In Ripon, we were bowled over by the swimming pool: built in 1904, when the place still had aspirations to become a new spa town. It has kept its dramatic facade and even the pool itself has original features.  Check out the menu of massage and treatments you could get 100 years ago.  Ah, the potential for a great themed tea room here… (see the video to follow for visuals)

Since the start of the year, we’ve been touring the UK’s cathedral towns and cities in search of great coffee and tea.  We’ve found some fantastic venues, wonderful people running them with great tales to tell; and we’ve sought out the best things to see and do around the town, focusing usually on the cathedral, with its own history and stories.

Ripon’s real Cathedral is a must-see too.  And it has its own celebrity connections: Lewis Carroll’s Dad was a canon here so they say some of the animals carved in the choir seats inspired his Alice in Wonderland characters; and then the Cathedral carved its own Cheshire Cat to recognise Carroll’s time in the city.

Then there’s the George Washington connection: the family of the father of American Independence came from northern England, and his family coat of arms figures in one of Ripon’s stained glass windows. They say it was the blueprint for the Stars & Stripes…

Ripon’s local celebrity is the Wakeman.  When they had curfew after 9pm, this was the guy who kept the peace at night. And he still blows his horn on the market square every night these days!

His old home from 1604 was the venue for our first coffee of the day.  The Wakeman’s House Café sits right on Ripon’s Market Place.  Best cup of coffee we tasted in Ripon and some great cakes, all baked in-house (we chose carrot this time).  We’ll be giving them a great write-up when we upload our review on the new Fancy a Cuppa? site.

If you need to walk off your coffee and cake, Ripon has loads of town trails and walks.  There’s the route taken by the Walkman down all the little side alleys (called snickets and ginnels locally); canal walks; a trail round the perimeter of town ending at the Gallows Hill, where 300 Catholic martyrs were hanged after the ‘Rising of the North’; and the Rowery Trail, which traces 50 miles of places linked to Ripon’s old spurs trade (yes, Ripon spurs were once famous across the land…).

If you’ve done 50 miles, you’ll definitely be ready for afternoon tea. And we’d recommend a return to the town centre at High Skellgate and go to Tiggys Tea Room.  Great place for a cream tea: scones made by Tiggy herself; and jam by her 87-year-old Mum. All washed down with a good steaming pot of Yorkshire Tea (if you’re going to have bagged tea, this is our choice at home!).

If you still have energy left before you go home, and you’re too full of tea and cake to go for that swim in the baths, then how about trying the Prison & Police Museum.  Kids seem to think it’s a Dr Who theme park, with its ‘Tardis’ standing out the front. Worth giving it a try – shame it’s not open till 9pm, when the Wakeman does his rounds…

And here’s the video link…

Coffee, tea & cake in Ripon – with Alice in Wonderland and George Washington

Carlisle had always been somewhere I drove past on the way to or from Scotland, until we went there for our first Fancy a Cuppa? book. Historically, it has often been the end (or beginning) of journeys, though.

It’s the western end of Hadrian’s Wall, built by the Romans to ward off Scottish attacks; it’s the northern end of the Settle-Carlisle railway, still travelled today by thousands of rail enthusiasts; and it is really the last big settlement in north west England before the Scottish border.

Relations with the Scots haven’t always been too healthy: Mary Queen of Scots was imprisoned in Carlisle Castle; and in the 16th century the Archbishop of Glasgow was so cheesed off with marauding cattle hustlers from Carlisle that he put a curse on them (the so-called reivers, not the city, the tourist office pointed out to me). And there’s still a 5 foot high sculpted stone near the castle to commemorate the curse…

There was no curse on our search for good coffee or tea, though. We found some great places.

First up was Foxes Café Lounge in Abbey Street, just behind the cathedral on the way to the castle.

A great cup of coffee served up by Bruce, who was only sorry that his auntie was away on holiday or there would have been more home-baked cakes on offer.  Loved the way he and his cousin have made something of this place and it really feels like a hub of the local community.

Foxes get their coffee beans from John Watt & Son, which is the coffee roasters we reviewed for our first book.  We had a quick trip back there today to check things were still in place. Yep, all looks – and smells – as it should, with the roasted coffee vapours drawing us in from the market place to the shop half way down Bank Street. Watt’s will be going back into our new book next year!

Next up was a fascinating visit to Carlisle Cathedral. With quirky, misshapen arches from mediaeval subsidence, through 16th century graffiti in the choir to beautiful deep-blue stained glass windows, this place is well worth a look, and we were given a tremendous tour of the building by one of the grey-cloaked helpers – in our case, one David Johnson.  Many more stories to tell once we publish the book…Thanks, David!

