This is my last post of 2016 and it’s a wonderfully festive one, remember Christmas lasts until the epiphany on the 6th of Jan!
I treated Mrs B to a pre-Christmas London jaunt and booked a Christmas afternoon tea at Sketch London. I had read so much about this place from other bloggers that I thought it would make a perfect Christmas gift.
Discreetly placed on Conduit Street in the heart of London we entered a winter wonderland…
The smell of pine and the Christmas music set a magical scene.
Once in the building and through the entrance hall we entered a room called the glade…
where guests sat chatting in a type of enchanted forest.
We then took a right and into the room where I had booked the surprise.
Check out how pink this is….
isn’t it beautiful?
The room is designed by artist David Shrigley, the walls are covered in his artwork…
he also designed the tableware.
I had booked Sketch’s Night Before Christmas champagne afternoon tea which was poured by a ballerina into classic champagne saucers….
This lady was so elegant and graceful. All the staff at Sketch made the experience wonderful.
The Christmas afternoon tea included entertainment and we found ourselves in front row seats to some Christmas gospel singing.
Then came our tea,
It was staked high with glorious treats.
The bottom tier, naturally had the sandwiches which ranged of cornfed coronation chicken, American pumpernickel bread, tomato chutney and turnip, black truffle croque-monsieur, egg mayonaise, quail egg caviar and Scottish smoked salmon and Jacobs tarragon cream. My absolute favourite was the croque-monsieur closely followed by the pumpernickel bread.
As we moved up the tier we had a walnut tart, mandarin and cinnamon cheesecake, vanilla and pistachio battenberg cake, chocolate and caramel gateau and malabar marshmallow. The walnut tart was delicious!
Any good afternoon tea will always have scones and this was no different, they came wrapped up warm and snug in their blanket.
We also had two choices from the trolley of Bûche de Noël (Yule Log). One was chocolate and blackcurrant the other raspberry and mascarpone. I foolishly forgot to photograph this but they were the lightest yule logs I had ever tasted.
You should really take your time over your afternoon tea as it is bottomless so you can re-order your favourites!
If you ever visit Sketch you have to visit the toilets, they are apparently the most instagramed in the UK, and you can see why.
For Christmas they had also turned them in a Winter Wonderland…
There is even a cocktail bar in there.
As you climb up the stairs you are greeted by a type of space age scene.
in winter…
Each toilet is in its own egg like pod, where classic Christmas tunes played out. It has to one of the most imaginative bathrooms I’ve ever visited.
To finish a wonderful afternoon in one of the most unique settings we indulged in a few of their cocktails a perfect ending don’t you think?
Although the Christmas wonderland is drawing to a close, Sketch is a magical place all year round and is a great idea for any birthday or special occasion you might have coming up!
So that leaves me to say I wish you all a happy and healthy New Year and I’ll see you in 2017!
eats2treats 