In this guide
Afternoon tea is the one London ritual that is worth doing as a tourist and easy to overpay for. The difference between a £95 sitting and a £55 one is very often the address rather than the food.
Arranged by what you are actually buying — the historic claim, the room, the spectacle, or the tea itself.
💡 The Short Version: The Langham is where the ritual began and still the benchmark. The Ritz is the most recognised and the most formal. The Berkeley does fashion-week pastries. Sketch is an art installation. The Wolseley and The Connaught give you most of it for less. One Aldwych is the one that works with children.
📊 The evidence behind this guide. 16 sources carrying 142 citations across 82 named tea rooms. 31 tea rooms are named by two or more independent sources, and 22 carry a dated award. Built on: La Liste and the Afternoon Tea Awards; Olive, Time Out and The Infatuation; blogs and YouTube. Evidence rebuilt 21 September 2026 · How we rank →
Where they are
Map of the best afternoon tea in London
Loading the interactive map…
| If you are near… | Where to eat |
|---|---|
| Mayfair & Piccadilly | The Ritz, Claridge’s, The Dorchester, Brown’s, The Connaught, Sketch, Fortnum & Mason, The Wolseley, The Stafford |
| Knightsbridge | The Berkeley, The Lanesborough, Mandarin Oriental, Jumeirah Carlton Tower |
| Marylebone | The Langham, Winter Garden (The Landmark) |
| Covent Garden & Strand | The Savoy, One Aldwych |
| Belgravia & Westminster | The Goring, Corinthia |
| Kensington | The Milestone, The Ampersand |
| Bloomsbury | Rosewood London |
Price guide: £££ £45–£65 · ££££ £70+.
The world’s best, officially
Jacqueline at The Chancery Rosewood, Mayfair
££££ · Cited by 3 sources · World’s Best Afternoon Tea 2026
The Chancery Rosewood took La Liste’s World’s Best Afternoon Tea Award in its 2026 Pastry Special Awards, judged against an “exemplary afternoon tea experience, whether traditional or contemporary concept, with outstanding service and location”. It is the only London tea room holding that title, and it also carries an Award of Excellence from the 2026 Afternoon Tea Awards — two separate panels in the same year.
The room, Jacqueline, sits inside the former US Embassy on Grosvenor Square, which reopened as a hotel in 2025. It keeps a tea sommelier and a separate preparation room for a list of more than 120 teas, each brewed at its own temperature. The stand runs from a caviar amuse-bouche through four sandwiches and a watermelon and elderflower palate cleanser to the scones.
This is the newest entry on the page and the one with the least written about it, which is exactly what a first-year award looks like.
Where the ritual began
The Langham, Marylebone
££££ · 3 min from Oxford Circus · Cited by 4 sources
The Palm Court is where the ritual was invented — The Langham opened in 1865 and was the first hotel in the world to serve afternoon tea, moving it out of aristocratic drawing rooms and into a place anyone could book. It is still the benchmark the others are judged against.
The stand is Victorian-inspired but not museum-piece: sandwiches, scones, and pastries built by Michel Roux with pastry chef Andrew Gravett, who changes the sweets seasonally. Vegan, gluten-free and children’s versions are all full versions of the menu.
Sixty-five seats on the ground floor, a pianist from 1pm to 7pm, and enough room between tables to talk. Smart casual — no sportswear or flip-flops, but no jacket-and-tie either. Book weeks ahead for a weekend.
The Palm Court at The Langham.
The Ritz, Piccadilly
££££ · 2 min from Green Park · dress code enforced · Cited by 6 sources
The most recognised afternoon tea in London, and the most formal. Served in the Palm Court of the 18th-century William Kent House under gilt and mirrors, with a pianist or harpist through most sittings and a piano, cello and violin trio on weekday evenings.
Finely cut sandwiches, scones with Cornish clotted cream and strawberry preserve, and a cake trolley wheeled to the table so you choose by eye rather than off a menu. Twenty loose-leaf teas including the house Ritz Royal Blend.
£95 a head, £73 for children, champagne from £26 a glass. Five sittings a day, seven days a week — 11.30am, 1.30pm, 3.30pm, 5.30pm and 7.30pm.