And so to afternoon tea.  The Bobbin Coffee Shop feels much more like a tea room than a coffee shop so this was our place for a pot of tea and a piece of home-baked cake.  There’s a wonderful selection of cakes, all baked by manager Nicola.

But it’s the setting as much as the cake and tea which drew us in.  The Bobbin is in the old Linton Tweeds mill, which is still producing fabric today and sells all over the world. Yes, come here for the cake and cuppa, but take in all the history and learn how this family firm has made it through 100 years in Carlisle.  That’s the kind of story we like at Fancy a Cuppa?

Whatever your journey, whether it begins or ends in Carlisle, or whether it’s just a stop-off point on the way north or south, make sure you stop by for half a day at least. It’s well worth a look.

And I haven’t even had time to tell you about the mother of American President Woodrow Wilson; or about the nationalised pubs and breweries which were only sold off in 1971. Ah, you’ll have to research them yourselves…

We were told by a local dignitary that Glasgow is not big on blue plaques and does not celebrate its famous sons and daughters through statues and memorials as other towns in the UK might. But still, this guy was surely worthy of some recognition, given his contribution to the world of tea-drinking today?

Maybe his legacy is to be found in the sheer number of tea rooms dotted around Glasgow.  It’s top quality coffee that is not so easy to find.

Still, we have two great tea rooms to review and did find one excellent coffee shop right at the end of our stay, and another one looked promising just a few doors down, but we were all caffeined up by then, so that one will have to wait till our next trip.

It’s not that easy to arrive in such a big city with barely an idea of where to start looking for coffee and tea. Everyone recommends the Willow Tea Rooms – which now has three branches, by the way – but we had reviewed it for our first book (Fancy a Cuppa?) and wanted to try something a bit different.

So I turned to fellow blogger and tea lover Lorna who lives in Scotland and writes mainly on Scottish tea venues (her blog address, by the way, is http://www.lornastearoomdelights.wordpress.com ).  And she came up with a beauty, which we would never have found via google searches or by wandering the streets.

It’s hidden away down a little back alley – hence its name “The Hidden Lane Tea Room”, though its address is officially in Argyle Street.

This is another of those old-fashioned tea rooms run by young women (rather like our Middlesbrough find).  Great tea, fantastic cakes and quite a funky, arty atmosphere.  Just a bit different from the more established – maybe even establishment – tea rooms in the centre of town, so will make a great review for our new book.

This was a ‘High Tea’ for one, though. So our top tip here is: either skip lunch or share this and get an extra pot of tea on top.  Shame also that they didn’t chuck in a piece of the delicious-sounding chocolate and guinness cake.  But overall, a great experience…

On Day Two of our stay we followed up another recommendation, this time from one of our Newcastle venues (Tea Sutra).  This took us down another little back alley to Otago Lane in the Kelvinbridge part of town.

These guys know a thing or two about tea, with 80 types on offer, from the exotic Bedouin Sage Tea, through Turkish or Afghan blends to more conventional teas we are used to.

Tchai-Ovna is a great little venue, with a mystical, oriental feel. One newspaper cutting describes it as a ‘hippy house’, but its customer base is actually a real mix of Glasgow’s youngish set (I say youngish because at over 50 myself I didn’t feel at all out of place…).

They’re under threat from developers, though.  Along with the antique clock repairer next door, the music shop and the second hand book store up the alleyway, they may not be able to survive if the building developers get their way. So get in their quick, and if you’re local, support their cause…

Coffee proved more of an issue in Glasgow.

We tried places in the lovely Princes Square building – where a modern touch to an old building has worked, but the coffee venues lacked real personality (though Tinderbox does excellent – strong – coffee). We trawled the streets of central Glasgow; we wandered up and down the busiest part of the West End.

But it was purely by chance that we came upon Artisan Roast in Gibson Street.

They have a nice website but it doesn’t appear in any basic google search for coffee in Glasgow.

This is top quality coffee, though.  And fantastic home-baked, moist cake to go with it.  Friendly young guys running the place and a relaxed overall feel. We’ll be back for sure.

This was a courgette and pineapple cake, with a cappuccino (on the small side, but that’s how you’re supposed to drink it, I gather – it’s the antithesis of the Starbucks’ Veinte 20oz cup)…

We liked the look of the Offshore Café just a few doors down Gibson Street towards the river (Kelvin, not Clyde), but that will have to wait for our next Glasgow trip.

