Casual place for afternoon tea in London?

Perhaps you have only had American tea, which, like American bacon and American chocolate, should be condemned to the fires of hell for all eternity.

But nobody will mind if you have coffee or champagne.

"Perhaps you have only had American tea, which, like American bacon and American chocolate, should be condemned to the fires of hell for all eternity." 😂😁

No - photobear is from Canada, so (s)he has access to Canadian choc, tea and bacon. You mean to tell me you haven't had any Red Rose?! Pity, as the queen said. (that's an in joke for us Canadians of a certain age...wink wink).

I've never done afternoon tea, so I can't help. Maybe you can get some hot chocolate or something instead. I love me a good cuppa though!

Yes, there are casual places to have tea. My husband & I had tea at Tea & Tattle across from the British Museum on May 31. I was casual though not in jeans and my husband had on his beloved athletic shoes. Lucky us we didn't have a reservation but got seated, with the caveat we had to depart by 3 pm. We arrived at 2:00 pm and that was ample time. But with more than two or at any time in the summer I recommend a reservation. Tea is on the menu but you can have herbal tea, coffee or anything else. I had to get a pot of hot water due to my requirement of low to no caffeine, and used the decaf tea bags I carry, since they didn't have decaf tea. We had delicious sandwiches, scones, jam, and cake. It was filling and satisfying to this Anglophile in so many ways. My wonderful husband went along with the requirement for me to have an afternoon tea because he knows how much it means to me.
The afternoon tea was very nice and affordable. I recommend however you get a reservation. Tea & Tattle is in a book shop and downstairs. There is no lift so being able to get up and down stairs is important. Before our trip I researched other reasonable priced yet positively suggested places on this forum and Tea & Tattle was one, but also Bea's of Bloomsbury is recommended. They have multiple locations. Afternoon tea is not to be missed, and we enjoyed it based upon all of the above and the fact we walked about 6-7 miles daily sightseeing.

I have regularly been hearing people go to Fortnum and Mason. We were shopping there one October weekend 5 years ago now, and it was very crowded, but seemed casual enough. All tourists.

A follow-up question...we will be in London in a couple of weeks (!) and would like to take our daughters for tea. They are teenagers. Tea & Tattle was listed at 31pounds per person; at 123 pounds, that's more than our budget allows. I've looked at other places though and they seem about the same; this is more than a pub dinner; is this about what we can expect? (If so, we'll just take a picnic to the park around tea time!)

Thanks,
Shelbey

This is the not so fancy and expensive place we've gone to several times.

http://www.richoux.co.uk/menus/afternoon-tea
http://www.afternoontea.co.uk/uk/london/knightsbridge/richoux-knightsbridge/

Richoux-- its across the street from Harrods. And at £19 for one and £36 for two it doesn't break our budget. You can also get just the sweet or savory items for £10,50 per person. I often get a Croque-monsieur while the rest of our group has tea because it's one of my favorites.

The Cafe at the British Museum does an outstanding tea. It's not break-the-bank either. Great thing is you can spend part of the day at the British Museum looking at exhibits, then go to the Cafe for tea or coffee (yes, they have coffee) and then go right back out to the museum. The Cafe is wheelchair friendly. Casual dress.

We've had tea at the National Gallery too. On page 2 in the link they list their time and menu for afternoon tea.

http://www.peytonandbyrne.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/NDR-A-La-Carte-Jan-2017.pdf

Here is a link to Tea & Tattle....it is also a bookstore.

You will need to make a reservation
Tea & Tattle Tearoom

We loved tea at Fortnum and Mason, partly because we didn't have to dress up but it was still a really elegant atmosphere. I think they require a collared shirt(so polo is good) and I wouldn't wear white trainers. I think nice jeans(no holes!) are ok. I really think business casual(as compared to business sloppy) is fine. I don't like tea either but enjoy some of the lighter ones when taking tea. F&M is expensive but it was our dinner. We recently had tea at the Wolseley. It was good and the staff was nice(we were late for our reservation and when we called to tell them, they said "we look forward to serving you when you get here") but it wasn't quiet and relaxing like F&M.

All great ideas....thank you all so much. Will look into all of them asap.

As for Canadian Tea.....I think it smells (and tastes) like boiled sweat socks. I have never cared for it but my hubby and my mom love tea.

I don't do coffee either but I hope I can have hot chocolate or even water as TEA will not be in my cup....LOL

Can't wait.

