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| There's something hypnotic about the word 'tea' Dorothy L Sayers - Gaudy Night |
St Ermin's Hotel, Caxton Street, Westminster - Saturday 28th June 2014
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Tea Takers
Paul Ryan
Sarah Ryan
Olivia Ryan
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I know it might seem that it has been a while since a 'tea' has been taken on the odyssey, but as we approach these final few occasions we have had to be much more discriminating - saving these events for special occasions and opportunities. The 28th June this year was always bound to be one of these, being, as it was, Paul's 40th birthday. Very important, then, to have a celebratory tea. It featured as part of an exciting London day of activity, starting with a trip up to the top of The Shard, to enjoy the extraordinary views over the city.
Then a quick call in to collect our theatre tickets before heading across St James's Park for tea. A slight delay in proceedings was caused by the fact that London's Gay Pride march was taking place at that very moment, and getting across Trafalgar Square and Pall Mall became a much more complicated and time consuming activity than usual. That excitement over, we had a very pleasing stroll across the park to tea.
I found the St Ermin's on the internet looking for somewhere nice to take tea in the Westminster area as this had been an important place to Paul, having had his schooling first at Westminster Cathedral Choir School and then at Westminster School. It looked very pleasing and very much lived up to this appearance. It also turned out that Paul had been there before, taken by one of his teachers - he recognised the entrance - and so it turned out serendiptiously to have established links, which we like to find on the odyssey.
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The conversion into a hotel was overseen by theatrical designer J.P. Briggs which helps to explain the lavish and dramatic styling of many of its rooms.
During the Second World War it was the headquarters of MI6 and, in 1940, the place where Churchill established the Special Operations Executive which ran from one floor of the hotel for the rest of the war. Less salubriously, it was later a place where Burgess, Philby and MacLean liaised with Russian agents.
Who would not like such a site of intrigue and adventure as a place for tea?
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To reach the 'tea lounge' on the lobby mezzanine you have to climb the elaborate twisting white staircase which adds a great deal to the drama of the event. We found at the top a interesting combination of traditional decor suited to the Queen Anne revival styling of the building, with more modern furnishings, which, as a deliberately eclectic statement, works very well.
They have gone for the deliberately quirky, simultaneously vintage and modern, pastel theme in both the presentation and the tea itself, but this is done confidently and without going completely over the top, and so it works.
Alongside the striking pink and blue Victorian/Cath Kidston-esque fusion crockery, tea is served in a intriguing range of ways from the traditional wire basket and napkin for the scones to a very striking square shelved cake stand - it cannot be quite adequately described so see next illustration... We had rather more sombre white and dark brown stands but on a neighbouring table was a striking yellow version of the same, and a similarly striking colouring to some of the cakes, did give a rather psychedelic feel to the proceedings (together with the quirky mix of styles it was all rather Alice in Wonderland-ish)
This was a very highly performing tea. A nice range of fresh sandwiches, attractive cakes and some most pleasing scones. Alongside the traditional plain (applauded for both quality and quantity by Olivia and myself) there were also Earl Grey and raisin (which Paul enjoyed) and an unusual addition the orange scone. Now, I was dubious about this when I saw it on the menu but actually it was delightful - just a hint of orange zest - very fine with heaps of clotted cream.
Refined scone enjoyment:
I would particularly recommend the lemon macaron, but there were also glossy chocolate truffles, elaborate meringue pies and pleasingly compact walnut cakes. A very enjoyable spread indeed and the birthday boy seemed not displeased.
Olivia and I were both a little disappointed that the jam that came with the tea was blackcurrant (and those avid followers of this blog will already know of my feelings on this matter), so we asked the very obliging waitress if they might have any other jam available. A look of discomfort darkened her face 'We do have strawberry' [pause, voice drops significantly in volume] 'but it is not...... homemade'. We reassured her that this would not be any impediment to our enjoyment nor to our judgement of the establishment and enjoyed our shop-bought jam very much when a generous potful was brought to the table.
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Thirty-Eighth Tea - Thirty-Eighth Year
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Happy Birthday, Paul!
Using this blog to pay tribute to a range of very important people in my life has been one of its most enjoyable features for me and I think it has been fairly clear already from quite a lot of occasions how essential a part of my life Paul is. He won't thank me for being soppy but I am going to say this much: thoughtful, loving, funny, intelligent, dedicated, a person of enormous decency and integrity, he is, without question, the love of my life, my best friend and a part of everything that I am, and I am so grateful to him for everything he is and does. There, I've broadcast that to the world now, Mr Ryan - so ner.
We finished our celebratory day with Mass at Westminster Cathedral - one of Paul's most important places - and then a trip to the theatre to see the utterly hilarious 'Jeeves and Wooster - Perfect Nonsense' - laughing, in my case, until I wept, on several occasions. A very lovely family day celebrating our favourite chap.
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