The best afternoon tea in London
26 places
Brown's Hotel
££££The intimate, club-like Mayfair option - panelled and low-ceilinged where The Dorchester is a long bright promenade.
Claridge's
££££Art Deco Mayfair with its own house blend of Assam and Darjeeling, served in the Foyer and Reading Room. The default answer when someone asks for the traditional one.
Corinthia London
££££Tea under a Baccarat crystal chandelier with a Steinway playing, and a tea master who weighs and blends each infusion to order.
Dalloway Terrace
£££A covered terrace at The Bloomsbury Hotel whose floral installation is changed with the season, so the room looks different in February and in July.
Named by four sources. The seasonal changeover is worth checking before travelling for a particular look.
Fortnum & Mason
££££The tea merchant's own salon, opened by the Queen in 2012 - the one place where the tea list is the point rather than the cakes.
Jumeirah Carlton Tower
££££The Chinoiserie tea room serves daily rather than in sittings, which makes it one of the easier Knightsbridge teas to get into at short notice.
Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park
££££The Rosebery lounge backs onto Hyde Park, which makes it the one grand tea with a garden view rather than a street.
One Aldwych
£££A themed tea built around Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - the one that works with children who would be bored by a Mayfair salon.
Pembroke Lodge
££A Georgian mansion inside Richmond Park with terraced gardens and, from King Henry's Mound just behind it, the protected ten-mile sightline to St Paul's.
Rosewood London
££££Taken in the Mirror Room of a Belle Epoque building off High Holborn - the grand-hotel format outside the Mayfair cluster.
Sketch
££££Afternoon tea inside an art installation - the pink Gallery room and the egg-shaped lavatories are as photographed as the food.
The Ampersand Hotel
£££A themed tea built around the museums on its doorstep - planets, fossils and periodic-table biscuits, which makes it the one that works with children.
The Berkeley
££££Pastries modelled on the current season's runway - handbags, heels, a new collection each time the shows change. The one that is about fashion rather than heritage.
The Cadogan
££££A Belmond drawing room on Sloane Street with a pianist playing through the service - the quiet end of the London tea circuit rather than the spectacle end.
The Connaught
£££Understated where the rest of Mayfair is gilded - precision and craft rather than spectacle, and cheaper Monday to Thursday.
The Dorchester
££££Served the length of the Promenade, opening with a glass of Veuve Clicquot poured tableside. The grand end of Mayfair, where Brown's is the club-like one.
The Goring
££££The last family-owned grand hotel in London, and the quietest of the big afternoon teas - taken in the garden when the weather allows.
The Kitchen at Kenwood
££In Kenwood's old brew house and service wing, with a terrace over the estate - the only proper stop on the northern half of the Heath.
The Lanesborough
££££Taken under the glass dome of the Céleste dining room at Hyde Park Corner - the brightest of the grand-hotel rooms rather than the most gilded.
The Langham
££££The Palm Court claims to be where the afternoon tea ritual began in the 1860s, and it is still the benchmark other hotel salons are measured against.
The Milestone Hotel
£££A small townhouse hotel opposite Kensington Palace - the quietest of the listed teas, and the only one in Kensington.
The Ritz
££££The most recognised afternoon tea in London, served in the Palm Court with a pianist and a dress code that is actually enforced.
Jacket and tie required for men; no jeans or trainers. Multiple sittings a day and it books out months ahead.
The Savoy
££££Under the glass cupola of the Thames Foyer, with a pianist, in London's first purpose-built luxury hotel.
The Stafford
£££Down a St James's cul-de-sac, with 380-year-old wine cellars beneath and far fewer tourists than the Piccadilly names.
The Wolseley
£££A 1920s car showroom turned Viennese-style grand café, and the London power breakfast - as well as the best-value serious afternoon tea.
Does both ends of the day well: breakfast from early, afternoon tea later. The room is the draw either way.
Winter Garden
££££Afternoon tea taken 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.
The atrium is the reason to come. Reviews of the food itself are genuinely mixed for something over 70 pounds a head, so go for the room and judge it on that.