Rules Restaurant is a Grade II listed building in the Westminster local planning authority area, England. First listed on 15 January 1973. Restaurant. 8 related planning applications.
Rules Restaurant
- WRENN ID
- rough-quartz-birch
- Grade
- II
- Local Planning Authority
- Westminster
- Constituency
- Cities of London and Westminster MP: Rachel Blake (Lab)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 15 January 1973
- Type
- Restaurant
- Address
- Rules Restaurant, 35, Maiden Lane, Wc2, City of Westminster
- OS grid reference
- TQ 303 807
- Coordinates
- 51.51082, -0.12318
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
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.
Local climate
Rules Restaurant sits in one of the driest parts of the UK, with an average of 690 mm of rain a year. This makes it drier than 95% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is lower than that of 98% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 35 freeze-thaw cycles a year, more than 57% of listed buildings. Of these, 16 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.
Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.
More on this building
Sign in or create a free account to unlock:
- Full EPC report — heating system, energy costs, size, glazing, construction etc.
- No sale records on file
- Related listed building consents — 8 applications
- Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
- Flood risk assessment
- Radon risk assessment
- Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
Matched applications, energy data and sale records are assembled automatically and may contain errors. Flag incorrect data.
Similar buildings
The closest matches to this building from all 493,000 UK listed buildings, by architecture, period and materials.
this building 1 similar nearby listed buildings
Nearby listed buildings
- Lamp post outside 35 Maiden Lane
- 16 and 17, Maiden Lane WC2
- Lamp post outside Corpus Christi Church
- 9 and 10, Henrietta Street WC2
- 7 and 8, Henrietta Street WC2
- 5 and 6, Henrietta Street WC2
- Rear Premises of the Adelphi Theatre
- 42 Maiden Lane
- Corpus Christi Church and Presbytery
- 4, Henrietta Street WC2