It’s tea with Queen Victoria
IF your Downton Abbey box sets aren’t enough any more and no amount of Victoria and Albert will satisfy your Victoriana cravings, you might want to take yourself down to Co Wicklow.
There, in a period house on Main Street, you can – in the company of strangers or friends – don Victorian dress and be waited on hand and foot by servants as though the 20th century never happened.
Victorian Tea Times is the creation of Audrey Whelan who says the experience offers an alternative to a girls’ day out at a spa retreat or afternoon tea in a luxury hotel.
With this in mind, she has spent the last two years collecting antiques and memorabilia to ensure that visitors can revel in ‘the opulence and romance of the Victoria era’.
“I am enthralled by the Victorian period,’ Audrey says. ‘I just love and appreciate history and I set out to create something that is truly different and real, something elegant and memorable.
‘Guests can enjoy delicious afternoon teas and have fun in our Victorian dressing room as they don beautiful dresses and finery as worn by ladies in that era. It’s like breaking into the play box for adults!’
She added: ‘I am so lucky that my granddaughter Karla shares my passion so she and I work here. There is an explosion of interest in period dramas in films and TV and I am tapping into that interest. We have opera nights and soirees and people just adore the experience. They all love listening to the stories from the Victorian era... it’s so entertaining and so different.’