I love the Late Shows, we should have them more often. When you get to my age one late night over a weekend is quite enough thank you, so I only had time for Moorbank, Morden Tower, Blackfriars and no plans for tea anywhere! I wandered down Ouseburn wondered where to stop and found myself drifting towards the sparkly new Toffee Factory. It's huge, they must have made a lot of toffee in this town at one time. Several other people were heading that way, including some young men dressed for the 1920s (oooh! they were the Kooky Kitchen!!). Someone spoke into an intercom, a door opened anonymously, and we strode guiltily into the TF. It all felt so naughty! I decided against the tour of the building (sorry building) and headed down to the ground floor, 1920s boys and all. And then I found it, my spiritual tea drinking home for the Late Shows.
A perfectly ordinary meeting room had been transformed into a cross between a speakeasy, Betty's tearooms and the Mad Hatter's tea party. Did I really see a young gentleman drinking from the spout of the teapot? Utilitarian business furniture and vintage mismatched china (cake stands too!) rubbed shoulders. There was bunting, and on stage Lady Koo et al demonstrated in song that the nutritional value of spinach was recognised in the flapper age, along with the comic potential of double entendre.
The cake and the tea were fab and free and the atmosphere was priceless. Where are they playing next?
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