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The Library at County Hall

4.0 (21 reviews)
Closed • 12:00 pm - 8:00 PM

The Library at County Hall Photos

THE LIBRARY AT COUNTY HALL ATMOSPHERE

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Sherri Z.

5 stars for the view, 4 stars for the tea. The location is perfect with stunning views of Big Ben over the Thames. The tea itself was pretty good with a big assortment of sandwiches and desserts (and a cake shaped like Big Ben!) the tea selection comes in little glass jars you can smell, and both the County Hall mix and earl grey tasted yummy. The service was pretty quick and friendly.

Sasha K.

An afternoon tea in London couldn't be more picturesque than dining at the library at county hall. Lay your eyes on the picture perfect views of Big Ben himself and the stunning London eye to boot. The service is friendly and very accommodating with tea and sandwich top offs. The desserts are so unique with a chocolate mousse shaped like Big Ben. You get the classic tea sandwiches (egg salad, coronation chicken, smoked salmon and cucumber cream cheese) and they supply a tartlet as well with a crispy shell and creamy caramelized onion inside. Typically I prefer plain scones as I like enjoying the flavours of clotted creams and specific jams they provide but this place has a sweet basil and another one with golden raisins. The scones taste nice but could feel a bit much for a non sweet tooth.

Lovely view with afternoon tea.
Merrill O.

Ambiance.... Lovely. View.... Pretty. Afternoon Tea...Mediocre, At Best. Service.... Lackluster. There are much better places in London for afternoon tea. I recommend you try those.

Henry's T.

There is so much rich history to enjoy whilst in London, and there are also many places to enjoy breakfast, but wouldn't it be great if you could enjoy both simultaneously? Well, we discovered that you actually can. "The Library" is located within the London Marriott Hotel County Hall and provides an experience we're not exactly sure you can find elsewhere. This historic building housed the local London government (London County Council) for 64 years (1922-1986). Anyone wanna venture a guess as to what was housed in the space currently occupied by this restaurant? (And with a singular and rousing voice all present responded in unison: a library!) Correct lads and lassies! The bookshelves remain filled with books from that era which the elected representatives would (hopefully) consult during their tenure as public servants. Since we've already established that the atmosphere here is amazing, we should also have a chat about the food and the service. I attempted, but failed, to eat literally everything on the menu and I've included as many pics of the meal options as possible. Everything I had was splendid and I was impressed with not only the food quality, but also the plethora of Vegan options. In addition, every server we interacted with was nothing short of wonderful (our favorite though was Felicia ). As you may have already gathered, we enjoyed breakfast here A LOT during our visit. Suffice it to say that we got to know the service team well enough that hugs were exchanged on several occasions during the fortnight. I'd give "The Library" my highest recommendation. And that's...Henry's Take. #londonbreakfast #historiclondon

Demond S.

What does a Library and a Restaurant have in common? To answer that question, one must visit The Library at London County Hall. The Library, is located within the Marriott at London County Hall. This restaurant Library appearance and charm is fascinating. They offer a fixed menu but the options vary enough to allow you to enjoy different English style breakfast options. I ordered the traditional English style breakfast: egg, sausage, toast, potato, and tomato slice. It looked and tasted like a proper English breakfast. The sausage had the most flavor of the items on the plate. Service was a bit slow as there appeared to be only 2 servers, doubling as host as well. Overall, the experience was good. The views outside to the river and other historical landmarks were enjoyable. Will definitely visit again.

Ashleigh S.

This was such a beautiful experience. The ambiance alone is enough to draw me into this place, it's the cutest library setting with an amazing view of Big Ben. A reservation is highly recommended, they were able to squeeze us in the day of and I was very grateful of that!. We did the bottomless Prosecco with afternoon tea package and it was the greatest experience I could've had while visiting London. Every single thing was delicious and the tea selection was nice and large. Definitely keep this place in mind if you want a luxurious tea experience!

Uma P.

cool spot for afternoon tea. amazing views! excellent and amazing service! you can get tea or coffee so if you don't live tea it's fine but their coffee is just okay, i recommend tea. each person gets sandwiches and desserts of a variety, which were good. i didn't love them all but most were yummy! excellent presentation. the books are real! sit near the window. great for groups or a cute date. it is a little pricey...but what isn't in london. located in a very touristy area as well (in a hotel). but again, we got seated quickly, great ambiance and service and excellent views. it is touristy

Sandwich spread
Heath F.

Top notch! This was the first place my wife and I visited when we got to London. We read on Yelp that the afternoon tea was really good here and we were not disappointed! Gareth met us at our table and recommended a tea unique to The Library and it was out of this world! The scones and accompanying condiments were next level (especially the clotted cream and truffle cream cheese )! The desserts were (the strawberry and basil cheesecake clock face was my favorite! The sandwiches were good, not my favorite things on them, so not truly fair to judge them too harshly (the Mature Cheddar Ploughman's was the best of the five, for me). Overall, outstanding food, service and views of the Thames and London Eye. We enjoyed every minute of our experience!

