Trips Places Foods Stories Newsletters

Take your next trip with Atlas Obscura!

Our small-group adventures are inspired by our Atlas of the world's most fascinating places, the stories behind them, and the people who bring them to life.

Visit Adventures
Trips Highlight
Taktsang Lhakhang, also known as the “Tiger’s Nest”.
Bhutan • 11 days, 10 nights
Festivals & Temples of Bhutan
from
Macchu Picchu
Peru • 10 days, 9 nights
Peru: Machu Picchu & the Last Incan Bridges
from
View all trips
Top Destinations
Latest Places
Most Popular Places Random Place Lists Itineraries
Add a Place
Download the App
Top Destinations
View All Destinations »

Countries

  • Australia
  • Canada
  • China
  • France
  • Germany
  • India
  • Italy
  • Japan

Cities

  • Amsterdam
  • Barcelona
  • Beijing
  • Berlin
  • Boston
  • Budapest
  • Chicago
  • London
  • Los Angeles
  • Mexico City
  • Montreal
  • Moscow
  • New Orleans
  • New York City
  • Paris
  • Philadelphia
  • Rome
  • San Francisco
  • Seattle
  • Stockholm
  • Tokyo
  • Toronto
  • Vienna
  • Washington, D.C.
Latest Places
View All Places »
The ‘Old Secretariat’ government building in New Delhi.
The 'Old Secretariat'
This set is inspired by a Roman arena.
Bozdağ Film Platolari
The Sea Water Distilling Plant.
Sea Water Distilling Plant
Contemplative paths.
Ayo Rock Formations
Latest Places to Eat & Drink
View All Places to Eat »
The sign declares this the number-one gumbo shop in town.
Gumbo Hut Shioya
The pavlova comes crowned with jewel-like fruit.
Central Park Boathouse
The Village Tavern of Long Grove - exterior.
The Village Tavern
Hunter House Hamburgers
L’Escamoteur
Recent Stories
All Stories Video Podcast
Most Recent Stories
View All Stories »
The truth is out there—somewhere.
The Truth Is Out There at the Dreamland Resort (or Should We Say ‘Area 51?’)
18 days ago
Edward Payson Weston
How the 6-Day Race Became an American Spectator Obsession
20 days ago
Alresford Spy Toilet
This Public Bathroom in a Sleepy English Village Was an Epicenter for Cold War Espionage
22 days ago
Manhattan Well
The Manhattan Well: How Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton United to Solve a Murder Mystery
23 days ago

No search results found for
“”

Make sure words are spelled correctly.

Try searching for a travel destination.

Places near me Random place

Popular Destinations

  • Paris
  • London
  • New York
  • Berlin
  • Rome
  • Los Angeles
Trips Places Foods Stories Newsletters
Sign In Join
Places near me Random place
All the United Kingdom England London Victoria & Albert Museum Dining Rooms
Gastro Obscura

Victoria & Albert Museum Dining Rooms

Revel in the Victorian splendor of the world's oldest eating establishment inside a museum.

London, England

Added By
Rohini Chaki
Email
Been Here
Want to go
Added to list
The Gamble room.   Courtesy of Victoria and Albert Museum
The Gamble room.   Courtesy of Victoria and Albert Museum
The Poynter room, with the grill on the right.   Courtesy of Victoria and Albert Museum
The Morris room.   Courtesy of Victoria and Albert Museum
Another view of the Gamble room.   Courtesy of Victoria and Albert Museum
Teatime snacks at the cafe.   Courtesy of Victoria and Albert Museum
Victoria & Albert Museum Dining Rooms   Xavixavir / Atlas Obscura User
Stained glass   Xavixavir / Atlas Obscura User
Detail of ceiling in the Gamble Room   honeytea / Atlas Obscura User
Victoria & Albert Museum - Gamble Room   Jaszmina Szendrey / Atlas Obscura User
Victoria & Albert Museum - Morris Room   Jaszmina Szendrey / Atlas Obscura User
  rbenn250 / Atlas Obscura User
Been Here
Want to go
Added to list

About

Walking into the Victoria and Albert Museum’s café feels a bit like entering the inside of a Fabergé egg: No space is left untouched by the grandeur of gilded domes, ornate tiles, and ceramic wall reliefs. 

The first museum café in the world, the V&A’s original “refreshment room” opened in 1856, but was subsequently demolished and reopened in 1868 as three separate refreshment rooms, which still exist for visitors’ enjoyment. Named after their principal designers—James Gamble, Edward Poynter, and William Morris—the original design elements remain today, somewhat worse for wear, but steadfast in their glory.

The largest of these, the Gamble Room, has an enameled iron ceiling festooned with beautiful bulbous lighting fixtures whose lingering glow falls on the ceramic-decorated columns and stained glass windows of the spacious central hall. Outside, in the hallway, a modern culinary world bustles, with separate counters for hot food, sandwiches and salads, and beverages and cakes. Visitors can take a tray, choose their meals, and, after paying, find a seat amid the café’s Victorian opulence.

Enjoy a very British green pea and lemon cake or an Earl Grey–infused raisin scone with clotted cream and jam. For a heartier meal, there’s a wealth of options: from crayfish mac and cheese to grilled salmon to a cheddar, scallion, and potato quiche.

Adjacent to the Gamble, the Poynter room is distinct in its blue-tone ceramic walls, depicting effulgent fountains and elegant women in various poses of ennui. Meant to serve as a grill room, the original cast-iron grill jutting out of one wall panel remains on display (it's not operational).

