Fortnum & Mason
Department store · St. James's
181 Piccadilly, London W1A 1ER, United Kingdom
Highlights
Gourmet grocer with famous tea, hampers, and afternoon tea
Gourmet grocer with famous tea, hampers, and afternoon tea
"This vast department store and Piccadilly institution has an entire floor devoted to tea, and an ever-enticing food hall filled with fresh fruit, vegetables, meat, fish and crustacea, delicatessen delicacies, baked goods, pantry provisions, and of course their famous hampers. Make it past the lower floors and Fortnum’s delivers the complete spectrum of luxury goods. Their jewellery department in particular hosts the British Fashion Council’s Rock Vault, an initiative that brings together pieces from the most innovative in the industry. There’s also a champagne bar, two restaurants, ice cream parlour and vault for private dinners. Notoriously, Fortnum’s is also simply known as ‘the grocers to the Queen’." - dn&co.
"A historic venue offering a highly civilized parade of delicate sandwiches, glossy pastries, and scones served alongside clouds of clotted cream and preserves and fat pots of tea."
"Taken in the tranquil surrounds of it Diamond Jubilee Tea Salon, Fortnum & Mason’s offering is less a meal, more a clotted cream-enhanced meditation session. They’ve been serving it since 1926, and the formula remains mercifully unchanged: warm scones, perfectly trimmed finger sandwiches (think rare-breed hen’s egg mayo and cress, or cucumber with minted cream cheese) and dinky little cakes, plus something extra from the Cake Carriage. £70" - Emma Hughes
"A 300-year-old Piccadilly department store famed for luxury food and gift offerings, especially biscuit-filled customizable picnic hampers and an upstairs 'Diamond Jubilee' salon that serves afternoon tea. It stocks a range of Prince Charles–branded products made from ingredients sourced at his estate, ran a contest to find a Platinum pudding, and sells curiosities like glace pineapples and glace tomatoes. For the Jubilee it commissioned a DesignBridge graphic of the Imperial State Crown for its packaging; the commemorative tin contains nine themed biscuit varieties and uses imagery (horses, a swan, a corgi/dachshund mix) to present a visual essay on the monarch’s public role, making the presentation as much the attraction as the contents." - Rachel P. Kreiter
"High Tea at Fortnum & Mason In the shadow of Buckingham Palace lies Fortnum & Mason, the department store with a royal warrant famed for its loose-leaf tea, luxury picnic hampers and sweet treats, including an excellent selection of macarons. You can buy all of these inside the store, as well as browse the gentlemen’s department,and cast your eyes up to the spectacular atrium, but the real highlight of a trip here is the afternoon tea, served in a gilded Diamond Jubileee TeaSalon, opened in 2012 for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee. An accompanying piano player sets the tone: at high tea, you can expect a charming display of finger sandwiches, individual pastries and cakesfrom the cake carriage, and scones served with Somerset clotted cream and Fortnum’s lemon curd. The extensive champagne list is also not to be ignored."
