The untried

This appeared to temporarily close just after we arrived, so we travelled on elsewhere. Rather unusually for a tearoom, it closed quite early in the afternoon, with its latest closing time being 3.30 pm. It closed permanently during 2019.

The Hidden Treasure was closed on the days I was in Exeter. With relatively few tables for those taking tea, it’s perhaps not surprising that its website strongly recommends those wishing to take tea should book a table. Its reviews seem very good.

Not a single seat spare on the day I visited, so I headed off to the Dartmouth Castle Tea Rooms, just over a mile away.

The main branch of Huffkins Cotswolds Bakery & Tea Rooms in Cheltenham is on the first floor of the John Lewis store. I instead chose their Little Huffkins branch a short walk away.

The Touching Souls Tea Room is run by volunteers of Tewkesbury Abbey. Although open every day, it has rather limited opening hours. Unusually for a tearoom, it closes very early in the afternoon, except on Sundays. On the day I visited Tewkesbury, Touching Souls was very busy. so I couldn’t try their very reasonably priced offerings.

Charlotte’s Cafe & Tearoom had replaced Tilly’s Teahouse in Moreton-in-Marsh High Street in 2019, and in October 2022 was now itself being replaced by a branch of the Huffkins chain of tearooms.

Jenny’s Tea Shop in Montpelier Mews looks like it offers a more cosy setting for those taking tea in Harrogate than that town’s best know tearooms. Although I was in Harrogate for almost a week, I was away from the town during the opening hours of this tea room.

This small establishment on Jockey Lane had only been open a couple of months when I visited in Knaresborough in April 2019, replacing The Tiny Tea Room at the same location.

I’d had plans to try several tearooms during a day in Skipton but, having been very well fed at the Three Sheep Tea House, alas I had to give Helene’s a miss.

The Folly Tearoom is in Hoopers Yard, a small yard of boutique shops, is entered through an archway. The tearoom itself is quite small, with more seating outside than in.

The Starfish Tea Shop in Sheringham is close to the railway stations.

Closed long ago and now a dwelling. The last evidence I can find of it trading is from 2010.

I mistook this small frontage as being the whole coffee shop and tearoom. It actually has a large corner site to the right of this photo. Except for the part in this photo, which has dining chairs and tables, the looks quite relaxed with leather chairs and sofas.

The Old Tea Rooms are on Lion Street in Aylsham. Alas I didn’t have time to try their offerings.

Charlotte’s Cafe Tea Rooms in Hoveton – a settlement which gives the impression of a seaside resort transplanted to the Norfolk Broads – opened in 2016.

This former chocolatier and tea rooms in Salisbury was the subject of many highly critical reviews online, mainly about the quality of its service. It closed early in 2019. Previously known as Robert Lewis Chocolates & Tea Rooms

A 60s and 70s themed licensed tea room. By 2024 rebranded as “Carnaby Diner and Bowie’s Bar”

Just a short distance away from the Carnaby Tea Rooms was this unthemed tea room. Opened in 2016 and closed in 2021.

Marconi’s Licensed Tea Rooms is one of many eating establishments at ‘The Needles Landmark Attraction’ at Alum Bay. It is next door to the almost identical Marconi’s Restaurant.

The cottage from which these gardens took their name was built in the 1820s. They were purchased by Shanklin Urban District Council in 1933 and, up to the 1939-45 war, were used as tea gardens. The cottage was demolished in 1951 after being badly damaged by bomb blast during the war.

This tearoom appears to only be open at the height of the summer season.

Until March 2020 this was “Cinderella’s Lifestyle Tea room & Dress Shop” but once it reopened after the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown dropped the dress shop side of the name and since June 2020 has been “Cinders Tea Room”. One of the smallest tea rooms with less than half a dozen tables, it relocated to larger premises on the opposite side of the road in April 2024.

Crazy golf is one of the more unusual of offerings to combine with a tea room or garden. The tea gardens are around the edge of the crazy golf area, which is clearly the main event here. The more conventional Grand View Tea Gardens was nearby.

From and advertising viewpoint, sometimes less is more, and Vernon Cottage gives the impression of trying to be all things to all tourists. With pandemic restrictions in place, only its outside seating was in use, making its opening hours very weather dependent.

Worsley’s Tea Rooms & Bistro had taken enforced closure for the COVID-19 pandemic as an opportunity for refurbishment, which was nearing completion at the time of my visit. It has since closed and was for sale in early 2024.

The Hollies was built in 1788 and first opened as a tea garden and vinery in 1820. It closed two centuries later in 2020.

At the time of my visit (June 2021), this spacious tea garden had not reopened since the easing of restrictions after the COVID-19 pandemic. It has since been sold and re-opened as ‘The Olive Garden’ which doesn’t market itself as a tea garden.

Sited in Old Town Quarry, on a hill to the north of Weston-super-Mare, the Rowan Tree Tea Room is part of an establishment also offering a museum, gift shop and art gallery, with the quarry itself a ‘wildlife habitat’. The outside tables had plenty of custom when I visited, but the menu, displayed on a blackboard, was sadly lacking in both cakes and tea.

One could easily get the impression from the impressive range of cakes offered by Tilly’s that this is a large tea room. However, it has only three tables inside and one outside, and clearly has a thriving takeaway trade.

The Camel Trail Tea Garden usually provides sustenance seven days a week from March to November for those following the Camel Trail along a former railway line between Bodmin and Padstow. Unfortunately, on the day I visited it was closed for a family wedding.

Rosie’s tearooms in Penzance were an early casualty of the lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Previously going by the name of ‘Maria Chica’ until March 2022, this appears to be mainly a chocolatier that also so happens to sell tea and coffee. A tapas cafe by the full name still operates in Pendeen.

From online reviews, the offering of this tea and coffee room is much better than its external appearance.

Drury House Tea Room & Restaurant is one of three in Church Street, Windsor, but the only one that isn’t open on Mondays, which is when I visited the town.

Market Cross House in Windsor has had many uses including, for over a decade, a period as ‘The Crooked House Tea Rooms’ and later ‘The Crooked House of Windsor’ tea room, with teas served on both ground and first floors. The tea rooms ceased trading in 2014. The building is Grade II listed by Historic England, and dates from 1687 or 1718, depending on which source one believes.

One of a chain of three Laura Ashley branded tea rooms, the other two are in Sheffield and Redditch. The Buckingham franchise offers only afternoon tea, at £32 per person, with no other food offered, and appears to be for advance bookings only.