Enjoyed a very nice tea at the Library at County Hall. The service was excellent. There were many different loose teas to try and a tiered plate of finger sandwiches, scones, and desserts. It was worth the experience. The view was amazing and the setting was beautiful old library.

Desserts
Anna L.

Honestly this place was a mixed bag. It's very pricey and even though my new fiancé and I were celebrating, they almost forgot about us. We got the afternoon tea with champagne and they only poured one glass and forgot about us. All the tables around us had many glasses, but they didn't for ours. Made it not worth it for the additional price. It honestly wasn't great and we left when we could. They were nice with accommodating for dietary restrictions, but would not come again. We were younger than the rest of the crowd there, so maybe that's why. Just made us both very uncomfortable.

Full spread of afternoon tea

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3 years ago

Delicious food and tea. The environment is elegant with a beautiful view of London. Highly recommend.

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Review Highlights - The Library at County Hall

“The ambiance alone is enough to draw me into this place, it's the cutest library setting with an amazing view of Big Ben.”

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Victorian Afternoon Tea - Victoria and Albert Musuem

Victorian Afternoon Tea - Victoria and Albert Musuem

4.5(2 reviews)
2.4 mi•Knightsbridge

Enjoyed the afternoon tea here. First, pls make reservation online in advance. They do it by…read moreshifts/rounds. I failed to book 3pm so have to wait till 5:30pm. Then it took some time to find the right venue. Need to go through the door in the middle of sculpture exhibition hall, across the garden, enter the other building door. Do not get confused by many other food choices (coffee, hot meals, cakes or others). It's on the left side of entrance with reception table for you to check in. There are 3 options, depending on whether you need to celebrate anything, with price varying at £30, £35 and £38. You will get 5 pieces of sandwiches, 5 pieces of sweat and the your choice of tea. I chose traditional one, English breakfast with milk and sugar.

High Tea in the William Morris Room was a wonderful experience. The service was lovely and…read moreunhurried. There was a choice of tea or proseco or both to go along with the savory and sweet tea sandwiches. It was pricey, 30pounds, but I wanted to splurge a little. Caution, I emailed my request for reservation twice, they never got it. We had to wait until some other party who had a reservation did not show up for 45 minutes after their appointed time. Worth the wait. Make sure you double check your reservation. There were empty tables, but they do not take walk ins as there is only a certain amount of food prepared depending on reservations. The museum was fun to walk around after tea.

Photos
Victorian Afternoon Tea - Victoria and Albert Musuem
Victorian Afternoon Tea - Victoria and Albert Musuem - Menu

Menu

Victorian Afternoon Tea - Victoria and Albert Musuem

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Fortnum and Mason: Diamond Jubilee Tea Salon - Savory on the left and traditional on the right

Fortnum and Mason: Diamond Jubilee Tea Salon

4.2(427 reviews)
0.9 mi•Mayfair
•££££

I will admit up front that I had little knowledge of Fortnum & Mason before my most recent trip to…read moreLondon. I had done high tea before on a previous trip, and mentioned to one of my friends I would like to do it again. She is borderline obsessed with Fortnum & Mason so we decided to do high tea there. The tea room is fittingly at the very top of the building. Below are different floors that vary from a butcher's shop, to being filled with cookies and tea, and then having dinnerware. The Jubilee Tea Salon is exactly what you would think given its location. White tablecloths, well dressed servers, steaming pots of tea, and overflowing towers of miniature sandwiches and baked goods. The room is bright and well lit, and just had an airiness to it that I liked. We went all out and it was worth it for us. The context is that both myself and my friend Karin are big tea drinkers. I'm sure we could have found a similar high team for a cheaper price, but I really enjoyed it overall. If you aren't really into the high tea experience but just are doing it to check it off your bucket list, consider another spot. If you want to see what all of the fuss is though this is an excellent spot.

Lessons learned. First, it was noisy! I did not count the tables, but there appeared to be more…read morethan 70. With most of them were occupied, I had trouble hearing my wife across our table. Second, if you order "still water" they will bring you still water---in a commercial bottle and charge you £5.95 ($7.88 on 27 SEPT 2026). If you want plain water, order "tap water". Third, our waiter not mention that additional sandwiches and scones were included at no extra charge. We learned that only after we left, so we had been reluctant to ask for more. Finally, F&M adds a 12.5% service charge to the bill. In our case that was £22.49 ($29.80 for the two of us). That's OK, just know that they will add the service charge. Our bill for high tea with still water and sparking water totaled £202.39 ($268). Would I recommend it? The food was good and generally attractive, but it did not feel special enough to justify the $268 price. Perhaps it is worth considering for a very special occasion, preferably when F&M is less busy. Otherwise, London has other appealing options at a lower price.

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Fortnum and Mason: Diamond Jubilee Tea Salon - Waiting area for Tea Parlor

Waiting area for Tea Parlor

Fortnum and Mason: Diamond Jubilee Tea Salon
Fortnum and Mason: Diamond Jubilee Tea Salon - Water.

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Water.

