After more than two centuries—spanning ten British monarchs, 45 prime ministers and two world wars—London’s oldest restaurant is entering a new chapter. Rules, a storied restaurant on Maiden Lane in Covent Garden, has changed hands only three times since opening its doors in 1798. Mayhew, the building’s proprietor for the past 40 years, is donating the site, along with the art collection it houses and rent from the restaurant business, to the National Trust, a British conservation charity, per the Independent’s Emily Beament.
Altogether, the donation is valued at £11 million, approximately $14.5 million. A place where you can see, smell and taste not only treacle sponge, but centuries of history, care and memories. A place where cultural traditions have been kept alive, and continue to thrive, despite the world around it changing,” Hilary McGrady, director-general of the National Trust, says in a statement posted to social media.
The restaurant is located on a cobblestone road in the center of London’s vibrant theater district. Over the years, it has played host to countless authors, playwrights and stars, including Charles Dickens, William Makepeace Thackeray, H. Wells, Charlie Chaplin, Madonna and Harrison Ford.
In all that time, Rules developed a reputation for discretion. Edward VII, who served as king of the United Kingdom between 1901 and 1910, had a private door built into the restaurant’s paneled walls so he could slip in unseen with his mistress, the socialite and actress Lillie Langtry, according to the Telegraph’s Craig Simpson. Author Graham Greene even memorialized the restaurant’s romantic potential in his 1951 novel, The End of the Affair.
It seems improbable and yet I could swear it was just then that I fell in love,” Greene’s narrator muses. A post shared by National Trust (@nationaltrust) Rules has survived crisis after crisis, staying open even during World War II. In those years, service ran for only two hours, during lunchtime, and complied with government rationing guidelines.
Those wartime meals “weren’t exactly high gastronomy,” but Rules skirted the strictest restrictions by selling wild-caught grouse, pheasant and rabbit, CNN’s Chris Dwyer reported in July. To this day, Rules sells more game than any other restaurant in the country. Rules’ cluttered walls are a testament to its history.
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