Maison Assouline

196A Piccadilly, St. James’s, London W1J 9EY

Nestled in the frightfully grand surroundings of Maison Assouline is the glamorous Swans Bar, the perfect place to rest your weary legs after some serious browsing of glossy books. The Parisian tea comes on appropriately art-deco-inspired plates, with a huge teapot of Earl Grey and an enormous glass of champagne. Gorge on foie gras and delightful little cakes, so content that you may just linger on until cocktail hour…

The Daylesford café

44B Pimlico Road, SW1W 8LP (020 7881 8060)

Afternoon tea at the Daylesford is the actual dream. Step inside and you’ll find white marble floors, bright, just-picked vegetables immaculately laid out in rustic baskets and, most importantly, a pretty amazing afternoon-tea menu. The finger sandwiches are particularly good (classics like smoked salmon with crème fraîche and egg mayonnaise with chives), as are the crumbly fruit scones, which come with a hefty dollop of clotted cream and homemade jam. Once you’ve polished off your last chocolate brownie, tuck into their digest tea blend, made from lemongrass, ginger, nettle leaves and cardamom.

Farmacy

74 Westbourne Grove, London W2 5SH (020 7221 0705)

Notting Hill’s hottest healthy hangout, Farmacy, is giving a whole new meaning to ‘high tea’ with their latest offering – a plant-based afternoon tea where most of the food is infused with cannabidiol, a constituent of cannabis known for its health-boosting properties. Start with a pot of hemp-leaf tea before moving on to smoked-carrot and chickpea blinis, scones with coconut clotted cream, and strawberry and cashew mousse. If that doesn’t perk you up, nothing will.

R Chocolate London

198 Ebury Street, SW1W 8UN (020 8538 9650)

Quintessentially’s Ben Elliot and chocaholic Sir Evelyn de Rothschild are the men behind R Chocolate, an extremely swish new chocolatier/patisserie. Not only does it produce the most exquisite chocolates, it also offers one of the best afternoon teas in town: picture-perfect pastries, eclairs and scones, with industrial amounts of clotted cream, on the prettiest china.

The Parlour at Sketch

9 Conduit Street, W1S 2XG (020 7659 4500)

Open all day, the Parlour comes into its own at teatime, when the heavenliest sandwiches (try the smoked salmon with Jacob’s cream or the quail-egg mayonnaise with caviar) are precursors to some of London’s best scones and pastries, as beautiful to look at as they are to pop. Although the Parlour doesn’t take bookings, you can also have tea in the Gallery, which does.

Oblix at the Shard

Level 32, The Shard, SE1 9RY (020 7268 6700)

If you’re an afternoon-tea connoisseur, we imagine you’ll be looking for something of the HIGHEST splendour. And this, dear friends, is exactly what you’ll get (quite literally) at Oblix. Whizz up to the 32nd floor of the Shard and feast your eyes on the shiniest of silver trays piled high with various treats inspired by London’s boroughs. It’s all about local produce — honeycomb from Harrow bees, chai spice from Brick Lane Market and cured Angus beef straight from a butcher in Lambeth. Our top picks? The duck-egg and truffle-mayonnaise sandwiches and Crunchie-chocolate pecan bar. Yep, the food is as good as the views.

108 Pantry at the Marylebone Hotel

108 Marylebone Lane, W1U 2QE (020 7969 3900)

If you love buttermilk scones and pastries but they don’t love you, check out afternoon tea at 108 Pantry, in the Marylebone Hotel’s Edwardian townhouse. It does a gluten-free tea, either the whole shebang — scones, sandwiches, cakes pastries, and a glass (or two) of small-bubbled Perrier-Jouët Rosé — or you can choose items individually, which is not always possible in some of the grander hotels. There’s a dairy-free option too, and everything is served on pretty, Regency-inspired china.