Afternoon Tea
Please note, from November 16th to the End of December, we will be offering our Christmas Afternoon Tea only.
The Classic Afternoon Tea will not be available during this period.
Classic Afternoon Tea
Monday – Thursday – £37pp
Friday – Sunday – £42pp
Champagne extra upon request
Classic Sip & Dip
Monday - Thursday - £60 per person
Friday - Sunday - £65 per person
Experience tranquillity with our new package. Start with a calming swim in our private pool, followed by a delectable afternoon tea and be greeted with a refreshing welcome mocktail.
Book Our Afternoon Tea
Booking Policy
We will need your card details to secure your booking. We will not take any money unless you cancel 72 hours before the event.
Please be aware there is a 72 hour cancellation policy
A cancellation fee of £30 per person will be applied.
Please note our restaurant terrace is closed due to renovation work. Guest can access our garden with alternate route, please ask hotel team on your visit.
How Our Afternoon Tea Can Be Enjoyed
Our Afternoon Tea is available to be enjoyed in multiple different forms;
- Outdoors
- Indoors
- As a Picnic
- Collection
- Delivery
What's Included?
Come and savour our sumptuous and quintessentially English tradition; Afternoon Tea. Delicately prepared selections of finger sandwiches are accompanied by exquisite pastries, bite size cakes and sweet treats, and of course finished with a side of warm, freshly-made scones and a generous serving of our homemade preserves and clotted cream. Choose from a wide selection of loose leaf traditional and fruit teas perfectly brewed to exacting standards, or add some sparkle to the occasion by opting for our Champagne Afternoon Tea.
History of Afternoon Tea
Tea consumption increased dramatically during the early nineteenth century and it is around this time that Anna, the 7th Duchess of Bedford is said to have complained of “having that sinking feeling” during the late afternoon.
At the time it was usual for people to take only two main meals a day, breakfast, and dinner at around 8 o’clock in the evening. The solution for the Duchess was a pot a tea and a light snack, taken privately in her boudoir during the afternoon.
Later friends were invited to join her in her rooms at Woburn Abbey and this summer practice proved so popular that the Duchess continued it when she returned to London, sending cards to her friends asking them to join her for “tea and a walking the fields.” Other social hostesses quickly picked up on the idea and the practice became respectable enough to move it into the drawing room. Before long all of fashionable society was sipping tea and nibbling sandwiches in the middle of the afternoon.
Occasionally you will see hotels serving a ‘high tea’. Traditionally, the upper classes would serve a ‘low’ or ‘afternoon’ tea around four o’clock, just before the fashionable promenade in Hyde Park. The middle and lower classes would have a more substantial ‘high’ tea later in the day, at five or six o’clock, in place of a late dinner. The names derive from the height of the tables on which the meals are served, high tea being served at the dinner table.
Many visitors from overseas still imagine that we are a nation where, in the words of the well-known song, ‘at half past three, everything stops for tea’. Sadly these days Afternoon Tea is usually only an occasional luxury for the British; a birthday treat in a country house hotel, or a welcome break from a hectic days shopping ‘in town’. Luckily visitors are still able to indulge in a little bit of British tradition for themselves.
