Review: Afternoon Tea at St Paul's Cathedral

Its not often that you go for Afternoon Tea and take more photos of the surroundings than the food itself. Unless, you go to St Paul's Cathedral where the views are breathtaking. 

The Cathedral sits up on the highest point of the City of London, on the top of Ludgate Hill. St Paul's as we see it today is the product of a complete rebuild to its 17th Century Baroque style by Sir Christopher Wren after the Great Fire of London. 

Until the '60's, St Paul's was the highest building in London's skyline, reaching a whopping 365 feet and is still, to this day, one of the highest domes in the world.

When you step inside, look up. An interior dome, archways and mosaics span across the whole site. Everywhere you turn there's something else to look at. 

Down in the crypt you'll find more than 200 memorials and crypts including the Duke of Wellington, Lord Nelson, Alexander Fleming and Florence Nightingale. 

As you stroll around feeling like you're in the middle of Hogwarts, you'll find in the south-west bell tower you really are. This is the staircase featured in the Prisoner of Azkaban. 

Being super fans, both Katy and I squealed a little and took our time photographing absolutely every single step to savour every moment of being so close to Harry and co. 

And, after all that exploring you'll need to take a seat beneath the cathedral, collect your thoughts and enjoy finger sandwiches and scones.

In the restaurant, head chef Chris Terry uses local suppliers and seasonal produce in his menu; breakfast, mains, sharing platters and afternoon tea. 

A selection of finger sandwiches including smoked salmon, egg & cress, cucumber & cream cheese and ham & mustard. Freshly baked scones with Cornish clotted cream and chef's homemade rhubarb jam. 

And for sweets, lemon meringue pie, chocolate delice, rhubarb & ginger cheesecake and my favourite, cherry bakewell battenberg. 

Plenty of tea and English sparkling wine with russet apple.

I think chef knew we were about to embark on some more exploring and needed some fuel for the road!

30-ish feet above ground, now feeling like a giant, we set off to explore the cathedral from above. See the ground here...

...and the window in the ceiling?

Just a 'few' steps and now we were on top of the cathedral, almost...

Climbing 300-ish steps up, the top of St Paul's Dome offers spectacular views of London's skyline. Definitely worth it. 

And, if you want to experience even more of what St Paul's has to offer, don't miss the 5pm choral Evensong. Pretty impressive how a seemingly small choir can fill the entire cathedral.

Afternoon Tea is served in the cathedral restaurant Monday to Saturday, 3.00pm - 4.15pm. For £21.25 you'll get the full tea with sparkling wine, just £15.95 without or £9.95 for cream tea.

Buy tickets and book online here.

Huge thanks to the lovely Ed from the press team who spent the day before moving house giving us lady bloggers an expert guided tour.