plus vintage TEAROOMS
Rhiannon Ba en scours the country for her favourite places to enjoy a delicious brew and a generous piece of freshly baked cake, served up with a slice of nostalgia
Lady Scarle ’s Tea Parlour
The Isle of Wight led the trend for stylish, period-themed holidays when the original cool campsite, Vintage Vacations, started renting out airstream trailers and reconditioned caravans near Ryde almost two decades ago. If you’re just a#er a retro pot of tea rather than a full nostalgia-tinted stay, though, the island is also home to Lady Scarle$’s Tea Parlour. Overlooking the sea in Ventnor, this 1940s-style tearoom does a brisk trade in homemade cakes, local ice-creams and crab pasties. Era-appropriate music is played through a 1940s radiogram and the toilets are reached via a mocked-up Anderson shelter.
Esplanade, Ventnor, Isle of Wight (01983 855872; ladyscarlettsteaparlour.co.uk)
Mackintosh at the Willow
Glasgow’s original Willow Tearooms were designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh in 1903. Commissioned by local tearoom empress Kate Cranston, the site was restored by a charitable trust and re-opened in 2018 as a social enterprise, Mackintosh at The Willow. (‘The Willow Tea Rooms’, operating at a di!erent site in the city, is a separate business). The only tearoom designed both inside and out by Mackintosh, right down to the high-backed chairs that became one of his trademarks, it is now a 200-seat restaurant spread across three "oors. The big draw is a#ernoon tea in the Salon De Luxe. 215–217 Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow (0141 204 1903; mackintoshatthewillow.com)
The Fourteas Tea-Room
A quill’s throw from the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-uponAvon, The Fourteas is just the place for a pot of tea (try the house blend, a perky mix of Keemun and Ceylon customdesigned by a specialist local company) and a homemade scone laced with jam and cream. Owner Zenios Loucas once worked in the Palm Court at The Ritz and, while The Fourteas has a more utility-chic, 1940s feel than the hotel’s famously lavish Louis XVI dining room, there’s an equally palpable focus on indulgence. The business has recently started selling hampers and cream teas online, the la$er neatly packaged in replica gas mask boxes.
24 Sheep Street, Stratford-upon-Avon (01789 293908; thefourteas.co.uk)
The Vintage Tearooms
A polished, modern spin on the vintage tearoom, this large cafe on the edge of the Lincolnshire Wolds has tables spread over two !oors and a leafy tea garden. Downstairs is a Cath Kidstoninspired room with large windows painted duck-egg blue and a sideboard brimming with seriously good homemade cakes, while the upper !oor takes its cues from the 1940s. Grab one of the wingback chairs and gaze over the village of Tealby through large bay windows while you nibble your way through smoked salmon and scrambled eggs, warm scones or a slice of white chocolate and raspberry cake (served on vintage china, of course).
12 Front Street, Tealby, Lincolnshire (01673 838261; thevintagetearooms.co.uk)
The Hidden Treasure Tea Room
Stylish and fun, with plants blooming from china teapots and a constellation of !ouncy vintage lampshades overhead, this Exeter tearoom has an impressively original menu. It also has a sideline selling vintage crockery, Devon cream teas, bake-your-own kits and seasonal a"ernoon teas for local delivery. All the usual suspects make an appearance on the menu but thanks to owner Vicki Parks’ background organising bespoke tea parties and pop-up supperclubs, so do cranberry scones, madeleines dipped in dark chocolate and honeycomb, devilled eggs, #g and goats cheese canapés and elder!ower mojitos.
5A New Bridge St, Exeter (01392 274134; hiddentreasure.biz)
Northern Belle
One of a handful of vintage trains running luxury day trips from stations around Britain, the Northern Belle is a restored 1930s showstopper. Book one of its sepia-tinted a"ernoon tea journeys and you’ll #nd yourself in a glitzy tearoom on wheels. The train’s historic Pullman-style carriages are decorated with mosaics and marquetry panels created by A Dunn & Son (a 126-year-old Essex #rm known for its work on ocean liners RMS Titanic and RMS Queen Mary). Sip champagne between bites of dainty sandwiches, scones, cakes and pastries as your chosen corner of the British countryside sweeps by.
(01270 907010; northernbelle.co.uk)