Afternoon tea suggestions?

A friend suggests the Sanderson hotel

The Savoy

In 1988 we took my parents to the Tower hotel for afternoon tea as part f the celebrations for their Golden Wedding - my father had requested to revisit some of the area of their childhood. At that time we paid ??19 a head and the experience was lovely. The restaurant was overlooking the river and also Tower Bridge. I had explained when booking (on the telephone) what the occasion was and they gave us a table with the best view. I have just looked at their website and the tea now costs - ??19-95!! That must now be a bargain!

Bloody Gransnet has stopped accepting n-dashes ( hyphens) and they come out as ??. Sorry.

I think the Langham is good and Browns used to be nice but I haven't been there for years. I would give the Ritz a miss ?? even if you could get in there, as it is far to full of itself (bit like Harrods these days).

You can't beat Claridges for lunch or afternoon tea. It's an experience just using the loos!

If it's stunning interiors you're after you should visit

Brasserie Zedel

I've had drinks at the American Bar and lunch in the brasserie a few times and loved it. The Art Deco interior is really fabulous - so much so that on my first visit I assumed that it was 'faux' and just an over the top renovation!

As it's an all-day brasserie I'm not sure if they have a Tea session but they do sell pastries.

We bought a friend a Virgin Experience lunch on a boat on the River Thames for his 70th -he said it was very good. I think they do afternoon teas as well. Just google Virgin Experience.

Not sure it would be of interest but for an unusual afternoon tea experience there is a vintage bus that tours london with afternoon tea. I think you can also do a trip down the river with afternoon tea these can be googled. I've not done these myself , would be very interested any GNers have done this

Also, we were given very stylish "doggy hubby " bags for the inevitable leftovers!

I'd second The Woseley for a stunningly stylish interior and yummy tea!

??35 ---- should be ??35

Afternoon tea is such a lovely experience, the ambience, decor, piano, and everyone dressed in their best.
Can I offer just a few well meant comments following my experience.

Last summer my DIL treated 3 of us ladies who had birthdays around the same time, and my dgd aged 7, to afternoon tea in the wonderful Merchant Hotel in Belfast.

Everything was beautifully presented. However, there were a lot of very rich/creamy cakes, much too rich for us and for me in particular who doesn't like the wobbly creme caramel type cakes. We learned afterwards that we could simply have asked to exchange some of the cakes for more sandwiches and scones (which were so delicious). I wish we'd known we could have exchanged because ??35 each was quite expensive especially when the cakes weren't really to our taste. This was of course, just our personal taste but might apply to others who plan to attend an afternoon tea.

Also - The leftovers were presented to us just as described by Grannyknot. We carried them very carefully but upon opening the box when we arrived home we discovered there were no 'divisions' in the box. So the Creme Caramel cake and the strawberry tart were a splodgy mess and the speciality bread and scones were covered in the goo - nothing was recoverable.

If we'd known there were no divisions in the box we could have asked for napkins (or taken them with us discreetly) and 'padded' the spaces between each item.

giddyaunt I am sure you will have a wonderful time wherever you have your afternoon tea

I don't want to sound as though I'm throwing a negative on the afternoon tea experience, I'm definitely not..... and hope that my comments on my experience are taken in the (helpful) vein in which they are meant.

The Wolseley is great. It feels very posh to be on the mezzanine floor looking down on the crowd below (request on booking). The tea is yummy (lots of cakes etc!) - can be shared by two people (one orders the posh tea and the other just tea). Anyway whatever is left over gets neatly boxed up and beribboned for take away.

We did Fortnums a few years ago. Lovely surroundingsservoce and atmosphere, but tbh, the scones were not as good as Greggs

One of my DDs treated us to Fortnums. It was lovely. Nice atmosphere and piano playing. But I'm sure, at the end of the day ( or any other time if you like) they're probably all fairly similar.

I'll second The Langham. Went with an aunt last year and it was wonderful.

My DD took me to the Langham Hotel in Upper Regent Street, mainly because I used to work in the building when it was part of the BBC. Delicious tea, all the usual bits and pieces, piano music etc, makes a lovely treat. I'm sure you'll enjoy the occasion where ever you go