I only know that you may lie
Day long and watch the Cambridge sky,
And, flower-lulled in sleepy grass,
Hear the cool lapse of hours pass,
Until the centuries blend and blur
In Grantchester, in Grantchester.…
...Stands the church clock at ten to three? And is there honey still for tea?

From 'The Old Vicarage, Grantchester' by Rupert Brooke (1887-1915)


As you can tell from this unusual start to a review (and not a pun in sight...) this is an unusual place. It's sooo much more than just a tea shop. Sorry, I hate it when people add extra o's. The poetry must have gone to my head!

Anyway, let's start with the basics. The Orchard Tea Gardens, Orchard House, 45 Mill Way, Grantchester is a few miles outside the famous university town of Cambridge in the East of England. In many ways it does what it says on the tin, to steal a phrase. It is a tea gardens set in an orchard. There's a small gravelled car park, a small building where you go to collect and pay for your food (no waitress service here) and a large grassed area dotted about with apple and pear trees which were planted in 1868.

Then you begin to think there's something a bit different about this place when you notice that there are tables spread beneath the trees. Using beneath in a review? This place must be special! And at each table are deckchairs. Not the tacking uncomfy, gaudy sort though. Proper, comfy, deep, green deck chairs where the only risk is that you'll drop
off or never want to get up again!

There's your basic range of tea room fare to be had - sandwiches, baguettes, salads, cream teas, cakes and ice creams. Apparently they do some hot lunches in the colder months (there is some indoor seating) but I've only been on sunny days to enjoy the atmosphere outside, so I can't comment on those. The cream teas are the real must-have item on the menu, I have to say. If people want a full sit down lunch, they tend to go for one of the lovely traditional pubs in the village which are just round the corner.

On a spring day in 1868 a group of Cambridge students asked Mrs Stevenson of Orchard House if she would serve them tea beneath the fruit trees (there I go again..) rather than, as was usual, on the front lawn of the House. Oh, how very much like our own student days, I hear you cry! Well, no, maybe not... Anyway, a Cambridge tradition and the Orchard Tea Gardens were born.

So, you're beginning to get the idea that there's a bit more to this than just a tea rooms, then? Time to explain the poem. Rupert Brooke was an undergraduate at the university in 1909 and stayed here before lodging at the Old Vicarage (next door, now Jeffrey Archer's house, actually!!). And if that's not enough for you, please remember that Brooke's friends with whom he had tea (I didn't write that Eats, Shoots and Leaves review for nothing...) were only the likes of Virginia Woolf, E M Forster, Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes! They've got photos up of them all taking tea. And more recent customers, including John Cleese. They haven't got one of me yet, but there's still time..
To add to the sense of history, if your knowledge of English literature is a bit lacking, there is even a Rupert Brooke museum in the grounds to fill in some of the background for you. The poem, incidentally, was written by a rather homesick Brooke in Berlin, thinking about having tea in the Orchard tea gardens. That at the very least has got to make the place unique - how many poems have been written about your local Starbucks??

There is something else before I finish, and that's the question of how you get there, because this is part of the tradition and experience (first of course you'll need to pick a nice day, as deckchairs in the rain should be reserved for the British seaside holiday). Now there's nothing to stop you driving there, of course, but you'll lose a lot of the charm of the whole excursion. If you're feeling energetic, get down to Scudamores in Cambridge and hire a punt.

But best of all, walk. This is what people have been doing for 100 yrs. You need to head out from the centre of Cambridge, through Newnham village and follow the path of the river. It's a pleasant flat stroll on a decent-ish path (wouldn't recommend pushchairs or wheelchairs though) and it should take you about 1 hour. You gets lovely views of the flat fenland countryside, grazing cows and passing punts - it really is the antidote to hectic Cambridge. It means that you "discover" the tea gardens through the fields and the trees, which is a joy. There is a story that says that Alan Turing came up with the idea of Artificial Intelligence whilst doing this very walk - who cares if it's not true, at least it's a piece of trivia while you tuck into your scones! Then, when you're finished, have a look round the village. Don't forget to check out Bryon's Pool, where Lord Byron is supposed to have bathed and the charming little church.

So there you go - the Orchard Tea Gardens. A civilised haven of cream teas and poetry, and I guarantee you'll want to go back.
Thanks for reading.

Further information is supposedly available on their website, but at the time of writing this was out of commission:

http://www.orchard-grantchester.com