London’s Oldest Restaurant to be Preserved For Posterity
For 228 years, Rules has nourished the appetites of the great and good. It was Charles Dickens' favourite restaurant. Now, it has been handed to the National Trust in an £11m deal that will preserve it for yet more centuries.
The charity will protect the historic building and its eccentric art collection, while the restaurant will trade independently, serving traditional British game sourced from its estate in Teesdale, in north east England.
The restaurant began life as an oyster bar in 1798, opened by Thomas Rule, and has been operated by only four families in its history. Close to London’s theatres in Covent Garden, the restaurant became popular with actors and the capital’s literary set. Its glorious interiors are embellished in red and gold with lots of galleried areas, velvety sofas, carpeted floors and beautiful ceiling details.
Over the years it has hosted countless high-profile figures, including Graham Greene, Charlie Chaplin, HG Wells, Evelyn Waugh and King Edward VII - who even had his own private door cut out of the panelled walls of the restaurant so he could enter unseen with his lover Lillie Langtry.
Click to enlarge | Images credit: Rules
Sir John Betjeman, the poet and a regular, said it had an “invisible atmosphere just as a church frequented by praying people acquires an atmosphere”.
The upstairs bar at Rules has a reputation among aficionados for being one of the best kept secrets in London; it is certainly the place for those seeking a civilised bolt hole to enjoy perfectly balanced drinks in elegant but relaxing surroundings.
Hilary McGrady, the director-general of the National Trust, said: “This place is an outstanding piece of living history, with its corners where kings dined and writers and politicians plotted, and the traditions it kept alive through wars and upheaval. It has defied the odds to be standing here today, doors still open and treacle sponge still on the menu.”
The World's Oldest Restaurant: There's a place in Spain that's been serving patrons for nearly 300 years. Sobrino de Botín, in Madrid, is considered the oldest restaurant in the world by the Guinness World Records.
