Afternoon tea in London: the prices, the sittings, and the one that runs into the evening

Afternoon tea sounds like a thing you do instead of lunch. At the Ritz the last sitting of the day starts at half past seven in the evening, which makes it a dinner alternative that happens to involve scones, and a considerably better one than its reputation suggests.

What it costs and when you can sit down

Read off each room’s own site, September 2026. The Ritz is on Piccadilly; sketch is on Conduit Street and serves tea in the Gallery. Fortnum & Mason serves afternoon tea in the Diamond Jubilee Tea Salon at its Piccadilly store.

A glass of Champagne at the Ritz starts at £26 on top. The children’s price applies under 16, and so does the exemption from the dress code.

The dress code is real

At the Ritz, gentlemen are required to wear a jacket and tie. Jeans and sportswear are not permitted for anyone, and sportswear is barred from every restaurant and bar in the hotel. Under 16s are exempt. This is not a suggestion on the website, it is the condition of the booking.

Which rooms publish a price

Not all of them. The Ritz puts its figure on its own page. Fortnum & Mason answers the question in its help centre: from £84 for the Classic, £85 for the Savoury and £86 for High Tea, before service charge, and £60 for children, with the tea taking about an hour and three quarters. sketch publishes its sitting times and the room the tea is served in, and no price at all, so you find out when you book or when you ring. That is worth knowing before you plan an occasion around it.

The evening sitting is the interesting one

Most rooms stop in the late afternoon: sketch closes its tea service at half past four, and Fortnum & Mason at half past five, or half past six on Fridays and Saturdays. The Ritz keeps going to 19.30, and at that hour the room is doing something different from the tourist sitting at half eleven in the morning. If the point is the evening rather than the sandwiches, that is the booking to make.