Saturday 14 June 2008

From a humble oyster shed...

That most English of restaurants Rules in Maiden Lane was originally an oyster shop and fishmongery founded in 1798. Sweetings seems also to have begun life as an oyster trading room before settling down to become a restaurant in 1840. Wheelers was set up by the captain of a Whitstable oyster smack called Bubbles in 1856 and only moved to Old Compton Street in Soho in 1924 before re-incarnating as one of the first restaurant chains. Sheekeys and Bentleys opened later 1896 and 1916 respectively.