Plaque

Rules Restaurant 2

Inscription

Rules®. London's oldest restaurant. In the year Napoleon opened his campaign in Egypt, 1798, Thomas Rule promised his despairing family that he would say goodbye to his wayward past, settle down and open an oyster bar in Covent Garden.
Rules serves the traditional food of this country at its best - it specialises in classic game cookery and is fortunate in owning an estate in the High Pennines "England's last wilderness" which supplies game for the restaurant and where it is able to exercise its own quality controls and determine how the game is treated.
Throughout its long history the tables of Rules have been crowded with writers, artists, lawyers, journalists and actors. As well as being frequented by great literary talents - Charles Dickens, William Makepeace Thackeray, John Galsworthy & H G Wells, Rules has also appeared in novels by Rosamond Lehmann, Evelyn Waugh, Graham Greene, John Le Carré, Dick Francis and Claire Rayner.
 On the first floor, by the lattice window, was once the most celebrated "table for two" in London. This was the Prince of Wales' favourite spot for wining and dining the beautiful actress Lillie Langtry.
The past lives on and is captured in literally hundreds of drawings, paintings and cartoons. The late John Betjeman then poet laureate described the ground floor interior as "unique and irreplaceable and part of literary and theatrical London". In all its 200 years, spanning the reigns of nine monarchs and entering its 4th century it has been owned by only 3 families.

Site: Rules Restaurant (2 memorials)

WC2, Maiden Lane, 35

Credit for this entry to: Alan Patient of www.plaquesoflondon.co.uk

Comments are provided by Facebook, please ensure you are signed in here to see them

This section lists the subjects commemorated on the memorial on this page:
Rules Restaurant 2

Subjects commemorated i

Sir John Betjeman

Poet Laureate 1972 - 1984. Conservation campaigner. Credited with saving the ...

Read More

Napoleon Bonaparte

Military and political leader. Born at Ajaccio, Corsica. He trained as an off...

Read More

Charles Dickens

Born, son of Elizabeth and John Dickens, at No.1 Mile End Terrace, Landport, ...

Read More

King Edward VII

Reigned: 1901 - 1910. Born and died at Buckingham Palace. Victoria's eldest s...

Read More

Dick Francis

Steeplechase jockey and writer. Born Richard Stanley Francis in Coedcanlas, W...

Read More

Show all 15

This section lists the other memorials at the same location as the memorial on this page:
Rules Restaurant 2

Also at this site i

Rules Restaurant 1

Rules Restaurant 1

The English Heritage listing does indeed say "Benjamin  Rule" but we are assu...

Read More

Nearby Memorials

PRO WW1 memorial

PRO WW1 memorial

WC2, Chancery Lane, Maughan Library of King's College, ex-PRO

We don't normally collect memorials inside buildings but this one is rather touching. Austere and classical in style with none of the fo...

War dead | WW1
8 subjects commemorated, 1 creator
Douglas Belcher VC

Douglas Belcher VC

KT6, Ewell Road

The Belcher plaque is on the stone in the foreground of our photo, and the St Mark's cairn and WW2 memorials behind it.

War served | WW1
2 subjects commemorated, 1 creator
Church Street pavement plaque - 1940 - WW2

Church Street pavement plaque - 1940 - WW2

NW8, Salisbury Street, Morris House

Layers of London's map confirms the extent of the bomb damage.

1 subject commemorated
H. G. Wells - Sevenoaks

H. G. Wells - Sevenoaks

TN13, Eardley Road, 23

H.G. Wells writer lived in this house in 1894 whilst writing The Time Machine. The H.G. Wells Society

2 subjects commemorated, 1 creator
Rosa Luxemburg

Rosa Luxemburg

N1, Southgate Road, Texyte House, 24

The church and Sunday School which used to be on this site were replaced with commercial premises in the 1930s. We can't find a photo of ...

2 subjects commemorated, 1 creator

Previously viewed

Michael Balcon - W5

Michael Balcon - W5

W5, Ealing Green, Ealing Studios

Sir Michael Balcon, 1896 - 1977, film producer, worked here, 1938 - 1956. English Heritge

2 subjects commemorated, 1 creator
Nobby Clark

Nobby Clark

In 2001-2 Clark was living close to Vauxhall Park and was a member of the Friends of Vauxhall Park.  He restored the model village there. Harry, his son, seems (2021) to be connected with Southwark...

Person, Community / Clubs, Craft / Design

1 memorial
Stanley Lupino

Stanley Lupino

SE24, Ardbeg Road, 33

Stanley Lupino (1893 - 1942) actor & comedian, lived here. The Music Hall Guild of Great Britain and America

1 subject commemorated, 1 creator
Colonial Office - B07 - Watt

Colonial Office - B07 - Watt

SW1, Whitehall, Foreign Office

Statues Hither and Thither has been invaluable in identifying some of the busts and most of the statues. The statues are not labelled and...

1 subject commemorated, 2 creators
Baker Street and Waterloo Railway

Baker Street and Waterloo Railway

Constructed by the Underground Electric Railways Company of London, between Baker Street and Lambeth North, (then called Kennington Road). It was later extended to Elephant & Castle, and then t...

Place, Transport

4 memorials