Tea at The Ritz.
⚠️ The dress code is real and enforced. Jacket and tie for men, no jeans or trainers — waived only for under-16s. Weekend sittings book months out.
Claridge’s, Mayfair
££££ · 5 min from Bond Street · Cited by 4 sources
Art Deco Mayfair at its most composed, in the Foyer and Reading Room — an ornate gilded space laid with the hotel’s signature jade-and-white striped china, which is as recognisable as the building.
Savouries lean British and specific: smoked Scottish salmon, seasonal pastries that change through the year, and a tea list running from a rich Oolong to the house Claridge’s Blend, made for the room by a tea buyer.
£95 a head, £110 with champagne, £125 with rosé. The festive menu from early November to 3 January runs £120 on weekdays and £130 at weekends. This is the one where people dress up without being told to.
The Foyer and Reading Room at Claridge’s. Photo: Ewan-M, CC BY-SA 2.0.
Fortnum & Mason, Piccadilly
££££ · the tea merchant’s own salon · Cited by 2 sources
The Diamond Jubilee Tea Salon, opened by the Queen in 2012 on the fourth floor of the shop, and the one place in London where the tea list leads and the pastries follow. Fortnum’s has been selling leaf since 1707 and the salon exists to show it off.
Savouries are British and specific: Suffolk cured ham with piccalilli, rare breed hen egg with cress, soft smoked salmon. Plain and fruit scones arrive warm with clotted cream, lemon curd and preserves, and the patisserie changes with the season.
£84 a head with a pot of Fortnum’s tea, and refills of both the stand and the pot come without asking. Come here if you care about the leaf; come to a hotel if you care about the room.
The Diamond Jubilee Tea Salon.
The grand hotels
The Dorchester, Mayfair
££££ · the Promenade
Taken the full length of The Promenade — a hundred-foot room running the spine of the hotel, done in marble, mirrors and heavy silk, and one of the most opulently decorated spaces in Mayfair. A pianist plays through the afternoon and the room never quite empties.
The stand opens with a glass of Veuve Clicquot poured tableside. Sandwiches run to Dorrington ham with truffle, and the pastry section is where the kitchen shows off — a spiced apple choux among the seasonal ones. Warm scones with clotted cream throughout.
There are no fixed sittings, which is unusual at this level: tea runs continuously through the afternoon, so it is one of the more forgiving grand hotels to get into if your plans move.
The Promenade at The Dorchester.
The Savoy, Covent Garden
££££ · the Thames Foyer · Cited by 3 sources
London’s first purpose-built luxury hotel, and the tea is now taken in The Gallery rather than the Thames Foyer — peach-lit, with sculpted palms, stained glass and a marble catwalk down the middle of the room.
A procession of finger sandwiches, the hotel’s signature scones, and sweets brought in waves. The tea list runs to over thirty leaves, which is among the longest in London.
Served daily from noon to 6.45pm, with a separate Twilight Tea from 6pm to 9.30pm for anyone who would rather have it as an evening. Dress elegantly; there is no jacket-and-tie rule.
The Gallery at The Savoy.
The Lanesborough, Knightsbridge
££££ · under a glass dome
Taken under the glass dome of the Céleste dining room at Hyde Park Corner — Regency plasterwork, Wedgwood blue and white, and the brightest of the grand-hotel rooms by a distance. Daylight rather than chandeliers.
The stand is built by head pastry chef Jolan Thiry and runs as a Bridgerton tea, themed to the series that films in this part of London. Conventional savouries, then pastry work that is technical, not novelty.
£92 a head, £102 with a cocktail, £110 with Laurent-Perrier La Cuvée. Hyde Park Corner is the tube; the room is quietest at the earliest sitting.
The Céleste dining room.
Corinthia London, Westminster
££££ · a tea master · Cited by 2 sources
The Crystal Moon Lounge, under a Baccarat crystal chandelier with a Steinway playing — a serene, low-lit room a few minutes from Trafalgar Square, and one of the calmest of the grand teas.
