Donor hands Rules’ Maiden Lane home to the National Trust in £11m gift
London's oldest restaurant, open on Maiden Lane since 1798, keeps trading under its current owner, and National Trust members will get no discounts.
Diners must book a week of working days ahead, be adults with photo ID and clear airport-style security to eat at the prison training restaurant.
The Clink Restaurant, where members of the public eat inside HMP Brixton, will serve its Christmas menus from Tuesday 1 December to Sunday 20 December 2026.
The Clink Charity runs the restaurant. People held in the prison cook for and wait on paying guests while working towards City & Guilds qualifications in areas ranging from professional cookery to food hygiene.
There are three starters. Chicken arrives as a croquette alongside charred sprouts, while salmon is cured with beetroot in the gravlax style. The third option wraps goats’ cheese in kataifi pastry and pairs it with beetroot glazed in truffle honey.
Two roasts head the mains. Turkey comes with chestnut stuffing and a Yorkshire pudding, and sirloin of beef is served with horseradish. Pollock is pan-fried and sits on a butterbean stew, and vegan guests get hispi cabbage stuffed with wild mushrooms. To finish, diners can pick a pear and stem ginger pudding, a whipped vanilla cheesecake with a spiced fruit compote, or mince pies served warm with clotted cream.
No alcohol is served in the prison, so the drinks list leans on mocktails such as a Clementine Mojito and the Blackberry Grove, a take on the Bramble.
Reservations close seven working days before each visit. Everyone in the party needs to be an adult aged 18 or above and has to show photo ID in physical form. Guests clear security of the kind found at airports and lock their phones and belongings away before staff walk them to the dining room on Jebb Ave, Brixton Hill.
The charity has also teamed up with Benugo on a five-year partnership, launched in September 2026, that aims to give people leaving prison a route into long-term hospitality careers through jobs, mentoring and training.
From Tuesday 1 December to Sunday 20 December 2026.
No. Only adults aged 18 or above can dine, and each guest has to show physical photo ID.
No. The venue is alcohol-free and offers mocktails instead.
Tables have to be reserved no later than seven working days before the visit.
London's oldest restaurant, open on Maiden Lane since 1798, keeps trading under its current owner, and National Trust members will get no discounts.
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