Rules Restaurant

Rules Restaurant is a restaurant located at 35 Maiden Lane in the City of Westminster, built in 1873 by Alfred Cross for Benjamin Rule, a fishmonger and oyster bar owner. The building is constructed of yellow brick with painted stone and features stucco dressings and a concealed roof, showcasing simplified Italianate detailing.

The restaurant has four storeys and is three windows wide. The ground floor is stuccoed and includes a shop front with a doorway on the right, framed by narrow pilasters with foliate caps and an entablature-fascia supported by ribbed console bracket stops. The upper floors feature recessed casement windows, with those on the first and second floors designed to resemble leaded quarries, all set under gauged segmental arches. The second and third floor windows have prominent bracketed sills connected by a band course, and the front is capped with a prominent bracketed cornice.

Inside, much of the original decoration and fittings remain, including a domical decorated roof light in the ground floor restaurant and decorative oak panelling in the upper floor dining rooms, along with an ornate staircase. The restaurant has a notable history with many patrons from political, literary, and theatrical backgrounds, as well as being associated with Edward VII's clandestine meetings with Lillie Langtry when he was Prince of Wales.

On the Maiden Lane elevation, there is a wall-mounted Grosvenor gas lantern with decorative scrollwork on the bracket, which appears to have been added between 1968 and 2008 based on available photographs.