The distinguishing feature is the tea master, who weighs and infuses each blend to order rather than dropping in a bag: a curated leaf list, then delicate finger sandwiches, warm scones and pastries built to the season.
£75 Monday to Thursday, £85 Friday to Sunday — the clearest weekday saving of any hotel on this list.
The Crystal Moon Lounge.
Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park, Knightsbridge
££££ · a garden view · Cited by 3 sources
The Rosebery Lounge backs onto Hyde Park, which makes this the one grand tea with a park view — a bright, high-ceilinged space rather than a gilded one, and calmer than the Piccadilly hotels.
Finger sandwiches, then scones with Devonshire clotted cream and an unusually good spread of preserves: Pembrokeshire strawberry jam, rose petal jelly and wild plum. The pastry course changes through the year.
Twenty-nine loose-leaf teas on the list, and the pairing option is the distinguishing feature — you can take the tea with Champagne, sake, Alsatian wine, beer or a sparkling tea flight, which almost nowhere else offers.
From around £85–£89 a head. Knightsbridge tube is two minutes; ask for a table on the park side when booking.
The Rosebery Lounge.
Easier to book
Brown’s Hotel, Mayfair
££££ · 4 min from Green Park · Cited by 3 sources
The intimate, club-like option — panelled and low-ceilinged where The Dorchester is a long bright promenade. Brown’s opened in 1837 and the tea is taken in The Drawing Room, rebranded from the English Tea Room, with a fire lit in winter and armchairs rather than dining chairs.
A traditional stand done straight: finger sandwiches, warm scones with clotted cream and preserves, and a patisserie course, with a full leaf list alongside. No theme, no trolley, no spectacle — the appeal is the room and the quiet.
Around £140 for two including service. The one to pick if the grand hotels feel like too much room, and it books noticeably less far ahead than The Ritz or Claridge’s.
Brown’s Hotel, Albemarle Street. Photo: Londonmatt, CC BY 2.0.
Rosewood London, Bloomsbury
££££ · 4 min from Holborn · Cited by 4 sources
Taken in the Mirror Room of a Belle Époque building off High Holborn — mirrored walls, plush banquettes, and the grand-hotel format well outside the Mayfair cluster, which is why it books more easily.
The savoury course is unusually ambitious for a tea: camembert custard tart with pear chutney, a lobster and prawn profiterole, and King’s imperial caviar on brioche. Then freshly baked scones with English strawberry jam, clotted cream and homemade lemon curd.
From £80. Runs as an Art Afternoon Tea, with the pastry course themed to a current exhibition and changed through the year.
The Art Afternoon Tea.
Jumeirah Carlton Tower, Knightsbridge
££££ · 7 min from Knightsbridge
The Chinoiserie lounge at Jumeirah Carlton Tower.
The Chinoiserie is a wide, tranquil ground-floor lounge, and it serves all afternoon rather than in fixed sittings — which makes it one of the easier Knightsbridge teas to get into at short notice, useful if you have not booked weeks ahead.
The Chinoiserie lounge.
The current stand is nature-themed and deliberately disrupts the classic order: unexpected pairings through the savouries and pastries, alongside a full leaf list and warm scones.
From £85. A live harpist most afternoons, and enough space between tables that it never feels like a sitting.
The spectacle
Winter Garden, Marylebone
££££ · The Landmark London, 222 Marylebone Road
Afternoon tea on the floor of an eight-storey glass atrium among full-grown palm trees, with a pianist and a harpist playing. The most theatrical tea room in London that is not a palace, and the one that photographs best by a distance.
Served as High Palms High Tea: finger sandwiches, freshly baked scones with Cornish clotted cream and preserves, and pastries from the hotel’s pastry team. £75 traditional, £85 with Nyetimber Classic Cuvée, £90 with Nyetimber Rosé — English sparkling rather than champagne, which is a deliberate choice here.
The Winter Garden at The Landmark.
⚠️ Go for the room. Reviews of the food itself are mixed for something over £70 a head. The atrium is extraordinary; the sandwiches are not. Ask for a table on the atrium floor rather than the gallery above.
