One of the best things with living in England is afternoon tea. Sadly, London does not have many places to choose from when it comes to this, as more and more places are bought over by the big, commercial chains like Starbucks, Café Nero, Costa etc. This is sad. Whereas you in the countryside or smaller towns have many great and tasteful choices of little tea rooms that serve afternoon tea, they are very hard to come by in the big city. Is afternoon tea not trendy enough for London? You have places like The Orangery in Kensington Gardens, which is nice enough, but it misses some of the personal and slightly eccentric feeling of those you tend to find outside London. Therefore I was over the moon when I discovered Shipp's Tearoom near Borough Market, one of my favourite spots in London even before I came upon this wonderful little treasure of a café. It had all the things a proper tea room should have; quirky mismatched furniture and crockery, homemade cakes and sandwiches and excellent personal service. Devastatingly this tea room was closed down in June 2008 due to a dispute with their landlords.. So I am now back in the streets, constantly on a mission to find somewhere to replace this wonderful little place! And the hunt continues.......
