Time to get tea-ed up!

If you get that sinking feeling around 4pm and it’s a long time until your dinner, then you need a spot of afternoon tea.

It was the seventh Duchess of Bedford who invented the concept of afternoon tea.

Peckish around 4pm

In the 1840s, she found she was peckish around 4pm, so she called for a tray of tea, usually Darjeeling, and cakes, or sandwiches after they were invented by the Earl of Sandwich to be brought to her private rooms.

Take tea

Soon she started inviting friends to ‘take tea’ with her and it caught on and spread like wildfire in fashionable London society.

Later it became the ‘thing to do’ for women of good standing and birth. They even changed into formal gowns, gloves and hats to take their tea.

Thankfully everyone can enjoy a cuppa and slice of cake nowadays, and we don’t have to dress up for the occasion.

Come to us

We make cakes here daily, excluding Sundays, Mondays and bank holidays, so you can enjoy these at home or here with us, using our pavements tables and chairs. You can even have a tea!