Adventures

Afternoon Tea at Ham Yard Hotel

8th September 2014

I escaped! For an afternoon without children! Some friends and I headed to the newly opened Ham Yard Hotel for afternoon tea and a good, uninterrupted, catch up. You know how I love afternoon tea.

Ham Yard is the newest member of the eclectically glamourous Firmdale boutique hotel chain. I’ve also had afternoon tea at the group’s Soho, Haymarket and Charlotte Street hotels so was keen to visit Ham Yard. In my child-free excitement, I neglected to take many photos and indeed any decor ones so you’ll have to make do with the photos from the hotel’s website (as is the photo at the top of the page). Food, tea and Laura photos further down are mine!

The hotels are designed by Kit Kemp who co-owns the chain with husband Tim. Kit has a wonderful bright modern style and I’ve bookmarked some of the hotel bedroom photos for inspiration for a master bedroom refresh I’m hoping to undertake soon. The bottom photo above is of the restaurant where we sat for our tea. See that yellow print wall covering? It’s fabric not paper, super luxurious!

One of the big plus points of Firmdale’s afternoon teas is that they usually include a variety of menu options. So, those on a tighter budget could have a cup of tea and scone whilst others could eat more and the really extravagant ones can have champers. There is just one Afternoon Tea menu at Ham Yard though, but this does come in at a budget-friendly £18 for one pot of tea, sandwiches, scones and more cakes than you can eat. The Afternoon Tea menu changes weekly and is published on their website.

Being a creature of habit, I went for the Earl Grey.

The savoury options included a sausage roll and slider (mini burger) as well as the more traditional sandwiches. They were more than happy to cater for my vegetarian-ness too and I had avocado on toast, a goats cheese toastie and a couple of mini sandwiches.

Before tucking in to the obligatory scones and sweet delights which included an amazing mini lime meringue pie.

To wash everything down, we needed a couple more pots of tea (charged on top) and we enjoyed a very-unhurried afternoon. I spent 20 minutes in the Ladies (which is as stylish as you would expect) expressing milk (to be dumped, sob) but it was lovely to have a few hours off. I arrived home to a barrage of questions from Seren – had I had a nice time with my friends? Had I been on a choo choo train? Had I gone to the shop to buy a magazine? And then lastly and rather accusingly, had I been to Peppa Pig World? Perhaps the most exciting place she can think of to visit at the moment, it’s funny the things that go through their minds.