Afternoon Tea in London: Where to Go and What It Costs

Afternoon tea in London is one of the few tourist rituals that is genuinely worth doing, provided you pick the right room. The gap between the best of them and the merely adequate is wide, and it has very little to do with price.

Here is what the top tier costs, what you actually get, and the one piece of arithmetic almost every other guide leaves out.

What you will actually pay

Almost every room on this list quotes a price and then adds a discretionary service charge of 12.5 or 15 per cent. Only the Connaught includes it in the price, and the rules on tipping in London explain how that charge works and when you can ask for it to be removed. That makes the advertised prices harder to compare than they look, so here they are both ways.

Venue	Menu price	Service	Actually payable
The Goring	£75	15%	£86.25
Sketch	from about £80	15%	about £92
Fortnum & Mason	from £84	12.5%	from £94.50
The Savoy	from £90	15%	£103.50
The Connaught	£92	included	£92
The Ritz	from £95	12.5%	from £106.88
Claridge’s	from £95	15%	from £109.25
The Dorchester	from £95	15%	from £109.25

The Connaught is the only one on this list whose quoted price is the price. Its £92 includes both service and VAT, which makes it cheaper in practice than Fortnum’s or the Savoy, and within a few pounds of Sketch. Note, though, that the Connaught’s own afternoon tea page carries no price at all as of September 2026, so that figure could not be reconfirmed and the number only appears once you are inside the booking flow. That is not obvious from any listing site.

Service charges are discretionary in the UK and can be removed on request. Whether you do is your business, but you should at least know it is being added.

Why nobody can give you a reliable price list, including us

Here is what happened when every price in the table above was rechecked against the venues’ own websites on 28 September 2026.

Four of the eight publish a price. The Ritz publishes from £95 for adults and £73 for children. Claridge’s publishes from £95, £110 with Champagne and £125 with rosé Champagne. The Dorchester publishes from £95, and from £110 with Champagne. Fortnum & Mason publishes from £84 per person, with a discretionary 12.5 per cent service charge on every restaurant bill.

The other four do not publish a figure on the page. The Connaught’s afternoon tea page contains no price anywhere in it, and neither do the Savoy’s, the Goring’s or Sketch’s.

So when you see a confident London afternoon tea price list, ask where the numbers came from. Ours are marked: the four above are current from the venues themselves, and the other four are indicative and should be confirmed at booking. The service charge percentages, which are the part that actually reorders the list, do not change often and are the more durable half of the table.

Below the grand hotels there are four smaller categories that work differently and that most guides fold into one list: the themed teas, the Harry Potter one, the ones with a view, and Christmas. Each has its own rules and the Harry Potter one in particular cannot be booked the way people assume.

The best afternoon teas in London

The Ritz, Piccadilly

From £95, with five sittings a day, Monday to Sunday, at 11.30am, 1.30pm, 3.30pm, 5.30pm and 7.30pm. Twenty loose-leaf teas, scones with Cornish clotted cream, and two slices cut table-side from a cake trolley. Champagne is a la carte from £26 a glass including VAT rather than a fixed upgrade tier. Note the wording: the Ritz says prices start from £95, so it is a floor and not a flat rate.

Two things worth knowing that most guides still get wrong. Tea is not currently served in the Palm Court. The Ritz is partway through a £300m refurbishment and tea has moved to the eighteenth-century William Kent House. And the dress code asks gentlemen for a jacket and tie and bars jeans and sportswear for everyone, but it does not mention trainers, whatever you have read elsewhere.

The Ritz advises booking months in advance, especially for weekends. We have a separate guide to afternoon tea at the Ritz covering the dress code in full, the cancellation terms and whether it justifies the trouble.

The Connaught, Mayfair

£92 all in, served daily from 2.30pm to 5.30pm in Jean-Georges. A harpist plays Friday to Sunday. The sandwiches carry South-East Asian notes rather than the usual cucumber-and-coronation routine, and the house biscuit is a sablé built as a knowing riff on a Jammie Dodger.

The best value at the top end, once you account for service. Also the least stuffy of the grand hotels.

Claridge’s, Mayfair

From £95, £110 with Champagne or £125 with rosé Champagne, served 2.45pm to 5.30pm in the Foyer and Reading Room. Art Deco arches, mirrored walls, green leather, and the room most people picture when they picture this.

