Soho pub looks to the future with ‘vintage’ tea room - Coach and Horses set to hold 'psychic' readings

Published: 10 December 2010
by JOSH LOEB

A FAMOUS Westminster pub is to hold “psychic” tea leaf readings in its newly opened vintage tea room, writes Josh Loeb.

Since September the Coach & Horses – which is renowned for its association with Private Eye and famously thirsty columnist Jeffrey Bernard – has been home to a “secret” room where patrons can practise the long-lost art of taking afternoon tea.

Next Friday and Saturday it will host  an event with “clairvoyant” Amber Garnet, whose talents include tarot, palm reading and tea leaf reading.

Pub owner Alastair Choat said he hoped the event would promote the room, which was inspired by his passion for antiques.

“My wife and I are very into old-fashioned crockery,” he said.  “We visited various tea rooms and there was nothing that was quite what we wanted. They were basically just cafés, although some effort had gone into them, and the hotels that do high tea are hugely expensive. You sit there and it’s all a bit too stiff and scary. We felt we could do something with this room during the afternoon that was totally dedicated to tea.”

There are 16 different types of tea are available, including a variety “only picked on two days of the year at dawn by women”, and all are sourced from a trader in London’s traditional tea district, Bermondsey.

Staff wear clothes from yesteryear and songs by Glenn Miller and Bing Crosby crackle from a record player. 

Mr Choat said: “A lot of care and attention is placed on coffee and having these really good baristas who make patterns in the froth, and they’re all in competition. 

“People don’t make that sort of effort with tea and yet there is a real art to it.” 

* Soho’s Secret Tea Room, Upstairs at the Coach & Horses, 29 Greek Street, W1. Monday-Saturday 3pm-6pm and on Sundays from 3-6pm. 020 7437 5920. 
Tea leaf reading will take place on December 17 and 18 from 2pm-6pm. 
Must be booked in advance via teas@sohossecret tearoom.co.uk