Oh and It's Samantha. PhotobearSam is from a forum when I collected teddy bears and I used to be a wedding photographer and I realize now that my name has a weird was of making people think I am a large, bearded man of a certain persuasion.....Just a girl.

I was going to say 'she' but these days...you aren't to assume.

And I can forgive not drinking coffee (I don't either) but tea! Come on! ;) You can get some delish british teas. If you have a keurig, superstore does a presidents choice one...London Fog latte...really nice. If the tea is like sweat socks, someone needs to steep it longer. (And my husband used to nag me like this about coffee...because I wasn't big into tea for a time either and he'd be like...you need to drink something when people offer you a hot drink!).

Another vote for the National Gallery.

I enjoyed the tea at the National Gallery as well. It was delicious, reasonably priced, and gave us a much needed break during our visit to my favorite London museum.

When I'm just out and about and feel like stopping for tea, there are a couple of places I like.
Brown's in Covent Garden is casual but nice at the same time...waiters in white aprons but wood floors, plants, and skylights. It's really very good and the price is also reasonable.
My other go-to place is in the crypt of St. Pauls...The Restaurant at St. Paul's serves a really nice cream tea that is beautifully served on olive wood. It's quite lovely and better than their cafe IMHO. I was there a few years ago and hope that it's still there when I visit next time.

Browns and National Gallery.....Saint Paul's.....Will look into them all. Thanks. I think our first tea experience will be at Betty's in York so I may just have to try the tea but I'm not holding my breath....LOL

We ended up having tea at Westminster Abbey and it was delicious with a view of the abbey.

OPthanks for the info-I will keep WA in mind for our next tea.

Guess there's no place like the old Lyons Tea Shops ? (like Denny's, only serving tea.)

Here are two places that I have enjoyed:
1) Kensington Palace's Orangery. Visit the place first, nice walk in the garden area, then afternoon tea.
http://www.orangerykensingtonpalace.co.uk/afternoon-tea/

2) Victoria and Albert Museum's cafe . This one is in such a beautiful room. All sorts of drinks too. Very affordable too.

https://www.vam.ac.uk/info/va-cafe/

Enjoy!

Awesome advice.....thank you all. We might have to do tea several times.

Seeing this post several days later, but having just returned from London last week, it appears that most every museum has made great efforts to provide suitable dining spaces and places for afternoon tea. Even St. Martin's in the Field church has a surprisingly delightful, very affordable dining/tea space in their crypt (underneath the church, but pay your respects to the folks buried under the tombstones in the floor).

Our visit to the tearoom at the fabulous Courtald Gallery, in a shady outside corner of the place a few days ago, however, was chaotic. Maybe a lot of regular staffers were out sick, or new trainees were left in charge of the place, but they brought out food on trays and than asked people whether or not they'd ordered it, then moved on to the next table, etc., unsure of whom had ordered what. They were left with one unclaimed plate of scones and then determined it didn't belong to anyone, but they weren't going to make it available to us, either, so they'd technically run out of scones for the afternoon...and tarts, although those were still being touted to potential customers, who were then suddenly disappointed. Then they didn't get a table bussed that had lots of uneaten salmon sandwiches left on it, which an opportunistic pigeon quickly turned into a huge mess.

Then trying to pay was a problem, as the server couldn't get the credit card machine to work, but we also had cash and got that resolved.

As far as not drinking tea at Tea, lots of warm and cold beverages are usually on offer, including coffee and lemonade. And have you ever had chai (which in many languages simply is the word for "tea") but in English-speaking countries is tea flavored with cinnamon, cardamom, sugar, and other spices that, with milk, is an entirely different drink! The tearoom at the Courtald did get the chai right!

I can't offer advice on Tea since we didn't get around to having Tea (plan to rectify that on our next trip), but you should at least give the tea a try.

I'm an American and drank good quality loose leaf tea before our trip. It's good tea for the US. All of the tea we had on our trip was superior (with the exception of the bagged PG Tips in our room, which I personally didn't care for..but that might have been our preparation). We now order our tea from London. It isn't any more expensive than what I had previously purchased at home since I have a credit card that doesn't charge conversion fees.

Also, my boyfriend never drank tea before. He's now a teaholic.

R Jane: excellent tea, as fine as in Britain, is available in Canada. It may be less expensive to order it from here. My step daughter in LA always loves the tea in Montreal when she visits. She says the tea in American tea bags is powdery and skimpy. Enjoy your cuppa.