Little Cottage Tea Room

Little Cottage Tea Room

5.0(1 review)
44.9 mi

Kind of ashamed I didn't review this place last year when we visited. So last year we were on our…read morehoneymoon and my wife's birthday was during our trip. All she wanted for her birthday was a nice afternoon tea. We left London and were basically driving sort of toward the coast just stopping wherever we found a tea shop. Unfortunately, every tea shop we hit was closed because of some bank holiday we were unaware of. Except one! We got to Glynde, parked outside this tea shop, went in, and found a large sign that said "cash only". OMG this wasn't our day. We had to go to the next town over to use the ATM which sucked, but we weren't in any hurry and we really liked the look and feel here. We came back, got seated, opened the menu, and right at the top it said afternoon tea available with reservation only. We were devastated. I saw the look in my wife's eye and there was no way I was not getting her this afternoon tea! I approached the woman working and explained our situation and before I could even fight for the experience she told me not to worry, she would get us taken care of. BLESS HER! We had a wonderful visit and would recommend the experience to everyone in the area. Fast forward to this year. I knew how much my wife loved that visit and decided to reach out and ask if they had any ideas of what I could get her for her birthday this year. Joanne reached back out with an amazing gift and shipped it to us and it amazingly arrived on her birthday! She also included a nice birthday card for her! Amazing people that went out of their way twice to make us happy. They will forever be apart of our story and hopefully we have the chance to return soon! Thank you!!!

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Little Cottage Tea Room
Little Cottage Tea Room

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The Rose Lounge - Variety of tea sandwiches

The Rose Lounge

4.3(15 reviews)
0.7 mi•St James's
•£££

The whole experience of the Phantom of the Opera tea was amazing. The setting was exactly what you…read morewould want for a traditional English tea. The service was amazing and attentive. The food was delicious. The tea and cocktail were perfect. I would gladly do this again. If you are a fan of Phantom of the Opera the place was perfectly enhanced with props from the play. If you are not a fan the experience is still amazing!

I hate to say it, but this was one of the biggest wastes of money I've ever experienced on…read morevacation. We found The Rose Lounge's Phantom of the Opera Afternoon Tea experience to be overpriced, overindulgent, and to have intentionally slow service, drug out for HOURS. We booked this experience the afternoon we arrived in London, thinking that it would be a great way to keep ourselves entertained while we fought off the jet lag. Unfortunately, it was quite the opposite as this could've put me to sleep. I believe our reservation was around 1 PM and we didn't leave until about 4. The first course was a few different sandwiches, which came with one of each for both of us. One or two of them were good, but a few were inedible in my opinion. Knowing how many more courses we had coming, we decided not to finish our sandwiches, which the wait staff commented on rudely. By the final course, we had been there for so long, and were so full, that we asked them to package it up to go. I'm not sure if this is common practice, but I had to sign a waiver that the restaurant wasn't liable if I didn't store them properly. Overall, it is really beautiful in here for a single cup of tea, but I would save my money and skip the overpriced experience. The Rose Lounge is easy to find, and staff at Sofitel St. James was really lovely in pointing us in the right direction!

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The Rose Lounge - Inside

Inside

The Rose Lounge - Sweets

Sweets

The Rose Lounge

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The Ivy - Squid

The Ivy

4.3(79 reviews)
0.8 mi•Westminster
•££

Wow, what a great spot in London! The Ivy has been around since 1917 and is in walking distance…read morefrom Westminster Cathedral, Buckingham Palace, and Big Ben! The restaurant itself is decorated with a classy-whimsical taste, that feels fun and regal at the same time. If you come, ask to be seated in the parlor terrace area. Rose colored decor mixed with marble. Very cool. The staff is extremely professional, dressed in green sport jackets and very attentive. They bring the food out fast! But it's anything but fast food. I had the absolute gorgeous Massaman Duck Curry. It was mouth watering with tons of flavor. I will be craving this for some time. For desert, I had the sticky toffee pudding which was delightful. Highly recommend The Ivy if you're in central London.

The most expensive dinner we had this week with the weakest hospitality and worst timing. SUPER…read moredisappointing. It took 25 mins to place our drink order- then about 30 more mins to get our food, after placing that order. Then we had to wait to place a dessert order. Then we had to wait for the check. One word for this comes to mind...'waiting'. We found ourselves waiting every step of the way for our waiter to acknowledge us. Honestly I can forgive A LOT if people are nice but that wasn't the case with our server. Low energy, not very warm and welcoming and slow. Actually to be fair, I got a smile from the busboy when I was on my way to the restroom- perhaps the 2 should switch roles if the restaurant is looking for repeat visits or nice reviews. Btw- the manager...not exactly sure what he was doing. One last thing, I've had sea bass in many restaurants and never had anyone leave the skin on-Just not what I expected. This restaurant gets 2 thumbs down for me. Go to Bills right around the corner - save some money - and get a smile from the staff and a nice greeting.

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The Ivy - Upstairs bar

Upstairs bar

The Ivy
The Ivy - Private dining room

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Private dining room

The Library at County Hall - british - Updated October 2026

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