I’m doing the A to Z Challenge in April, using the theme of the UK & Ireland. For the letter P, I’m recommending tea in the Pump Room in Bath.

The Pump Room was a central feature of Regency-era Bath, the place where members of society drank water pumped from the hot spring, listened to music, and took strolls around the room. The Pump Room was a setting in two of Jane Austen’s novels, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion and a setting in many Regency historical novels written in the 20th and 21st centuries.

The Pump Room, today, is a restaurant serving breakfast, lunch, and afternoon tea. You can still drink the pumped water with all its funky-tasting minerals and curative powers. You can still listen to live music and wander the room to admire the Georgian architecture and the statue of Beau Nash. Afternoon tea, in the Pump Room, is cheaper than similar spreads in London and you get all the lovely ambiance for free.

Sandwiches at the bottom, scones with clotted cream and Jam in the middle, sweets on the upper level