned the Covent Garden building that houses Rules for 40 years and has donated the £11m freehold of 34-35 Maiden Lane to the National Trust, protecting the 228-year-old restaurant from redevelopment or sale. The gift covers historic artefacts — visitor books, menus, caricatures and stained glass — while Rules will continue operating as a commercial tenant, its rent going towards conservation work.
King Edward VII brought actress Lillie Langtry to Rules, where a curtain was put up especially to screen them from other diners.
Charles Dickens, Charlie Chaplin, Graham Greene, David Bowie, Harrison Ford and Madonna are among the celebrated regulars across its two-century history.
Poet John Betjeman saved Rules from demolition in 1971 with a speech arguing it held an 'invisible atmosphere... just as a church frequented by praying people acquires an atmosphere'.
