Round the corner from London’s Kings Cross St Pancras station is an old Victorian Bathhouse which has made a beautiful home for one of London’s coolest concept cafe bars.
Have you ever been in a well designed bar and thought, This tea set would look amazing in my kitchen or I wish I could take that painting home? Well, now you can! Drink, Shop & Do isn’t just a cafe bar, it’s also a design shop, where everything you see – from the tables and quirky decor to the glasses and cups you drink form – is for sale. When you walk in, it’ll just look like a little shop, stocking interesting cards, gifts and gadgets, but walk through to the bar and the space opens out into a bazaar of retro chic and vintage delights, carefully arranged in a beautifully restored Victorian building with high ceilings and floods of natural light during the daytime.
So that’s the shopping sorted. Next up: their absolutely to-die-for afternoon tea menus. This is Afternoon Tea with a Twist – no soggy cucumber and cream cheese sandwiches, oh no, but a selection of creatively selected sandwiches, cakes and cream-laden scones that you almost can’t bear to touch, so perfectly are they piled onto the vintage cake stands. And they’ve not left out the gentlemen for once! Their Man’s Afternoon Tea is complete with a pint of lager and pork scratchings, if you’re brave enough.
The Afternoon Tea isn’t cheap, but it’s worth it. The cocktail list is also bursting with original recipes and witty titles – Brazilian Bakewell and The Fool being personal favourites to round off the experience.
Finally, the experience wouldn’t be complete without “doing” something, and there’s a regular programme of alternative crafty activities, which usually descend into alcohol-fuelled hilarity. The last time I went with friends we stayed on after our drawn-out afternoon tea to do a Dot-To-Dot-Disco, and other “Do’s” range from knitting classed on the chilled out end of the spectrum, to full-on “Stop! Hammertime!” dance class, teaching you all the moves to 80s classic “Can’t Touch This”… go on, you know you want to!