If you want the archetype rather than a variation on it, this is the one.

The Goring, Belgravia

£75 on the Veranda, daily until 6.15pm, and the Dining Room on Saturdays. The last of the grand Belgravia hotels still in family hands, looking onto its own lawn.

The cheapest genuinely grand tea in London and the most relaxed of them. It is also the venue that actually bans trainers: no sportswear, athletic trainers, shorts or ripped jeans.

The Dorchester, Park Lane

From £95 in the Promenade, or from £110 with Champagne. A pianist plays from 2pm, on a piano that once belonged to Liberace. The room reopened in 2023 after an Art Deco refurbishment, and reservations open six months ahead.

There are vegetarian and vegan versions of the tea, so say which you want when you book rather than on the day.

Fortnum & Mason, Piccadilly

From £84 per person in the Diamond Jubilee Tea Salon, fourth floor, 181 Piccadilly. A pianist plays every day from 12pm to 7pm and the resident tea specialists will run a tasting at your table. The Caviar Tea Experience is the upgrade, from £165 and served all day: Golden Oscietra or Beluga caviar on mini crumpets with Blanc de Blancs Champagne, which Fortnum’s describes as a prelude to the tea rather than a replacement for it.

It adds a discretionary 12.5 per cent service charge to every restaurant bill, the Ritz’s rate rather than the 15 per cent most of the hotels add, so from £84 is from £94.50 in practice.

A department store rather than a hotel, with the most capacity of any room here, which makes it the easiest of the lot to get into at short notice.

The Savoy, Strand

Served in the Gallery, beneath its stained glass dome, with over thirty teas, and the evening version, the Twilight Tea, is served daily from 6pm to 9.30pm with a Berry Royale cocktail. Note the room, because this is where most guides are wrong: they still say Thames Foyer, and the Savoy’s own site says Gallery, describing it as an all-day dining space that runs from breakfast through to late-night cocktails.

The Savoy no longer publishes a price on that page. The £90 in the table above could not be reconfirmed from the hotel’s own site in September 2026, so treat it as indicative and check at booking.

Their dress code, in their words, asks guests to dress elegantly, with sports jerseys strictly prohibited. Tea must be booked at least three days ahead, which catches people out.

Sketch, Conduit Street

From around £80 in the Gallery, served Monday to Thursday from 12pm to 4pm and Friday to Sunday from 11am to 4.30pm. The price moves with the season, so treat that as a guide rather than a quote.

One correction worth making: the Gallery is no longer pink. It went yellow in 2022, and until 10 November 2026 it holds Static Arcade, an installation by Camille Walala for Sketch’s annual art and design exhibition. If you are going for the photograph you have seen, that photograph is several years out of date. The egg-pod lavatories are still there.

Brown’s Hotel, Albemarle Street

London’s oldest hotel, opened 1837, serving in the Drawing Room with live music and a list of twenty five teas. We could not confirm the current rate against Brown’s own published information, so we are not quoting one.

The Lanesborough, Hyde Park Corner

Served daily in the Lanesborough Grill, from £92, where the current tea is a Bridgerton Afternoon Tea. The Withdrawing Room serves a Cowdray Cream Tea instead. Older guides send you to Céleste, which is not where tea is now. Themed teas run here regularly and sometimes replace the standing offer entirely, so check what is actually on before you book for the classic version.

Themed afternoon teas, and the one rule that catches people

The themed teas are a separate category from the grand hotel rooms above, and the good ones are
genuinely good rather than a gimmick with a scone attached.

Mad Hatters at the Sanderson, 50 Berners Street

The Alice in Wonderland one, and the themed tea most people mean when they say themed tea. Served 12.30pm to 7pm, which is a longer window than almost any grand hotel keeps.

From £75, or £91 with champagne, and £45 for the Little Hatters version for children. Those are floors rather than flat rates, in the same way the Ritz’s £95 is.

The three days’ notice is for the stay, not the tea. The Sanderson attaches its rule of booking at least three days ahead to its package of afternoon tea with an overnight stay, rather than to the tea on its own. Parties of eight or more go through an enquiry rather than the booking system.

One note on finding it. The hotel now sits under the Morgans Originals name rather than its old one, so an older bookmark or a search for the hotel’s previous website will not resolve. It is at 50 Berners Street, which is the same street as the London EDITION and a different hotel entirely.

