Rules, London's oldest restaurant, donated to the National Trust

The Covent Garden building that has housed Rules restaurant since 1798 was donated to the National Trust in a gift valued in excess of £11 million by its owner J-P Mayhew, who has held the freehold for 40 years. The announcement, covered on 14 October by Londonist and other London outlets, makes Rules the first building in the National Trust's portfolio to house a historic restaurant still in daily operation. Rules will continue to trade as a commercial tenant under Ricky McMenemy, who has worked at the restaurant for 35 years, and the gift includes an annual rent, an endowment and the restaurant's archive of old menus, visitor books, caricatures, photographs, stained glass and signs. The restaurant was first opened as an oyster bar at 34-35 Maiden Lane and has survived two world wars, repeated redevelopment of the surrounding streets and, in 1971, a Betjeman-led campaign that stopped it from being demolished. The deal was widely covered in London's cultural press through the weekend of 17-18 October and renewed interest in Covent Garden's culinary history.