In lieu of a hen night just before my wedding last year (that’s what we call a bachelorette party; men have stag do-s), my sisters took me out to Tea At The Ritz and it was such a lovely success that we decided to turn pre-marital afternoon tea into a little Sisters’ Tradition. So what with my big sister’s wedding now imminent, it was time again yesterday to don our glad rags and hit London Town for a spot of gentile entertainment. This time we went to The Lanesborough at Hyde Park Corner.

We started the afternoon all meeting up at Harrods and going inside to stroke the luxury handbags (swoooon) before making our way up toward Piccadilly and the hotel. However this was not before we made my sister close her eyes, only allowing her to open them again after we’d finished ‘decorating’ her with nasty, tacky hen night paraphernalia. What’s a hen party without all of that?!

She looked absolutely dreadful. We also showered her with pink heart confetti and we felt so guilty afterwards for making a mess in the street that we actually got down on our hands and knees and started trying to clear it all up again.  Let it go on record that confetti isn’t the easiest thing to pick up, neither is it very hygienic. Eeuuw, my hands came into contact with a London road  :?  We couldn’t manage to get it all, but it was biodegradable so we don’t feel entirely bad.

My poor sister looked so chavvy and awful that we actually only allowed her to wear the sash for about 10 minutes before we confiscated it from her and hid it from sight. She was allowed to wear the veil though, and although the badge was in equally poor taste as the sash it was a bit more subtle and we weren’t ashamed to be seen walking next to her when she wore it. Obviously she removed everything when we went into The Lanesborough.

We chose our venue on the basis that it was this year’s winner of the highest accolade in the afternoon tea industry -  The Tea Guild’s Top London Afternoon Tea 2008 Award. Here’s what they say about it:

This prestigious event is the ‘Michelin Star’ of the tea world and is a much sought after honour with most of London’s world famous London hotels competing for the title … Judges inspecting The Lanesborough were impressed by the exceptional service and the warm welcome guests receiving from the staff. The Afternoon Tea experience should be one of style, comfort and fun, and this coupled with The Lanesborough’s winning combination of elegant ambience, excellent variety of wonderful teas brewed and served with perfection, plus a delicious selection of food including the hotel’s ‘signature dish’ of lemon curd, left the judges in no doubt that The Lanesborough was the ultimate.

After reading this, it had a LOT to live up to.

Tea was served inside in the restaurant that had a glass roof, and we had an excellent table on a raised platform in the corner from which we could look out and survey all of the other tea-drinkers.

We chose the ‘Belgravia Tea’ which started with strawberries and cream and a flute of Tattinger champagne.

And then came the sandwiches, petit fours and pastries, and then hot buttered toasted teacakes and warm scones. Afternoon tea is not afternoon tea without scones, jam and clotted cream. They also gave us their signature lemon curd, which was nice except we all agreed that mine is much better. I’ll maybe get around to putting the recipe on here one day.

The tea was lovely, but what really made it were the comedy errors, hee hee! First our server managed to topple a whole glass of champagne down herself and the corner of the table as she was serving us, and then she somehow managed to bring us completely the wrong tea. We found it all rather amusing, but nevertheless we were served the rest of the afternoon tea personally by the tea sommelier who was a little embarrassed by the whole thing. Oops!

This is what I wore. It was my third outfit of the day. I’d originally gone to London in one outfit (skinny white jeans and a blue sweater) and changed into a pretty flowery short sleeved version of the Verity Hope Dress that my sister had given me (worn on top of my white jeans), but at the last minute decided that I wanted to wear a pink gingham party dress that I’d picked up that morning at a vintage shop in Portobello Road, near Notting Hill. It seemed like the perfect occasion for it! So I did a quick change in the Harrods loo.

I’m glad I wore it. And I’m glad I bought it too.

After tea, we all went off to Selfridges to stroke more luxury handbags. In addition to Blythes and shoes, they’re the other thing I lust after Oh yes, here’s another thing that made it special- we saw a gentleman on his way back from the office wearing a bowler hat. That’s not something you see every day, well not since the 1950s anywhoo.

The dress, the tea and all the handbag stroking all made for an excellent daytrip in their own right, but the bowler hat really put the cherry on the cake for a traditionally english afternoon out in London.

PS there are a couple more photos in the gallery below….