Home of London’s oldest restaurant given to National Trust to safeguard future

Rules Restaurant, London, is the oldest continuously operating restaurant in the capital (Megan Taylor/National Trust/PA) -

The home of London’s oldest restaurant, which has hosted famous faces from Dickens to Madonna over the past two centuries, has been given to the National Trust.

The charity said the donation of 34-35 Maiden Lane in Covent Garden, central London, which has been home to Rules since 1798, would secure the future of a building where “kings dined and writers and politicians plotted”.