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Post by Cardinal Pirelli on Jan 20, 2019 18:22:12 GMT
I recall something about it being a perk of attending a matinee, thus referred to as “matinee tea’. A quick google turns up this. “Can you still get afternoon tea brought to your seat?" asks my elegant Park Avenue friend. She wants to know whether a seasonal visit to London's Theatreland will be worth her while, and she is right to be wary. However good the show, a visit to one of London's crumbling, dank and leaky West End theatres is an expensive and often downright shabby experience. Matinee tea is a distant memory from an era when the comfort of bums on seats was as important as the revenue they brought in.” www.standard.co.uk/go/london/theatre/nice-show-shabby-theatre-7293964.htmland “Another mid-20th-century pleasure was the matinée tea-tray, passed along the aisle by usherettes: neatly laid trays of hot tea and biscuits, the perfect accompaniment to an afternoon's entertainment.” www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/9737133/Why-the-drama-about-munching-through-a-play.html
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Post by TallPaul on Jan 20, 2019 18:26:24 GMT
I think we had a previous thread on this very topic last year (or maybe it was just a few posts). If anyone knows more, it will be our good friend tonyloco.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 20, 2019 18:37:52 GMT
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Post by BurlyBeaR on Jan 20, 2019 18:55:07 GMT
Merged.
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Post by tmesis on Jan 20, 2019 19:15:02 GMT
Thanks tonyloco all is now clear after reading your post. But was it just a West End thing or did it extend to the provinces?
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Post by Backdrifter on Jan 20, 2019 22:04:31 GMT
I like an afternoon tea, I've had some good ones, but while I have a very sweet tooth the teas I've had have all leaned too heavily to the cakes and scones. As I say, I enjoy them, but always go away feeling there should've been more sandwiches and other savoury stuff. I do love me some little triangle sandwiches.
For a sweet-only tea, a really good cream tea can be the business. The best I ever had was at Burncoose Farm on the Lizard Peninsula.
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Post by eatbigsea on Jan 21, 2019 9:21:45 GMT
Fortnum and Mason offer a savoury tea where the scones are savoury and the fancies (patisserie equivalent) are savoury as well. You still get cake at the end. It’s my favourite afternoon tea anywhere.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 21, 2019 13:01:42 GMT
My favourite afternoon tea is at The Fourteas in Stratford. I love that place!
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Post by Backdrifter on Jan 21, 2019 13:52:31 GMT
Fortnum and Mason offer a savoury tea where the scones are savoury and the fancies (patisserie equivalent) are savoury as well. You still get cake at the end. It’s my favourite afternoon tea anywhere. Thanks for the tip, that sounds more my thing, as long as there's still sweet stuff. I'll have to look into it. Then, possibly, bite into it.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 21, 2019 14:09:14 GMT
Savoury afternoon tea? That's so wrong. Like Keanu Reeves in 'Dracula' or Prince Philip in 'Driving School' or Alexandra Burke in . . well anything.
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Post by emsworthian on Jan 21, 2019 14:20:27 GMT
Savoury afternoon tea? That's so wrong. Like Keanu Reeves in 'Dracula' or Prince Philip in 'Driving School' or Alexandra Burke in . . well anything.
Have you not heard of a "cricket tea"? (I'll admit I hadn't until last year). It involves sarnies and cakes plus savouries such as sausage rolls, pork pie, scotch eggs, etc.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 21, 2019 14:24:52 GMT
Savoury afternoon tea? That's so wrong. Like Keanu Reeves in 'Dracula' or Prince Philip in 'Driving School' or Alexandra Burke in . . well anything.
Have you not heard of a "cricket tea"? (I'll admit I hadn't until last year). It involves sarnies and cakes plus savouries such as sausage rolls, pork pie, scotch eggs, etc.
I have not and to be perfectly frank, if anyone served me an afternoon tea that scrimped on cake in favour of savouries, I'd have them pistol whipped and forced to sit through 'Stephen Ward'.
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Post by Dawnstar on Jan 21, 2019 20:16:18 GMT
I had been trying to work out how on earth people managed to have tea in the dark - pouring out hot liquid when unable to see what you are doing seems most unsafe! However I am relieved to find, looking back to @tonoloco's post on the first page, that matinee teas were served in the interval rather than during the performance.
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Post by Backdrifter on Jan 21, 2019 23:18:50 GMT
I am relieved to find that matinee teas were served in the interval rather than during the performance. Can you imagine, during the performance?! A tense, quiet, moodily lit scene accompanied by the gurgling, clinking and clanking of teapots, cutlery and crockery, mutterings about milk, sugar, sandwich fillings, butter and jam, the screams and stumbling footsteps of patrons splashed with hot tea running for the exits... Then again it could liven up a dull production.
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Post by lynette on Jan 21, 2019 23:20:32 GMT
I'd love a cuppa during an interval, brought to my seat. Does any theatre offer this?
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Post by BurlyBeaR on Jan 22, 2019 8:30:48 GMT
Have you not heard of a "cricket tea"? (I'll admit I hadn't until last year). It involves sarnies and cakes plus savouries such as sausage rolls, pork pie, scotch eggs, etc.
