On a Sunday you can walk into Fortnum & Mason at 11.30am and you cannot buy anything until midday.
The store publishes that half hour as browsing only. It is the Sunday trading rules made visible, and Fortnum’s is one of the few shops in London honest enough to print it rather than simply opening the doors late and letting people wonder why the tills are shut.
Use it rather than resent it. Half an hour in that food hall with nobody able to queue is the best thirty minutes of the week in there.
The hours
Monday to Saturday: 10am to 8pm.
Sunday: midday to 6pm, with browsing only from 11.30am.
The 8pm weekday close is later than most of Piccadilly and makes the food hall a genuine after-work stop rather than a lunchtime one.
The five places to eat, and where each one is
This is the part people get wrong, because they arrive wanting afternoon tea and end up in whichever room has a table. The Piccadilly store has five, on five different floors.
The Diamond Jubilee Tea Salon, fourth floor. The afternoon tea, and the one that needs booking furthest ahead. Our afternoon tea page covers how it compares on price with the hotel rooms.
The Parlour, first floor. Ice cream, coffee, hot chocolate and the Welsh rarebit, which is the dish regulars actually come for. The least formal of the five.
The Wine Bar and Restaurant, lower ground. Tucked inside the food hall itself, with a list built on well known growers. The one most people walk past without noticing.
3’6 Bar, third floor. A daytime working spot that turns into a cocktail bar in the evening, with a speakeasy feel.
45 Jermyn St. is the fifth and it is not in the building. It is a separate dining room and bar around the corner in St James’s. Our Jermyn Street page covers that road.
The food hall
The lower ground floor is the reason the shop has the reputation, and it is free to walk around. Tea, preserves, biscuits, hampers and the rest of it, in a room designed to be looked at.
If you are buying one thing, the hampers are what Fortnum’s is known for and the tea is what it is actually best at.
Since 1707
Fortnum & Mason has traded at 181 Piccadilly since 1707, which makes it older than almost every institution around it and a good deal older than the United Kingdom in its current form.
The store describes food and drink, joy-giving things and service as the order of the day, which is marketing, but the 1707 is not.
The other branches
Two outposts worth knowing about, because both solve a different problem.
The Royal Exchange, in the City, has a bar and restaurant in the building’s central courtyard, with a personal shopping service offered to diners. It is the one to use if you work in the City and do not want Piccadilly at lunchtime.
Bicester Village, in Oxfordshire, has a Fortnum’s unit. Our Bicester Village page covers the trip.
How to plan it
Sunday: arrive at 11.30 and browse, then buy from midday with the room still half empty.
Afternoon tea: the Diamond Jubilee Tea Salon, fourth floor, booked well ahead.
After work: any weekday until 8pm, which is later than most of Piccadilly.
Just looking: the lower ground food hall, which costs nothing and is the best room in the building.
Afternoon tea and shopping in London cover the wider picture.
Fortnum & Mason
- Address
- 181 Piccadilly, London W1A 1ER
- Nearest
- Piccadilly Circus or Green Park
- Hours
- Monday to Saturday 10am to 8pm. Sunday midday to 6pm, with browsing only from 11.30am
- Booking
- None to visit. The restaurants and the Diamond Jubilee Tea Salon are booked separately
- Price
- Free to enter
- Standing
- Trading at 181 Piccadilly since 1707
How to get in
Five restaurants and bars at Piccadilly: the Diamond Jubilee Tea Salon on the fourth floor, 3’6 Bar on the third, The Parlour on the first, the Wine Bar and Restaurant on the lower ground inside the food hall, and 45 Jermyn St. around the corner in St James’s.
Where to go next
Afternoon tea in London compares the Diamond Jubilee Tea Salon with the hotel rooms on price.
Jermyn Street covers 45 Jermyn St. and the road it is on, and Selfridges is the other end of the department store question.
Questions we get asked
What time does Fortnum and Mason open?
10am to 8pm Monday to Saturday, and midday to 6pm on Sunday. On Sunday the doors open at 11.30am for browsing only, so you can go in half an hour before you are able to buy anything.
Can you buy things at Fortnum and Mason on a Sunday morning?
Not before midday. The store opens at 11.30am on Sunday for browsing only and begins selling at 12pm, which is the Sunday trading rules applied to a large shop. It is a good half hour to look around with no queues.
How many restaurants are there in Fortnum and Mason?
Five, on five different floors. The Diamond Jubilee Tea Salon on the fourth floor for afternoon tea, 3'6 Bar on the third, The Parlour on the first for ice cream and Welsh rarebit, the Wine Bar and Restaurant on the lower ground inside the food hall, and 45 Jermyn St. around the corner in St James's.
How old is Fortnum and Mason?
It has traded at 181 Piccadilly since 1707, which makes it older than most of the institutions around it.
Where is the Fortnum and Mason food hall?
On the lower ground floor of the Piccadilly store. It is free to walk around, and the Wine Bar and Restaurant sits inside it.
Written by Robert J Wills, no. 233 in the guide.
Last checked 5 October 2026 against the venues' own published information. Nobody pays to appear here and we take no bookings.
