When you can’t eat gluten, enjoying a traditional afternoon tea complete with finger sandwiches, scones, bite-sized cakes, and desserts may seem next to impossible. Happily, there’s a notable option when you’re visiting the afternoon tea capital of the world.
Tucked away on a quiet side street halfway between bustling Piccadilly Circus and the tourist hubbub surrounding Buckingham Palace, the St. James’s Hotel & Club in London offers a wonderful respite for anyone seeking a sublime, gluten-free—or, come to think of it, regular—afternoon tea experience. Plus, if you time it just right, you can pair your tea with a tour of the exquisite Buckingham Palace State Rooms, which are open to visitors on selected dates in the summer months while Queen Elizabeth is on holiday in Scotland. “Exclusive Guided Tours” of the palace have recently popped up on the calendar in parts of December through February, too.
Palace tours are set up so that you can go at your own pace. The self-guided audio headsets include fascinating details about what you’re seeing, along with optional material if you have the time and the desire to hear more. If you look at and listen to everything along the tour, it can easily take more than two hours.
Upon exiting, you’ll find a temporary Garden Café tent on the Palace’s West Terrace that overlooks the lawn and gardens. Tea and snacks are available for purchase there, but the line can be daunting. By booking a reservation at the St. James’s, you’ll have the perfect place to rest and savor your palace experience while enjoying an outstanding—and rare—gluten-free afternoon tea.
And it’s so close! Although the tour exits through a gate at the far end of the palace gardens, it’s only about a 15-minute walk from there to the St. James’s, where a grand Victorian exterior and a friendly, uniformed doorman will greet you.
Once inside, you’ll be ushered into the modern, club-like interior of William’s Bar & Bistro and its fine collection of 20th-century paintings. Named after William Drabble, the current executive chef who earned the hotel’s famous restaurant, Seven Park Place, a Michelin Star in 2011, the lounge has an intimate feel that easily plays host to both business lunches and tête-à-têtes over tea.
Happily, their reputation for serving unmatched cuisine at the St. James’s is carried through to afternoon tea. There are interesting tea offerings, such as the Lychee Red Black tea from China, or Organic Whole Chamomile Flowers from India. The gluten-free fare is remarkably delicious. Four sandwiches—egg salad, ham, cucumber, and salmon—join two freshly baked scones with homemade strawberry jam and clotted cream, and six different bite-sized desserts that change seasonally.
The service is attentive yet unhurried, so you leave refreshed and ready for a new adventure, which, as it turns out, is waiting for you just around the corner. Tea mecca Fortnum and Mason is only a block or so away on Piccadilly. Browsing through a shop that has existed for more than 300 years and is still heavily devoted to all things tea is an unparalleled thrill that will cap an unparalleled day.