I have not and to be perfectly frank, if anyone served me an afternoon tea that scrimped on cake in favour of savouries, I'd have them pistol whipped and forced to sit through 'Stephen Ward'. Poor thing, you’ve obviously never been Oop North at teatime ”mam can we ‘ave chips for us tea?” ”no we bloody can’t, it’s nuggets and beans”
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Post by Deleted on Jan 22, 2019 9:03:44 GMT
I have not and to be perfectly frank, if anyone served me an afternoon tea that scrimped on cake in favour of savouries, I'd have them pistol whipped and forced to sit through 'Stephen Ward'. Poor thing, you’ve obviously never been Oop North at teatime ”mam can we ‘ave chips for us tea?” ”no we bloody can’t, it’s nuggets and beans” Oh I never go to The North. Malaria jabs always make me feel really unwell.
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Post by showgirl on Jan 22, 2019 9:15:01 GMT
So is that just malaria jabs, @ryan, or jabs in general? A rather unfortunate limitation if the latter. Still, a good excuse to go and lie down, I suppose.
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Post by lynette on Jan 22, 2019 15:15:25 GMT
Yes, dinner midday and tea, a meal, at six. Proper. Had to change when I came down south didn’t I?
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Post by BurlyBeaR on Jan 22, 2019 15:29:26 GMT
Yes, dinner midday and tea, a meal, at six. Proper. Had to change when I came down south didn’t I? Did you manage to wean yourself off the chicken nuggets aswell? I bet it’s filet mignon every night round at chez lynette these days?
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Post by lynette on Jan 22, 2019 17:22:08 GMT
Nah, we do cornflake coated with sprinkle of paprika chicken pieces, oven baked, not fried. Complete recipe available on request.
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Post by peggs on Jan 22, 2019 18:03:35 GMT
Yes, dinner midday and tea, a meal, at six. Proper. Had to change when I came down south didn’t I? Is 'tea' as your evening meal northern then? I say tea and then am aware that everyone else seems to be saying dinner and wonder why I say it. I live in the south but did uni in the north and picked up some odd pronounciations (odd as in I'll do one northern version in the middle of a seemingly southern sentence rather than I consider northern pronounciations odd) so maybe it was there?
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Post by Deleted on Jan 22, 2019 19:07:22 GMT
Yes, dinner midday and tea, a meal, at six. Proper. Had to change when I came down south didn’t I? Is 'tea' as your evening meal northern then? I say tea and then am aware that everyone else seems to be saying dinner and wonder why I say it. I live in the south but did uni in the north and picked up some odd pronounciations (odd as in I'll do one northern version in the middle of a seemingly southern sentence rather than I consider northern pronounciations odd) so maybe it was there? We say 'Tea' in (South) Wales as well which may also be because we're terribly common. I had to learn 'Dinner' when I was at a reet posh Uni.
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Post by lou105 on Jan 22, 2019 19:25:21 GMT
My daughter's poshest friend used to invite her to play after school and stay for supper, meaning tea. Supper, to me, was milk and biscuits before bed.
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Post by BurlyBeaR on Jan 22, 2019 19:48:24 GMT
Breakfast Dinner Tea Supper
I’m sure some misguided people from up here have tried to go for tea at a posh hotel. I imagine it ended in disaster.
“What type of tea would Modom prefer?” “I’ll have a Cornish pasty and chips on a bread cake and Jade-Marie likes alphabetti-spaghetti. (Shouts) JADE DO YOU WANT LETTERS?” “I meant the type of tea Modom, the drink” “Typhoon?”
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Post by emsworthian on Jan 22, 2019 20:24:07 GMT
The best afternoon tea I had was when I was invited to the House of Lords restaurant. It made me decide that it was worth accepting a peerage to be able to have afternoon tea there. Strangely, I have yet to be offered a peerage.
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Post by BoOverall on Jan 22, 2019 20:30:38 GMT
Afternoon Tea is one of my favourite “treat meals”, love it and it always has a sense of occasion. The full works: good sandwiches, warm scones with loads of clotted cream and jam (cream first, then jam 😀), a few savoury mini treats, and a selection of cakes and pastries, And good tea to wash it all down.
Fabulous!
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Post by peggs on Jan 22, 2019 21:08:14 GMT
Is 'tea' as your evening meal northern then? I say tea and then am aware that everyone else seems to be saying dinner and wonder why I say it. I live in the south but did uni in the north and picked up some odd pronounciations (odd as in I'll do one northern version in the middle of a seemingly southern sentence rather than I consider northern pronounciations odd) so maybe it was there? We say 'Tea' in (South) Wales as well which may also be because we're terribly common. I had to learn 'Dinner' when I was at a reet posh Uni. My sister says dinner and every time I hear it I feel a little bit like an oik. And yes when we babysat for posh kids when we were younger they had supper, mind you I was completely thrown by talk of prep when a fellow brownie went to private school, it was like people spoke a whole nother language.
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Post by The Matthew on Jan 22, 2019 21:29:26 GMT
For me dinner has always been the largest meal of the day no matter what the time. If it's in the evening then it's preceded by lunch; if it's in the middle of the day it's followed by tea. Except that most of the time I only have two meals a day and one of them's breakfast so it's moot. My father was northern and my mother was southern and I grew up kind of in the middle so I have no idea what's what now.
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Post by tonyloco on Feb 3, 2019 17:37:43 GMT
Here is a notice that appeared in the programme for The New Moon at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, in 1929 regarding refreshments. Note that the interval was a mere 12 minutes. The programme cost three pence in old money.
I will separately post the notice from the programme for South Pacific at the same theatre in 1951 because I can't manage to get both images onto the same post!
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