Review – Pop-up Tea Shop – 47 Lamb’s Conduit Street

While reading the London Paper Wednesday night, my husband turned to me and said, “A pop-up tea shop! Isn’t that just your thing? Better go tomorrow?” I looked at the paper and the description of the event. Not only was it tea, it was tea served in vintage tea cups, and it was on the very street behind my office! I was excited! And it was only happening for two days, Thursday and Friday April twenty-third and twenty-fourth, so I was going to have to get myself down there.

I showed up around 12:30, and how gorgeous it was! The inside was black flocked wall paper. Two tables and a sofa were in the main area, with seating for about seven total in the space, and a handsome mustachioed man was behind the counter.

I admired the gorgeous, 40s-ish decor. The cups were all vintage; the cake stand (with home-made, iced chocolate cake on it) adorable; the cutlery (with cream bakelite handles) exactly what I want in my own house. A few quiches were on the tables. A strange pile of comically fashionable people masquerading as artists kept parading into the back room. The man with the mustache, hiding behind several metal and glass tea containers (and a big metal tin marked “cake”) was where it was at.

As it turns out, the whole thing appeared to be a marketing campaign for Timberland’s new line of ladies shoes, the advertising pamphlet for which was filled with so many typos and grammatical car crashes that I considered correcting it to save the originator further embarrassment. But no: with the offer of free tea and cake (and quiche!), I was far too full of good will toward the world to make the effort. I sat down with a china cup full of lapsang souchong and nibbled on quiche. I thought of tea parties I wanted to have. I stirred my tea with a silver spoon. What an utterly perfect way to spend a sunny Thursday. All I needed was someone to talk to and I could have spent the whole afternoon there. Instead, I packed up after my third cup (and after having some of the cake) and went back to work.

(The pop-up tea shop continues for one more day. Unfortunately I did not get the name of the gentleman behind the counter, who said he runs a tea shop on Shoreditch High Street. Any help identifying him and the name of his shop would be highly appreciated! And sadly the vintage stuff inside is NOT for sale. I was sad, but not too much. You can’t beat free cake.)

LATER: I’m pleased to announce my subject above is Johnny of Time for Tea, who apparently occasionally serves tea on weekends out of his shop/house on Shoreditch High Street, 110 (E1 6JN). And I was also told this event wasn’t sponsored by Timberland, though I’m still in the dark as to why it happened. Thanks to the people who set it up, though!