The Berkeley, Knightsbridge
££££ · Goûtea by Cédric Grolet
Cédric Grolet’s pastries under glass at The Berkeley.
The Berkeley’s fashion-themed Prêt-à-Portea ran for two decades and has been replaced by Goûtea, built by Cédric Grolet — the pastry chef whose trompe-l’œil fruit made him the most copied patissier in Europe.
Cédric Grolet’s pastries at the Chef’s Counter.
The format is British and the sweets are emphatically not: finger sandwiches and warm scones arrive first, then desserts sculpted to look like fruit and flowers, cut open at the table to show what is inside. Pastries and cookies alongside.
Taken in the light-filled Berkeley Café, or at the Chef’s Counter if you would rather watch it being finished than be brought it. Still the most photographed tea in London, for different reasons than before.
Sketch, Mayfair
££££ · the yellow room · Cited by 3 sources
Afternoon tea inside a working art installation. The room has not been pink since 2022 — David Shrigley’s 245 drawings came down and Yinka Shonibare and India Mahdavi rebuilt The Gallery in sunshine yellow with diamond-quilted banquettes and copper. Since January 2026 it has hung Jonathan Baldock’s Mask series, 84 works.
The stand is a proper pastry exercise rather than a prop — savouries first, then sweets built by the pastry team to match the room’s palette, with a full tea list. Around £105 a head.
The egg-shaped lavatory pods upstairs remain, and remain the second reason people book. Mon–Thu noon to 4pm; Fri–Sun 11am to 4.30pm.
The Gallery before its 2022 rebuild.
Hotel Café Royal, Regent Street
££££ · the Grill Room · Cited by 5 sources · Award of Excellence 2026
Tea is served in the Grill Room, the Louis XVI room the hotel has kept behind its Regent Street front, and it is the most decorated room on this page that is not a hotel lounge.
The Grill Room at Hotel Café Royal.
It holds an Award of Excellence in the Afternoon Tea Awards 2026, and it is the only London tea that both a judged panel and two separate video reviewers picked out in the same year — Insider Food made it the first of three stops in a day spent looking for the best in the city, and Harrison Webb used it as the expensive half of a cheap-versus-expensive test against a £15 tea in Richmond.
£85 a head, £95 with a glass of Veuve Clicquot, £135 with Dom Pérignon 2013. On the evidence here it is the best-supported room in London for anyone who wants the setting to be the point.
Themed, and different
Not seasonal menus — the ones built around something other than a cake stand.
Raffles London at The OWO, Whitehall
££££ · the Drawing Room · Cited by 3 sources · Best Themed Afternoon Tea 2026
The winner of Best Themed Afternoon Tea at the 2026 Afternoon Tea Awards, and the awards were held in the building. The theme is Operation Mincemeat, the 1943 deception that floated a corpse carrying false invasion plans off the Spanish coast, and every pastry is built around a part of the story. The judges singled out the chocolate work: the concept was “consistently carried through the experience, from the menu design to the presentation of the food.”
The setting does as much as the menu. The Old War Office was Britain’s military headquarters for most of the twentieth century and only opened as a hotel in 2023, so this is the rare themed tea where the theme actually happened in the building you are sitting in.
Sanderson Hotel, Fitzrovia
££££ · the courtyard and the Long Bar · Cited by 3 sources
The Mad Hatter’s Afternoon Tea, and the one that made theming respectable in London. Alice in Wonderland played straight: colour-changing drinks, “eat me” cakes, teapots and crockery that do not match on purpose, and a menu bound inside a vintage book.
The Infatuation’s line is the useful one — “we were initially sceptical… but it’s actually pretty fun.” One warning from a reviewer who sat outside: the courtyard pigeons are bold. Ask for a table indoors.
Theatre Royal Drury Lane, Covent Garden
£££ · the Grand Saloon · Cited by 3 sources · Award of Excellence 2026 · #19 of 28, Time Out
Tea in the Grand Saloon of a playhouse that has been in constant use since the 1600s, which makes it the oldest room on this page by some centuries. It holds an Award of Excellence 2026 and Time Out ranks it 19th. Best paired with a matinée, not treated as a destination in itself — see our London theatre guide for what is on.