Because we will have to return. After all, our aim is to visit all the UK’s Cathedral towns and cities this year and to see all the cathedrals, of whatever denomination. And in a place like Glasgow, with such a history (and present) of religious divides, we can’t be seen to be favouring one church over another.

All we managed this time was a peek from the outside of the Church of Scotland Cathedral and the Catholic one.  But did you realise that there are actually four cathedrals in Glasgow?  Yep, the Episcopalians and the Greek Orthodox also have a Glasgow Cathedral. My word, I’m going to need more caffeine next time just to keep up…

So here, for now, are St Mungo’s (Church of Scotland) and St Andrew’s (RC) cathedrals.  More to come after a few coffees next time we’re up this way.

And no video until we’ve finished the whole Glasgow story!

Of course, there’s always Betty’s, but not everybody wants to queue up in the rain or cold; and we can’t all afford their rather steep prices.

So Fancy a Cuppa? is very pleased to have done the hard slog for you and found two fantastic places for a cuppa.  Amazingly, they’re both in the same street: Fossgate, which is slightly off the main touristy drag, but well worth the extra 100 yards or so walk.

Spring Espresso at Number 45 Fossgate is a wonderful place to start your day.  Try to make sure you’re there on a day when Tracey has just baked her signature ‘Bourbon, apple, pecan cake’ – worth travelling miles just for that, to be honest.

But it is for their coffee that Spring Espresso are famed (even though they only opened last autumn).  Wonderful quality, whether you go for an espresso, a latte or a filter. And they’re tea is pretty good, too, though we were focusing on their coffee this time.

Steve and Tracey are a great couple who not only know a lot about coffee and tea, but also how to present it to their customers.  There’s a real community feel in their place.

If only we’d asked for a recommendation for tea from them at the start; we could have saved ourselves a lot of tasteless teas elsewhere in town, served by staff who seemed more preoccupied by their forthcoming night out than in making afternoon tea seem special. As always, we’re not here to create a black list but let’s just say: follow our tips and you’ll not go far wrong…

And just a few doors down Fossgate from Spring Espresso is the best cup of tea I had had in quite some time.  Now, I do like my tea strong, and the house blend from the Hairy Fig really gave me the afternoon kick I needed.  Along with some freshly-baked lemon and coconut cake, this was the afternoon tea I’d been looking for.

And what a fantastic place Sue Hardy has set up in her café tucked away behind the Hairy Fig deli.  Look for the massive Indian tea urn in the window and you’ll not miss it.

Fossgate is a real find, actually. There’s the beautiful Merchant’s Hall; the MacDonalds set in a fantastic old cinema (but a furniture shop, not the burger bar…); and a host of quirky individual shops.  A great addition to a day-out in York, and one more tourists should find…

Otherwise there’s the wonderful walk around the walls, the museum gardens alongside the River Ouse, and countless haunted pubs, or landmarks where famous folk have passed through (or passed away!) in the past.

York Minster is quite a sight, but at £9 to enter (unless you’re a York resident, or there to attend a service), it’s a bit steep, and the guided tour we took was not the most stimulating.  Perhaps I have been spoilt by visiting cathedrals in the less glamorous northern towns recently, where they’re happy if you want to donate anything.  I know they’re desperately short of funds in York, but still; I’d hesitate to visit at that rate…Maybe better just to go to a service next Sunday instead…

We began our day, as usual, with a cup of coffee.  But having a coffee at the Music Room Coffee House is not like your average mid-morning cuppa. Actually they don’t do a ‘cappuccino’ here or a ‘latte’: you have black or white coffee and you decide whether it’ll be espresso or filter. Oh, and don’t expect a big 12oz or 16oz cup, either: 8oz is a big cup in the Music Room…

Now, some of the coffee shops we’ve visited that focus so precisely on perfection can be a little over-zealous and bordering on the unfriendly if you don’t totally share their view of the coffee world.  But not so at the Music Room: we were served by two young women who clearly believe passionately in what they are doing, but also had the time and friendliness to share some of that knowledge and passion with us.

There are loads of stories to tell around this venue, which is owned by the same family who run the wonderful old coffee roasters J. Atkinsons, who must have been in Lancaster for nearly 100 years.  If you can’t wait for our next book to come out, we strongly suggest a visit to both the roasters and the coffee shop to find out more.