The Ampersand, South Kensington

10 Harrington Road, SW7 3ER, and it runs two different themed teas in two different
rooms, which almost nobody realises.

The Science Afternoon Tea, in the Drawing Rooms, takes its cue from the Science
Museum next door: jams served in petri dishes, chocolate spacemen and dinosaur biscuits. It
won Best Themed Afternoon Tea at the Afternoon Tea Awards 2018 and it is served
Monday to Friday from noon to 7pm and Saturday and Sunday from 11am to 7:30pm.
There are adult, children’s, vegetarian, vegan and gluten free menus, plus their Teapot
Tails.

The Jurassic Afternoon Tea, in Apero downstairs, is the follow-up: a volcanic
eruption, a Jurassic mountain and a dinosaur egg basket. Served Monday to Sunday, noon to
7pm, with Charles Heidsieck Brut or Rosé Champagne, or a Wild Idol alcohol free
sparkling rosé if you would rather not drink.

Here is the rule that catches people, and it is published: everyone at the table has to
order a tea, or pay a £15 cover charge instead. If you were planning to bring
somebody who only wants a coffee while the others eat, that is £15. Worth knowing before you
book for four and only three of you are hungry.

One more practical note. The Ampersand does not take afternoon tea bookings by telephone
or email, by its own statement, because of the volume of enquiries. It is the online form
or nothing.

TĪNG at Shangri-La The Shard

Level 35, 31 St Thomas Street. Its current themed tea is the St-Germain Afternoon
Tea, a floral menu built around elderflower liqueur, served daily from 12.30pm to 3.30pm, and it is a dated run:
it runs through November 2026. The dress code is smart casual and smoking is not
permitted anywhere.

The Harry Potter afternoon tea, and why you cannot just book it

This is the most searched themed tea in London and the answer is not what people expect.

Afternoon Tea at The Hogwarts Table runs at Warner Bros. Studio Tour London, from
£42.50 per person. Butterbeer scones, savouries and sweets from the Studio Tour
pastry kitchen, with loose leaf teas and a Champagne upgrade if you want one. The
children’s version is served in a miniature Hogwarts Trunk.

You cannot book it on its own. It is sold only as an add-on when you buy Studio
Tour tickets, a valid Studio Tour booking is required, and you have to select the same day as your
admission ticket. There is no walk-up, no separate reservation and no way to have the tea without
doing the tour.

Three more published rules worth having before you plan the day. Each table gets a 90
minute slot, so book your tour entry time around it rather than the other way round.
Tables take a maximum of six people. And allergies need 48 hours
notice, while arriving more than 20 minutes late means ringing ahead. There are vegan, vegetarian
and gluten free versions of every menu, and the menus change each season.

Our guide to the Studio Tour covers getting there, the
shuttle bus and what the ticket actually includes, which is the half of this you need to sort
first.

Afternoon tea with a view

A small category with a big price range, and the thing to understand is that the view is often
charged separately from the tea.

TĪNG is on Level 35 of the Shard, which is the highest of these and the one
where the room does the work. Darwin Brasserie is on Level 36 of the Walkie Talkie,
inside Sky Garden, and there the window seat is an explicit upgrade at
£10 to £15 per person added when you pick your time slot. Booking the
restaurant alone does not get you the window.

Sky Garden itself is free to enter on a booked ticket, which is the arithmetic
worth doing: you can have the view for nothing and the tea somewhere cheaper.
The best views in London ranks the free ones against the paid,
and restaurants with a view covers the same buildings
at dinner.

Christmas and festive afternoon tea

The grand hotels run a festive afternoon tea, and it costs meaningfully more than the standard sitting. At the Ritz, which publishes its price, the premium is twenty five pounds a head, and forty on Christmas Day.

The Ritz publishes Christmas Afternoon Tea at £120 per adult and £79 per
child up to the age of 15, served from Saturday 14 November 2026 to Wednesday 6 January 2027, and £135 and £90 on Christmas Day itself. Against its standard tea, which starts from £95 and
£73, that is twenty five pounds more for an adult and six more for a child.

Watch the dates as well as the price. The festive menu starts on 14 November, so a Ritz tea booked for early November is the standard one at the standard price, and the Christmas Day sittings are priced separately from the rest of the season.