Nobu Hotel London Portman Square, Marylebone
£££ · The Lounge · from £78
The Japanese one, and it is a real hybrid rather than a British tea with a matcha cake bolted on. The savouries are crispy rice, a smoked salmon shokupan club on Japanese milk bread, and a Nobu-style wagyu slider, before a run of desserts.
There is also a Matcha Masterclass version, which opens with a guided introduction to matcha before the stand arrives — the only afternoon tea on this page that teaches you something.
From £78 a head, £75 for the vegan version, served 12.30pm to 5.30pm every day in The Lounge on the ground floor. Marble Arch is the nearest station. Step-free, dogs are welcome, and vegetarian, vegan and halal versions are all made to order — say so when you book.
And one that moves
The Routemaster bus tea and the Thames cruise are both further down, in afternoon tea that moves — they are the two themed teas where the theme is the view out of the window.
Quieter, and better value
The Wolseley, Piccadilly
£££ · 3 min from Green Park · Cited by 5 sources
The grand café on Piccadilly — a 1920s car showroom with vaulted ceilings and black lacquer, and the most affordable serious afternoon tea in central London by a wide margin. It is a room Londoners actually use rather than a destination sitting.
Finger sandwiches, cakes, and fruit scones with homemade jam and clotted cream. Less elaborate than the hotels and deliberately so; the pastry is good and the point is the room and the service.
£46.50 for afternoon tea, £19.50 for a cream tea, champagne £13 a glass. Roughly half the Mayfair hotels, and it takes walk-ins more readily than any of them.
The Wolseley’s dining room.
The Connaught, Mayfair
£££ · 8 min from Bond Street · Cited by 1 source
The quietest of the Mayfair grand teas, and the one whose kitchen takes the most liberties. Finger sandwiches blend British classics with Southeast Asian flavours rather than staying in 1910, which will suit some readers and not others.
English scones with Cornish clotted cream and homemade strawberry jam, then a pâtisserie run that changes constantly — hazelnut praliné rocher, matcha choux with cherry jam, a strawberry tart. The signature is the Connaughty, a sablé biscuit layered with jam and built as a straight homage to the jammy dodger.
Exotic teas or champagne alongside. Smaller and calmer than Claridge’s or The Ritz, which makes it the pick if you actually want to hear the person opposite you.
The Connaught’s tea stand.
The Stafford, Piccadilly
£££ · a St James’s cul-de-sac
Afternoon tea at The Stafford.
Tucked down a cul-de-sac off St James’s, in a hotel built around 17th-century wine cellars that were used as an air-raid shelter during the Blitz. The quietest central location on this list — you cannot hear Piccadilly from the lounge.
The Stafford’s courtyard.
A straight, well-executed traditional stand: finger sandwiches, warm scones, patisserie, no theme and no gimmick. This is the one to book when you want the format and nothing else.
£70 a head, or £87 with a glass of Louis Roederer Collection 243. Served daily from noon to 5.30pm.
The Goring, Belgravia
££££ · 2 min from Victoria · Cited by 2 sources
The last family-owned grand hotel in London, run by the Goring family since 1910, and the one the Royal Family have used as an annexe — the Middletons stayed here the night before the 2011 wedding. That history sets it apart from a larger room.
Delicate pastries, freshly baked scones, and finger sandwiches cut with the precision the format is supposed to have, alongside a tea list sourced widely rather than blended in-house. Taken in the Front of House lounge or, in summer, on the garden terrace — a genuine private garden, which almost no central London hotel has.
From £85, or £90 with Bollinger. Belgravia rather than Mayfair, so it books a little less far ahead than the Piccadilly names.
The Goring’s dining room.
The Milestone, Kensington
£££ · opposite Kensington Palace
Afternoon tea by the window at The Milestone.
A Victorian townhouse hotel facing Kensington Palace and Kensington Gardens across the road, with tea taken in a panelled, fire-lit lounge that feels closer to a private house than a hotel — forty-odd covers rather than a hall.
The Milestone’s tea lounge.
