Tea at The Original Maids of Honour

It's been a while since I did a proper post on a tea trip. The main reason being that most of the tea places I have tried recently really haven't been worth posting about. However, a couple of weeks ago, a friend and I decided to try The Original Maids of Honour, which it turned out I couldn't not mention! It's is quite a well know tearoom which has been around since the mid nineteenth century, but I hadn't been to it before as it is all the way out in Kew. All I can say is that it was definitely worth the trek to get there!!

Proper sized tea cup. Not one of those tiny ones which can only hold a mouthful. 

Rather a pretty one too. :)

I would have preferred the tea pot and milk jug to have been china and not metal, but otherwise all was fabulous. :)

Delicious food. Fabulously light and fluffy scones, yummy chocolate flake cake, and lovely ham and cucumber sandwiches. (They usually give a wider selection of sandwiches, but I am rather picky when it comes to sandwich fillings, so they kindly offered to give me a plateful of only the ones I liked!) 

A Maid of Honour - the recipe is a highly guarded secret. Of course I had to try one. Not much to look at, but was a deliciously lemonny tart type thing with lovely fluffy pastry. Absolutely scrumptious!! :)

Outside they had two wonderful old delivery vans. 

So the curtains are looking very tattered,the carpet could be less psychedelic, and the loo needs to be refurbished, but those are just cosmetic things. The food is delicious, the staff are polite, friendly and efficient, and the atmosphere is fabulous. I half expected to see Miss Marple walk through the door as it looks exactly like the tearooms shown in various tv adaptations! It is the perfect place to go on a wintery afternoon, and without a doubt one of the best teas I have ever had in London.

Jane Austen Festival 2013 - Part 4: Bea's Vintage Tearoom and the last few days of a week in the Regency.

New years resolution - write posts, at the latest, a week after an event, not 4 months later!!!!!

My final post on JAF 2013.

Towards the end of the week I decided to go back to Bea's Vintage Tearoom and have a proper afternoon tea. The food was delicious, as was the atmosphere - 40s music, books on the 40s for customers to read and a few lovely 40's dresses in cabinets on the walls. The only thing that could have been better was the cake, they had rather odd flavours, and no victoria sponge (a vintage tearoom which doesn't serve victoria sponge!!). Apart from the cake it was wonderful and I would definitely go there again. 

Another event I attended during the end of the week was a talk on using modern make up to get a regency look. 

It was very interesting. I am appalling at putting on make up so I learnt lots of useful tips. 

I also attended a talk on using modern scarfs to make Regency looking turbans. 

Different turban styles

It was great fun trying to make all the different styles of turbans.

Barbara looking very elegant. :) 

A rather blurry photo of me. :)

I also attended a dance workshop, another ball and a friend held a fabulous card party. Bizarrely I didn't take any photos! I must have been having too much fun to remember to take any! :) But Nora and Aurora have some lovely photos, of a few of the events, on their blogs. 

Celebrating 200 Years of Pride and Prejudice - Part 3: Longbourn

After Laycock, we made our way to the village of Luckington (aka Longbourn). First we went to the church, which was the church used in the final wedding scene in P&P 95. 

This is image is pinned up on the church noticeboard

The step on which Darcy, Elizabeth, Jane and Bingley stand for their wedding. :) 

Everyone wanted to stand on it. :)

We then walked up to Luckington Court (Longbourn House), which is just across the road from the church.

The stables

:)

Me being silly. :)

Claire and I being silly.

First of all we went into the Dining Room and had a delicious tea. It was the same room used in the film, but sadly the wallpaper had been painted over. :( 

Sadly we weren't allowed to take photos of the rooms inside the house, but we were allowed to photograph the tea table. :)

After tea we went out into the garden.

Me in front of the 'prettish little wilderness'. :) Unfortunately the gate wasn't open, so all we could do was stare longingly through the bars. 

We had great fun taking silly photos in the garden! :)

We did a bit of regency-style sunbathing. :)

We then moved to the alcove/grotto next to the house, just off the lawn, and took more silly photos.

We then went back into the house to do some dancing. It was held in the entrance hall so sadly no photos.  But twas great fun. :)

It was a fabulous day up until the point when a mixture of too much sun, cake eating, dancing and spinning round and round on the lawn (with childish excitement!!) made me sick. :(  But thankfully by the next morning I was much better. All in all it was a lovely weekend. :)

Tea at Fortnum's

 I have been absolutely awful at posting recently! I have been blaming it on my laptop, which is slowly but surely giving up, but really I could have used my parents computer. I now have no excuse as I have just bought a new laptop, not as pretty as my last (which was pink :) ) but hopefully better built and less prone to breaking!

Anyway, my birthday was at the beginning of November, and regular readers of this blog might remember that every year, on or around my Birthday, I drag my family to a hotel for tea. Last year we were visiting my sister in Argentina, so we had a slightly less traditional, but just as delicious, tea than usual. This year, well actually last year, it was back to working my way round the hotels of London. I actually ended up choosing a department store - Fortnum and Mason's.

The spiral staircase in the centre of the store

We had tea in what was originally called the Parlour, but last year they changed it to something like the Queen's Sitting Room, or Queen Elizabeth II restaurant (I can't completely remember the name!!), because of the Jubilee. Anyway, the name is not important, the food however is another matter entirely!! :)

And so on to the important bit. Yummy food. :) 

Like most tearooms, the first foods to be brought to the table were sandwiches, scones and cakes (well I say cakes, they were more like pastries). The food was good, especially the scones, and the delicious strawberry jam, but the pastries were a little strange. I think that they were good, but just really weren't to my taste (lots of dark chocolate), as my mother thoroughly enjoyed them.

The staff refilled the plates until you stopped them, so by the time we finished we were feeling rather full.

But we were then asked if we would like a piece of cake!!!! Even though we were fit to bursting, we had to try a piece of cake. :)

This is my piece, I think it was a kind of orange cheese cake. It's silly that I can't remember, but I suppose it was over 2 months ago. However, I do remember that it was delicious. :)

Now a few photos of the china etc.

I loved the art deco style tea strainers. 

I thought I would be adventurous and try tea that I had never heard of before. So I picked a black tea called Monkey something! It had the strangest name, which is why I chose it. :) However, it turns out that I am incredibly fussy about what tea I drink, I hated it! So I ended up being thoroughly boring and ordering pot of delicious Earl Grey! :)

The teapots had a lovely oriental design on them.

This photo should really be at the beginning of the post, as it is the foyer/reception of the restaurant, but I can't be bothered to move it. In the background you can see the pianist, who played beautifully non-stop the entire time we were there (about 3 1/2 hours!!). Her hands must have seriously ached by the end!

After tea we went to the Christmas department, which is a must for anyone who visits the store during November and December. :)

We took the old staircase to get to the right floor. They are so much more elegant then the new ones (seen in the first photo), and were gorgeously decorated. :)

Looking down from the 4th floor. So pretty :)

Fortnum's also has the most amazing Christmas window displays every year. Unfortunately we were just a bit too early to see them as it was the beginning of November, and the windows were all covered with sheets. But if you are ever in London over Christmas I highly recommend swinging past Fortnums's to have a look. :)