If the plan is a Christmas meal rather than a tea, Christmas lunch in London covers the rooms that serve it and what each has published so far.

Christmas in London covers the rest of the season,
and the Christmas markets the cheaper end of the same
afternoon.

Afternoon tea for two

Almost nobody takes afternoon tea alone, so the number that matters is the one for two, and the
service charge is what reorders the list.

Two at the Goring is £150 before service and £172.50 after it. Two at the
Connaught is £184 and stays £184, because its price already includes service
and VAT. Two at the Ritz is at least £190 before service and £213.75 after. Two at
Claridge’s or the Dorchester is at least £190 before service and £218.50 after.

So the Connaught and the Savoy are four pounds apart on the menu for two and twenty three
pounds apart once you have paid, because the Savoy adds 15 per cent and the Connaught adds
nothing at all. If you are choosing between two rooms on price, do the sum for two with service
before you choose, because the ranking changes.

Choosing well

If you want the definitive version: Claridge’s or the Ritz. Both are the real thing and both require planning.

If you want the most affordable afternoon tea that is still the real thing: the Goring at £75, or the Connaught at £92 all in.

If you are booking a kids afternoon tea: the Ritz publishes £73 for children and the Sanderson does a £45 Little Hatters version. Both price children separately rather than charging them the adult rate, which is the difference between a treat and a surcharge.

If you are deciding this week: Fortnum & Mason. It has the most capacity, and its service charge is 12.5 per cent rather than 15.

If you want a talking point rather than a tradition: Sketch, or the afternoon tea bus, which serves a proper tea aboard a 1960s Routemaster while it drives past most of central London.

Practical notes

Book far earlier than feels necessary. The Ritz says months in advance, especially for weekends. The Savoy requires three days minimum. Weekend sittings at the grand hotels go first.

Check the dress code, and only the venue’s own. The Ritz and the Goring publish firm ones, and the Dorchester asks guests to avoid shorts and sportswear. Claridge’s and the Connaught publish none at all, whatever the listing sites assert. A jacket is never wrong.

Cancellation terms bite. The Ritz charges £95 a head for a cancellation inside 48 hours. The others set their own terms, so read the confirmation and put the deadline in your calendar when you book.

Give dietary requirements 48 hours. Most kitchens here need that much notice and will do a great deal with it.

Allow two hours. Sittings run 90 minutes to 1 hour 45, and being turned out mid-conversation spoils it.

Prices move. Everything above was quoted from each venue’s own published information and rechecked in full on 28 September 2026. Confirm when you book.

The afternoon tea bus is the version that moves, and it is less of a gimmick than it sounds: a proper tea, served while the bus works its way past the landmarks.

Afternoon tea near me in London

There is no honest way to rank afternoon tea by distance, because the rooms on this page sit in a handful of West End and Mayfair hotels and the booking rule decides more than the walk. For afternoon tea near me, pick the hotel first and the date second: several need notice, one asks for at least three days and another for 48 hours, so the tea you can have today is not always the tea nearest to you.

Where to go next

If the appeal is a long, unhurried lunch rather than the ceremony, the best restaurants in London and the Michelin list cover the same rooms at dinner. Several of these hotels also have serious bars: the cocktail guide has the Connaught Bar and its peers.

And if you are staying nearby, the best hotels in London covers most of the properties above from the other side.

Questions we get asked

How much is afternoon tea at the Ritz London?

From £95 a head, which is the Ritz’s own wording, plus a discretionary 12.5 per cent service charge, which makes the figure you actually pay £106.88. That covers five sittings a day between 11.30am and 7.30pm, twenty loose leaf teas, scones with Cornish clotted cream and two slices cut at your table from the cake trolley. The Ritz advises booking months in advance, especially for a weekend, and charges £95 a head for a cancellation inside 48 hours.

How much is afternoon tea at the Savoy London?

From £90, plus 15 per cent service, so £103.50 in practice. It is served in the Gallery beneath the stained glass dome, not the Thames Foyer that most guides still name, with more than thirty teas and an evening Twilight Tea from 6pm to 9.30pm. The Savoy requires booking at least three days ahead, which is the detail that catches people out.

How much is afternoon tea at Claridge's London?

From £95, £110 with Champagne or £125 with rosé Champagne, plus 15 per cent service, so from £109.25 for the standard version. It runs from 2.45pm to 5.30pm in the Foyer and Reading Room, and it is the Art Deco room most people are actually picturing when they imagine afternoon tea in London.

