Tea the Thirty-Fifth

My dear, if you could give me a cup of tea to clear my muddle of a head,
I should better understand your affairs.
Charles Dickens

Cedar Court Grand Hotel, York - Saturday, 5th April, 2014

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Tea Takers

Sarah Ryan

Paul Ryan

Olivia Ryan

John Storey

Clare Storey

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An extremely late Easter has meant an unusually long Spring term, and we have finally arrived at the holidays very much ready for a break from school.  Arriving back in York has been joyful as ever, and what better way to mark the start of the long awaited holiday than to take tea.

We were joined for this by John and Clare Storey. John has been a colleague of Paul's at both Sherborne and Ardingly and they seem these days generally to be partners in scurrilousness (scurrility?), and those who know Paul will be aware that he needs very little encouragement in this.

The four adults in the party all being teachers, there was a general aura of holiday relief and an appreciation of the civilised possibilities of grown-up conversation, although Olivia's enthusiastic sociability tempered this appropriately.

The Ardingly Posse:

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Our tea venue for the day was The Cedar Court Grand Hotel, which proudly asserts it credentials as Yorkshire's only five star hotel.  It is an impressive Victorian building and a bold statement of the confidence and style of that era.  With more than a hint of the French Chateau style, it is pleasing to note that it was originally neither a hotel, nor grand residence but the headquarters of the North Eastern Railway Company.

It is certainly very smart and well maintained, and, whilst some of the decor might have been more aligned to modern fashion than to classic hotel chic (a little too much purple quilting in some of the alcoves - that's going to date...), it is a very attractive setting.

Tea was served in a large light dining room, which looked out over the city walls, where crisp white lined table cloths, decent silver milk jugs and attractively restrained white china with a fine blue line about the edge, achieved a suitably serene and conducive setting.

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High standards were maintained when it came to the tea itself.  A good range of teas were on offer and whilst Clare and I opted for classic leaves, Darljeeling in her case and a blend of Ceylon and Assam in mine, there were other options for the more adventurous/fussy. John, having given up caffeine for Lent (and how anyone even contemplates that is entirely beyond me) chose something featuring Hibiscus which is certainly a first for the odyssey, and Paul and Olivia were entirely uncouth and chose caffe latte and hot chocolate respectively.

The service was excellent, very helpful and understanding of our varying sandwich requirements (the poor waiter did quail slightly but manfully took copious notes and by dint of reading back to us his understanding of our specifics, met everyone's desires very adroitly) and providing plain scones at our request.

The fruit scones had an unusual variation in containing cranberry, although Paul reports that he didn't particularly notice anything different about them. The plain scones were very pleasant, perhaps just a little doughy, and I do think that only one scone per person (even though they were reasonably large) is  ungenerous. However, they thoughtfully provided a choice of locally made jams and lemon curd, and a good supply of clotted cream, so the staple requirements were well met.

The cakes were attractive and varied. A very pleasing glossy rectangular chocolate number contained within a surprisingly light mousse and biscuit base. These were accompanied by macarons and blackberry and fig shortbread sables. A rather quirky addition to the cake stand were small choux buns topped with white chocolate - so far, so conventional, but it turned out that they were filled with 'mulled wine flavoured cream' - now this was not unpleasing, in its own way, but distinctly seasonally confusing.

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People at Tea

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Thirty-Fifth Tea - Thirty-Fifth Year

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The City Walls

Being the former railway headquarters the hotel is unsurprisingly close to the station and is situated directly by the city walls, and it was especially pleasing that the dining room looked out on a  picturesque stretch of these.

York's walls are the longest medieval town walls in England, with stonework dating back in some places to the Eleventh Century, and in part built along the route of older Roman fortifications. A circuit around the city of about two and three-quarter miles is still walkable (with just a couple of small gaps where the walls have disappeared), passing the five ancient gates (or 'bars' as they are properly known). The walls are both beautiful and striking in themselves and also afford a wide range of views around the city. They have always been a feature of the city that I have loved and I still get a kick out of walking along sections of them as thoroughfares whenever there is a reasonable opportunity, just as much as Olivia does.

So after tea, with the ostensible reason of needing to get a photograph of the hotel, we took the chance to take in a small section before our more prosaic pavement bound walk home.

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