Traditional finger sandwiches, freshly baked scones and pastries, with a children’s version of its own rather than a smaller adult one. It won an Award of Excellence at the 2026 Afternoon Tea Awards, which few of the grander names here can say.
From £85. The location makes it the obvious stop if you are doing Kensington Palace or the museums the same day, and it books far less far ahead than the Mayfair rooms.
With children
One Aldwych, Covent Garden
£££ · 5 min from Temple
The Charlie and the Chocolate Factory tea at One Aldwych.
Not a traditional tea at all, and the guide should say so: One Aldwych runs a licensed Charlie and the Chocolate Factory tea in its lobby restaurant, and it is the best of London’s themed sittings by some distance.
The Charlie and the Chocolate Factory tea.
Cheesecake inside a golden egg, cake pops, puffs of candy floss, and a Charlie Cocktail served from a teapot with dry ice pouring over the side. Savouries come first and are conventional; everything after is not.
£95 for adults including a glass of champagne, £65 for under-12s. The obvious pick with children old enough to know the book, and it books up in school holidays.
The Ampersand, South Kensington
£££ · 1 min from South Kensington
The Jurassic afternoon tea at The Ampersand.
A Jurassic afternoon tea, built to match the Natural History Museum two streets away, and the reason to choose it over anywhere else in Kensington if you have children in tow.
The Ampersand’s Jurassic tea.
The stand arrives wreathed in dry ice. T-rex footprint macarons, dark chocolate and caramel dinosaur egg nests, biscuit fossils, alongside a conventional savoury course. Taken in the Drawing Rooms, a bright basement space rather than a grand salon.
£64.50 a head, £39.50 for children, champagne £15 a glass — among the cheapest of the themed teas, and a short walk from the museum door.
Afternoon tea on a budget
The grand hotels run from about £75 to well over £100 a head. These do the same three tiers for a third of that, and several are in better buildings.
The museums and galleries
The most reliable value in London afternoon tea, and the rooms are the reason to go.
- The Wallace Collection, Marylebone — tea in the glass-roofed courtyard of a Manchester Square townhouse full of Old Masters, and the museum itself is free.
- The British Museum — around £40, in the Great Court under the Foster roof. Book it on GetYourGuide.
- The National Gallery — a guided tour of the gallery with afternoon tea. Book it on GetYourGuide.
- Tate Modern — around £30, with the river and St Paul’s through the window.
- The Royal Albert Hall — tea inside the building rather than a hotel dining room, which is a different kind of occasion.
Under £30
- Memoir Club, Bloomsbury — a classic afternoon tea from about £27.50.
- The Chocolate Cocktail Club — £27.50 with unlimited tea, coffee or hot chocolate, and a chocolate-led menu rather than the standard tiers.
- Bishops Park Tea House, Fulham — £29 for finger sandwiches, scones with jam and clotted cream and mini cakes on a proper three-tier stand, in a park rather than a hotel.
- Candella Tea Room, Kensington — a small independent tea room a few minutes from the palace, and a fraction of what the hotels opposite charge.
Different, and cheaper
- Cinnamon Bazaar, Covent Garden — an Indian-spiced afternoon tea rather than the English format, which is both more interesting and less expensive.
- Cutter & Squidge, Soho — a pared-back signature tea with three sandwiches and two scones.
- Dean Street Townhouse, Soho — a proper English tea in a Georgian room, at Soho rather than Mayfair prices.
How to spend less at the grand hotels
- Go on a weekday. Almost every hotel here charges less Monday to Thursday than at a weekend, for the identical menu.
- Skip the champagne. It adds £15–£25 and the tea is the same either way.
- Ask for more sandwiches and scones. They are refillable at most grand hotels and almost nobody asks, which changes the value calculation considerably.
Prices move every season and these were checked in August 2026. Treat them as indicative and confirm when you book.
Afternoon tea that moves
Two of them go somewhere while you eat. Both are cheaper than the grand hotels, both take ninety minutes, and both are a sightseeing trip you happen to be eating on — which is either the appeal or the objection, depending on what you came for.
