Afternoon tea at Claridge’s costs £95, and for two months of the year you cannot buy it at any price.
From 3 November to 3 January, excluding Christmas Day, the Festive Afternoon Tea is served exclusively. The traditional tea is not available at all during that window, and the price becomes £120 on weekdays and £130 at weekends.
That is a 26 pound jump on a weekday and a 35 pound jump on a Saturday, with no option to decline the festive version, and it is published in one sentence halfway down their own page.
The prices, as published
Traditional Afternoon Tea: from £95 per person.
Champagne Afternoon Tea: from £110.
Rosé Champagne Afternoon Tea: from £125.
So Champagne costs fifteen pounds over the traditional tea, which is less than a glass of comparable Champagne costs in most of Mayfair. If you were going to have the tea anyway, the upgrade is the better arithmetic of the two.
Festive Afternoon Tea, 3 November to 3 January: from £120 weekdays, £130 weekends.
The hours, and the August exception
Served daily, 2.45pm to 5.30pm.
During August the service extends from 12.45pm, two hours earlier, which is the only month you can take tea at Claridge’s before the middle of the afternoon.
That matters more than it sounds. A 2.45pm start means tea replaces lunch rather than following it, and most people book it as though it were a mid-afternoon stop. In August it genuinely can be lunch.
Booking
Online only. There is no phone route to a table for afternoon tea, which is unusual at this end of the market and catches people who assume a hotel of this age takes bookings by telephone.
Gift cards are available, as are the jade and white striped tea sets from the room itself, sold through their shop.
The room
It is served in The Foyer and Reading Room, the Art Deco space at the centre of the hotel, and the tableware is the jade and white striped china that the hotel now sells to people who want it at home.
The hotel dates the tea ritual to more than 120 years ago, and the hotel itself to 1812.
The menu follows the conventional sweet and savoury order, with smoked Scottish salmon among the savouries and pastries that change with the season. There is a separate children’s menu.
What else is in the building
Worth knowing if you are making an afternoon of it. The Fumoir has been there since 1929 and is the small cocktail room. The Painter’s Room and Claridge’s Bar are the other two. Dante Mayfair is the newest arrival, a transplant of the Greenwich Village bar founded in 1915.
Claridge’s Bakery runs through the day, and Art Café by Thibault Hauchard does breakfast and lunch above the Perrotin gallery.
So if the tea is booked out, there are four other rooms in the same building serving something, and none of them needs a 2.45pm slot.
How to plan it
Cheapest way in: the traditional tea at £95, outside 3 November to 3 January.
Best value: the Champagne tea at £110, fifteen pounds over the base price.
In August: book the 12.45pm service and treat it as lunch.
In November and December: expect £120 or £130 and no choice of menu. If you want the traditional tea, come before 3 November or after 3 January.
Booking: online, because there is no other way.
Afternoon Tea at Claridge’s
- Address
- Brook Street, Mayfair, London W1K 4HR
- Nearest
- Bond Street
- Hours
- Served daily 2.45pm to 5.30pm, with service extended from 12.45pm during August
- Booking
- Online only. Gift cards available
- Price
- Traditional from 95 pounds, Champagne from 110 pounds, Rose Champagne from 125 pounds. Festive Afternoon Tea from 120 pounds weekdays and 130 pounds weekends
- Standing
- The Art Deco Foyer and Reading Room, and the tea ritual Claridge’s dates back more than 120 years
How to get in
From 3 November to 3 January, excluding 25 December, the Festive Afternoon Tea is served exclusively and the traditional tea is unavailable, at 120 pounds on weekdays and 130 at weekends. August is the only month with an earlier 12.45pm service.
Where to go next
The afternoon tea page compares the rest of them on price, and Mayfair covers the surrounding streets.
The cocktail bars cover The Fumoir and its neighbours, and the hotels page covers staying there.
Questions we get asked
How much is afternoon tea at Claridge's?
The traditional tea is from £95 per person, Champagne from £110 and Rosé Champagne from £125. From 3 November to 3 January the Festive Afternoon Tea replaces all of them, from £120 on weekdays and £130 at weekends.
What time is afternoon tea at Claridge's?
Served daily from 2.45pm to 5.30pm. During August only, service is extended and starts from 12.45pm.
Can you book afternoon tea at Claridge's by phone?
No. Afternoon tea is available to book online only.
Is the traditional afternoon tea available at Christmas?
No. From 3 November to 3 January, excluding 25 December, the Festive Afternoon Tea is served exclusively, so the traditional £95 tea cannot be booked during that period.
Where is afternoon tea served at Claridge's?
In The Foyer and Reading Room, the Art Deco space at the centre of the hotel on Brook Street in Mayfair, served on the hotel's jade and white striped china.
Written by Robert J Wills, no. 255 in the guide.
Last checked 5 October 2026 against the venues' own published information. Nobody pays to appear here and we take no bookings.
