Raffles 1887

RAFFLES READS

AND IS THERE HONEY STILL FOR TEA?

Traditional afternoon tea has been enduringly popular since it was made popular by the Duchess of Bedford in the 1840s to fill the gap between lunch and dinner. Its distinctive mix of sweet and savoury is a formula that has, remarkably, gone global, but what defines its appeal? DAME ANYA HINDMARCH, founder of the eponymous British luxury brand and London’s Anya Café, which serves afternoon tea every day, shares her personal thoughts with RAFFLES 1887

MY grandmother was an amazing cake maker, and would come round with a cake every week. She used to make the traditional English classics – Victoria sponge, coffee & walnut, lemon drizzle – which I still think are superb and not too sweet or over-iced. I also remember she made cakes that had a hole in the middle, in a tin you might use for a mousse. I would go back for more and more slices. Licking the bowl is still the ultimate treat of any childhood memory – there’s nothing better, is there?

My mother is a real ‘spoiler’. One of our treats was to be able to watch children’s TV in front of the fire and she would bring in the bamboo tea trolley with warm egg sandwiches on white bread, soft with a little bit of salt – to this day one of my all-time favourite things – and various different cakes and fruits. It was just incredibly exciting, the ultimate wraparound of telly, fire, tea and safety.

Afternoon Tea In Kensington Gardens, London, England, In The Early Years Of The 20Th Century. After A Drawing By Blampied. From La Esfera, 1914. (Photo by: Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

When you think about afternoon tea, what springs to mind are cucumber sandwiches, Pimm’s and croquet – and perhaps nostalgic thoughts of elegant people of a bygone era relaxing in wicker chairs. It definitely feels like a British thing – even though the tea is probably from China or India. But it feels indulgent and spoiling – it’s extra to lunch, extra to dinner. It’s also the beauty of it: the finessing, the delicacy, the creativity, the colour, the small bites that somehow feel less greedy – you can taste more options if they are small, rather than having to choose just one. Essentially you can be greedy without feeling guilty.

I remember taking my daughter to tea at The Ritz to celebrate her becoming head girl. She suddenly sat up straight, took her elbows off the table, and ate her sandwiches with one hand and not two – and I realised she was behaving in a different way. It was the beauty of the orchestra, the people playing the music, the chintz and the gilding and the flurry and the white gloves – it’s an occasion and a special treat, isn’t it?

I’d always rather have cake than roast chicken personally, and for me it would definitely be a dinner replacement if I had to choose. Also, if you think about ‘tea for two’ – there’s something a bit celebratory but also intimate about it. It doesn’t feel like something I’d do with a boyfriend, like cocktails; more something I’d do with a best friend or a mother: you’d go to tea for a nice wholesome celebration that had a sense of ‘nursery comfort’ about it.

In an era when we’re so digital, with endless screens, there’s something rather lovely about getting together, convening at a time other than lunch or dinner, and not necessarily having a hangover at the end of it. Apparently there’s a huge trend for kids at university to meet for tea rather than drinks now – we once opened a pop-up non-alcoholic off licence as a project to experiment with this.

In 2021 we opened The Village in Pont Street, just off Sloane Street in Chelsea, with six stores and a café. The café is very much the heart of the village, a ‘British caff’ in a lovely way, with exceptional ingredients and things like real Welsh rarebit, the perfect coffee or breakfast, porridge with sprinkles for my mother, delicious proper lunch through to wine and cocktails – it can be whatever you want it to be.

We serve afternoon tea all year round to both locals and tourists, and this feels like a very British thing to do – sandwiches and special versions of cakes, ice cream, scones, teas and drinks, and the Christmas one has mulled wine and Christmas cakes. We serve things like fish sandwiches shaped like fish, and egg sandwiches shaped like eggs – I’m having fun playing and being my mum! Not taking ourselves too seriously is definitely a British trait.

"“We care deeply about how things are made, and also about how they make you feel” - Anya Hindmarch"

The café is a lovely meeting point, and a way of being inclusive and engaging people in what we care about: luxury craftsmanship, responsible behaviour, things that make you smile. Whether it’s afternoon tea or products you can’t buy anywhere else, we care deeply about how things are made, and also about how they make you feel. It feels like proper hospitality in the old-fashioned sense of the word.