On a Routemaster: the Afternoon Tea Bus Tour
From £45 adult, £37 child · 90 minutes · departs Victoria Coach Station · age 5+
B Bakery invented this in 2013 and still runs the best-known version, on a 1960s Routemaster with tables laid upstairs and down. It leaves daily at 12:00, 14:30 and 17:00, and the route is a proper sightseeing lap: Whitehall, Big Ben, Parliament, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, Hyde Park Corner, Harrods, the V&A, the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Palace, Marble Arch, Mayfair, the Ritz, Piccadilly Circus and Trafalgar Square.
The tea is a full one — finger sandwiches, pastries, cakes — with Birchall teas, coffee or hot chocolate, and bubbly as an upgrade. Traditional, vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free and halal menus are all available, though vegan and gluten-free carry a £3 supplement and every dietary requirement needs 72 hours’ notice by email. You get a souvenir cup, and a box for whatever you cannot finish.
Three things to know before you book. It is age 5 and over, with no exceptions and no babies. There is no toilet on board for the full ninety minutes. And VIP seating means the front row of the upper deck, which is the view you are actually paying for — worth the upgrade if you are here for the sightseeing rather than the scones. There is a wheelchair-accessible bus; ask when booking.
💷 A live discount, while it lasts. B Bakery is running 25% off weekdays and 15% off weekends — codes
ONEOFF25andONEOFF15at checkout. It applies to September tours only and must be booked by 30 September 2026. That takes a weekday seat to about £34.
B Bakery is Brigit’s Bakery, which sells the same 90-minute Routemaster tour on GetYourGuide: book the Afternoon Tea Bus Tour on GetYourGuide.
On the Thames: the Afternoon Tea Cruise
From £50 · 90 minutes · Tower Millennium Pier · board 15:15, cruise 15:30–17:00
City Cruises runs one sailing a day, downstream and back from Tower Millennium Pier on Lower Thames Street, a few minutes from Tower Hill. Sandwiches, mini pastries and scones with clotted cream and jam, and — the detail that makes it good value — unlimited tea and coffee rather than the single pot you get on land.
The boats have a heated indoor saloon and an open upper deck, so you can eat downstairs and then go up for the view, which is the right way round to do it. There is a family ticket: two adults and one child, with a second child free.
Seating. Tables are fixed to the floor and pre-allocated before boarding — you cannot move or choose them on the day, and window tables seat two people only, so a group of four will not get one. If you want a window, book as a pair.
Vegetarian, vegan or gluten-free are all available, but not vegan and gluten-free together. Cancellation is free up to two hours before boarding, which is more forgiving than any hotel on this page.
City Cruises’ sailing isn’t sold on GetYourGuide. The afternoon tea cruise there is a different boat, Tea on the Thames: 90 minutes with sandwiches, warm scones, lemon tart and as much tea or coffee as you like, and free cancellation up to 24 hours before. Book Tea on the Thames on GetYourGuide.
Which one
The bus if you want the sightseeing, because it covers more landmarks in ninety minutes than any walk could and you are looking at them from the top deck of a Routemaster, which is its own thing. The boat if you want the tea, because the food is served at a table that is not moving through traffic, the tea is unlimited, and you can get up and walk about.
Neither will beat The Ritz or Claridge’s on the tea itself. Both beat them comfortably on price, and both are far easier to book.
There is also afternoon tea on the London Eye: book it on GetYourGuide.
Also named, briefly
Rooms the sources back that did not earn a full entry, either because only two guides name them or because the tea is not the main reason to go. The long column is last so it reads on a phone.