Stop for a Victorian afternoon tea in the stained-glass, emerald splendor of the Morris room. Sit under the plaster relief of winding olive boughs on the walls and nibble on Mrs. Beeton’s cucumber sandwiches and gooseberry tarts, with a pot of mid-season Darjeeling. The original design by William Morris—famous for wallpapering the estates of Victorian aristocracy—features a merry mingling of zodiac signs and bursts of floral whimsy.

For over a century and a half, the V&A’s museum café has offered sustenance to the marveling masses that have browsed through the museum’s ample collections of art and artifacts from all over the world. As rich as the holdings in the galleries, the refreshment rooms of this first museum café offer a chance to rest and rejuvenate in the midst of a vital slice of culinary history.

Related Tags

Museums Restaurants Victorian Unique Restaurants & Bars Tea

Know Before You Go

The Victorian afternoon tea is served on Fridays and available by reservation only. Email victoriantea@benugo.com to request a table. The tea is £30 per person, add £5 if you’d like a glass of prosecco.

The V&A also has an open-air Garden Café overlooking the historic refreshment rooms, and a Courtyard Café at the entrance of the museum. While these modern additions have their own charm, the showstoppers are, without question, the rooms of Gamble, Poynter, and Morris.

Community Contributors

Added By

Rohini Chaki

Edited By

Jaszmina Szendrey, rbenn250, honeytea, Xavixavir

  • Jaszmina Szendrey
  • rbenn250
  • honeytea
  • Xavixavir

Published

July 17, 2019

Edit this listing

Make an Edit
Add Photos
Sources
  • https://www.vam.ac.uk/articles/a-first-of-its-kind-history-of-the-refreshment-rooms
  • https://www.vam.ac.uk/info/va-cafe/
Victoria & Albert Museum Dining Rooms
Victoria and Albert Museum
Cromwell Road
London, England, SW7 2RL
United Kingdom
51.496639, -0.17218
Visit Website
Get Directions

Nearby Places

Exhale: Bionic Chandelier

London, England

miles away

The Luck of Edenhall

London, England

miles away

Victoria and Albert Museum WWII Battle Scars

London, England

miles away

Explore the Destination Guide

Photo of London

London

England

Places 549
Stories 110

Nearby Places

Exhale: Bionic Chandelier

London, England

miles away

The Luck of Edenhall

London, England

miles away

Victoria and Albert Museum WWII Battle Scars

London, England

miles away

Explore the Destination Guide

Photo of London

London

England

Places 549
Stories 110

Related Stories and Lists

Inside London’s Gorgeously Curated ‘Art Restaurants’

restaurants

By Anne Ewbank

12 Restaurants Hidden in Museums Around the Globe

List

By Diana Hubbell

Related Places

  • Williamsburg, Virginia

    The King’s Arms Tavern

    Dine like an American revolutionary at Colonial Williamsburg.

  • Seattle, Washington

    Off the Rez Cafe

    Where else would a linchpin of post-colonial Native American cuisine anchor the menu but a museum?

  • Salinas, California

    The Steinbeck House Restaurant

    Eat a tasty meal in the house where John Steinbeck was born.

  • Wash your egg tarts and pineapple buns down with a cup of strong, black tea with evaporated milk.

    Hong Kong

    Kam Wah Cafe

    This cha chaan teng’s pineapple buns are so sought-after that they sell 5,000 a day.

  • English Padlock and Leg Irons

    Plymouth, Connecticut

    Lock Museum of America

    Explore the world's largest collection of locks, keys, handcuffs, and ornate hardware, and crack the code on an antique-filled escape room.

  • These meat substitutes come close to the real thing.

    Queens, New York

    Bodhi Village

    Get to know the plant-based fare of Chinese Buddhist monks.

  • Kurdish cuisine shares some dishes, like meat kebabs, with other Middle Eastern cuisines.

    Tokyo, Japan

    Mesopotamia

    The only Kurdish restaurant in Japan invites you to learn and feast.

  • Fried, meat-filled khuushuur pastries with two kinds of chilled salad.

    Morton Grove, Illinois

    Mazalae Mongolian Restaurant

    Just outside Chicago, one of the few traditional Mongolian restaurants in the U.S. serves a misunderstood cuisine.

Aerial image of Vietnam, displaying the picturesque rice terraces, characterized by their layered, verdant fields.
Atlas Obscura Membership

Become an Atlas Obscura Member


Join our community of curious explorers.

Become a Member

Get Our Email Newsletter

Follow Us

Facebook YouTube TikTok Instagram Pinterest RSS Feed

Get the app

Download the App
Download on the Apple App Store Get it on Google Play
  • All Places
  • Latest Places
  • Most Popular
  • Places to Eat
  • Random
  • Nearby
  • Add a Place
  • Stories
  • Food & Drink
  • Itineraries
  • Lists
  • Video
  • Podcast
  • Newsletters
  • All Trips
  • Family Trip
  • Food & Drink
  • History & Culture
  • Wildlife & Nature
  • FAQ
  • Membership
  • Feedback & Ideas
  • Community Guidelines
  • Product Blog
  • Unique Gifts
  • Work With Us
  • About
  • FAQ
  • Advertise With Us
  • Advertising Guidelines
  • Privacy Policy
  • Cookie Policy
  • Terms of Use
Atlas Obscura

© 2025 Atlas Obscura. All Rights Reserved.