How much is afternoon tea in London?

Between £75 and £95 at the grand hotels before service, and service is what makes them hard to compare. The Goring is the cheapest genuinely grand tea at £75, which is £86.25 once 15 per cent is added. The Connaught is £92 and is the only one whose quoted price is the price, because service and VAT are already inside it, making it cheaper in practice than the Savoy.

What time is afternoon tea in London?

Mid afternoon at most hotels, though the windows vary more than people expect. The Ritz runs five sittings from 11.30am to 7.30pm. The Connaught serves 2.30pm to 5.30pm, Claridge's 2.45pm to 5.30pm, and the Goring until 6.15pm. Allow two hours, because sittings run 90 minutes to an hour and three quarters and being turned out mid conversation spoils it.

What do you wear to afternoon tea in London?

Check the venue's own published code and nothing else, because this is the most copied and most frequently wrong detail on listing sites. The Ritz asks gentlemen for a jacket and tie and bars jeans and sportswear, but does not mention trainers. The Goring is the one that actually bans trainers, along with sportswear, shorts and ripped jeans. The Dorchester asks guests to avoid shorts and sportswear, and Claridge's and the Connaught publish no dress code at all. A jacket is never wrong.

Where is the best afternoon tea in London?

It depends which of four things you want. For the definitive traditional version, Claridge's or the Ritz. For the best room for the money, the Goring at £75 or the Connaught at £92 all in. If you are deciding this week, Fortnum and Mason has the most capacity and adds 12.5 per cent service rather than 15. For a talking point rather than a tradition, Sketch.

Where can you book afternoon tea in London at short notice?

Fortnum and Mason in Piccadilly. It has the most capacity of any room on this list and is comfortably the easiest to get into without months of notice. Tea is from £84, and a discretionary 12.5 per cent service charge makes that £94.50.

What are the best themed afternoon teas in London?

The Ampersand in South Kensington runs two, and they are the strongest: the Science Afternoon Tea, which serves jams in petri dishes and won Best Themed Afternoon Tea at the Afternoon Tea Awards 2018, and the Jurassic Afternoon Tea, which does a volcanic eruption and a dinosaur egg basket. Science runs Monday to Friday noon to 7pm and weekends 11am to 7:30pm; Jurassic runs daily noon to 7pm. Note that everyone at the table must order a tea or pay a 15 pound cover charge, and that the hotel takes no bookings by phone or email.

Where is the Harry Potter afternoon tea in London?

At Warner Bros. Studio Tour London, where it is called Afternoon Tea at The Hogwarts Table and costs from 42.50 pounds per person, with Butterbeer scones and a children’s version served in a miniature Hogwarts Trunk. The important part: you cannot book it on its own. It is sold only as an add-on to a Studio Tour ticket, for the same day, and a valid tour booking is required. Tables get a 90 minute slot and take a maximum of six people.

Where can you have afternoon tea with a view in London?

TĪNG at Shangri-La The Shard is on Level 35 and is the highest of them, with a smart casual dress code. Darwin Brasserie is on Level 36 of the Walkie Talkie inside Sky Garden, but the window seat there is a separate upgrade at 10 to 15 pounds per person selected when you book, so the table alone does not get you the view. Sky Garden itself is free to enter on a booked ticket, so the cheapest version is the view for nothing and the tea elsewhere.

How much is Christmas afternoon tea in London?

The Ritz publishes this year’s at 120 pounds per adult and 79 per child up to the age of 15, served from 14 November 2026 to 6 January 2027, and 135 and 90 on Christmas Day. Against its standard tea, from 95 and 73, that is twenty five pounds more for an adult, and forty on Christmas Day itself. A tea booked before 14 November is the standard one at the standard price.

How much is afternoon tea for two in London?

Do the sum with service, because it reorders the list. Two at the Goring is 150 pounds before service and 172.50 after. Two at the Connaught is 184 and stays 184, because its price includes service and VAT already. Two at the Ritz is at least 190 before service and 213.75 after, and two at Claridge’s or the Dorchester is at least 190 becoming 218.50. Two at the Savoy is 180 becoming 207, so the Savoy and the Connaught sit four pounds apart on the menu and twenty three apart once service is added.