| Venue | Area | Price | Cited by | What it is |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The NoMad London | Covent Garden | ££££ | 3 sources · Award of Excellence 2026 | Tea under the glass atrium of the old Bow Street magistrates’ court, across the road from the Royal Opera House |
| The Wallace Collection | Marylebone | £££ | 2 sources | In the glazed courtyard of a free national museum, so you can make an afternoon of it without a second ticket |
| Petersham Nurseries | Richmond | £££ | 2 sources | A working plant nursery with a tea house in it. The furthest from central London here, and the only one that feels rural |
| Aqua Shard | London Bridge | ££££ | 2 sources | Level 31 of the Shard. You are buying the window, and the window is the best in London |
| The Swan at the Globe | Bankside | £££ | 2 sources | Next door to Shakespeare’s Globe and overlooking the river; the obvious pairing with a matinée |
| Dean Street Townhouse | Soho | £££ | 2 sources | A Georgian dining room in the middle of Soho that serves tea all afternoon without ceremony |
| The Zetter | Clerkenwell | £££ | 2 sources | The least grand room on this page, and the easiest to get a table in at short notice |
| The Ivy Chelsea Garden | Chelsea | £££ | 2 sources | Tea in the garden room or outside under the awning, which is what you are booking |
| The British Museum | Bloomsbury | ££ | 2 sources | The Great Court Restaurant, under Foster’s glass roof. The cheapest way to eat a stand in a landmark |
| Candella Tea Room | Kensington | ££ | 2 sources | A small independent tea room rather than a hotel lounge, and priced like one |
| The Melody | Victoria | £££ | 2 sources | Inside the St Ermin’s Hotel, with the courtyard’s bee hives supplying the honey |
| Four Seasons Tower Bridge | Tower Hill | ££££ | 2 sources | The Rotunda, a circular room in a 1920s building, with a Lily Vanilli collaboration on the stand |
What to know
- Book weeks ahead, months for The Ritz at a weekend.
- Check the dress code when booking. Only The Ritz strictly enforces one, but several prefer smart-casual and it is awkward to discover at the door.
- Sittings are timed, usually 90 minutes to two hours. You will be asked to leave on time.
- Dietary requirements need 24–48 hours’ notice at most of these — vegetarian and gluten-free versions are near-universal but rarely available on the day.
- Champagne adds £15–£25. The tea is the same either way.
- You can ask for more. Sandwiches and scones are refillable at most grand hotels and almost nobody asks.
Continue planning your London trip
- 🇬🇧 Classic British Food in London — Scotch eggs, pie and mash, sausage rolls and proper puddings, dish by dish.
- 🍽️ Eat in London: Restaurants, Food Markets & Quick Food Hub
- 🏛️ Historic Pubs and Dining Rooms in London
- 🥩 The Best Sunday Roast in London
- 🎭 Covent Garden Area Guide
- 👑 Westminster Area Guide
- 🛍️ Mayfair Area Guide
Common questions
Where can I do afternoon tea in London cheaply?
The museums are the answer. Tate Modern does one for around £30 and the British Museum around £40, both in far better rooms than a hotel lounge. Under £30, the Memoir Club in Bloomsbury and the Chocolate Cocktail Club both start around £27.50, and Bishops Park Tea House in Fulham is £29 in a park. Going on a weekday rather than a weekend also cuts the price at almost every grand hotel.
Where is the best afternoon tea in London?
The Langham's Palm Court claims to be where the ritual began in the 1860s and is still the benchmark. The Ritz is the most recognised and has the strictest dress code. Claridge's is the Art Deco one with its own house blend. All three book weeks ahead.
Is there a dress code for afternoon tea?
At The Ritz, yes and it is enforced — jacket and tie for men, no jeans or trainers. Claridge's, The Dorchester and The Savoy prefer smart-casual. Most others have no code at all. Check when booking rather than at the door.
Which afternoon tea is best with children?
One Aldwych runs a Charlie and the Chocolate Factory tea that works for children who would be bored elsewhere, and The Ampersand in South Kensington themes its around the museums on its doorstep — fossils and periodic-table biscuits. Both are cheaper than the grand hotels.
How much does afternoon tea cost in London?
Roughly £70–£95 at a grand hotel, and £45–£65 at the smaller ones. Champagne usually adds £15–£25. The Wolseley, The Connaught and The Stafford all deliver most of the experience for materially less than the Mayfair headline names.
How far ahead should I book?
The Ritz takes months for weekend sittings. Claridge's, The Savoy and The Langham want weeks. The Jumeirah Carlton Tower serves daily rather than in sittings, which makes it one of the easier Knightsbridge bookings.