Our lunch was less of a success.  As regular readers know, we don’t do any ‘name and shame’ reviews, but let’s just say the place lacked character and the food/drink quality was average. We’d chosen it for its historical building and the quirky name of the street but we knew almost as soon as we sat down that this would not be going in the book!

Afternoon tea caught us by surprise though.  We had noticed the Novel Cafe as we walked along New Street earlier in the day.  “Books & Coffee Shop” was how it sold itself in the shop window and we always like coffee shops and tea rooms that team up with other ventures (something we feature frequently in our upcoming American book).

The cakes were not baked in-house but brought in from a local supplier; the tea was from a local company (Lakeland) but just ordinary tea bags. Normally that might send us running for the door. But this time we chose to stay and were very glad we did.

A very relaxed atmosphere makes this feel kind of place you could sit in all day, reading books and sipping tea.  But what’s extraordinary in this ‘social media’ world is that they keep busy through word-of-mouth and passing footfall alone.  They have no website, no facebook, no twitter; not even a phone number or address on their menus. “We’d just be pestered by the marketing people if we did,” they say.

And you know what? Maybe they have a point…We thoroughly enjoyed the experience…

As to Lancaster itself, what a fascinating place.  Maybe I’ve spent too long dealing with the PR/marketing people (and should take a leaf out of Novel Cafe’s book) but I couldn’t believe how local traders – and the tourist office too – didn’t make more of Lancaster’s place as Red Rose capital on this day of all days (ahem, February 14th…).

So what did we learn today?

That every reigning monarch gets to be called the Duke of Lancaster – yes, even our current Queen; and the only monarch to refuse this title was good old Queen Victoria who went up in my estimation when I heard that she had said, “I’m not a duke, I’ll be Duchess of Lancaster”…

That Lancaster was the place where 15 Catholic martyrs were executed between 1584 and 1646, around the same time as the nearby ‘Pendle Witches’ went on trial. So, it’s perhaps quite fitting that the Catholic diocese should be centred on Lancaster for the last 150 years, with a very beautiful cathedral half way up the hill where those Catholics were martyred.

But our last lesson came when we found the remains of the Roman baths in Lancaster.  Barely given a mention on the tourist information, they clearly just survived being covered in cement when a ghastly 1960s office block was built right next to them.  Did the Council intend us to see the juxtaposition of ancient and modern? Or was it just a very lucky escape for another part of our country’s history?

Durham’s a fantastic place to visit, though, whatever the weather. And it was so cold there today that the icicles hanging from the traffic lights and the bus shelters never even dripped all day.

We got there early (9.30am) and found the town quieter than we had ever seen it.  Clearly locals don’t rise that early, though there was already a bit of a gathering outside our favourite coffee house, Flat White, just off Elvet Bridge, which opens its doors at 10…

This coffee shop has everything that Fancy a Cuppa loves to review:  a fantastic cup of coffee, with a hint of Australian influence in how it’s made; great cakes, all baked in-house; a really cosy atmosphere (and every table taken at 10.30am, half an hour after opening); a building with a great story to tell (we’ll be writing more for the book, but one of the walls is part of the 13^th century city walls); and the two guys running it – Patrick & Peter – full of passion for what they’re trying to do (we’ll tell more of their story, too, in the book).

Invigorated by a great start to our day, we strolled up the hill to the 11^th century cathedral that dominates the whole town.  Bill Bryson was its Chancellor a few years ago so he may be biased, but he has called it “the best cathedral on planet earth”.  In terms of history and architecture alone, that may well be true; and it’s been a place of pilgrimage ever since St Cuthbert was buried here, not to mention the Venerable Bede.

It has a modern-day resonance too as the setting for Harry Potter’s school Hogwarts. And I wonder how much time Tony Blair and Rowan Atkinson (who both went to school just behind the cathedral in the 1960s) spent running round the cloisters or gazing over the town from the top of the tower…

We paid £4 for an excellent tour of the Cathedral – well worth it, especially considering Durham does not charge for entrance (something that Bill Bryson and I share a passion about) and the best stories are always told orally in my view, regardless of how much I want to promote the books and website we’re putting together!

Our search for a good cup of tea proved fruitless, however.  We had tried a couple of places before on previous visits and found them rather average; today we tried another venue, which shall remain unnamed (we’re not here to undermine any particular business): in a beautiful building with a great story to tell, but a totally uninspiring lunch, cakes that were shipped in from God-knows-where, and insipid tea that might as well have been hot water.

And there is nothing less satisfying than a full stomach but taste buds that have gone to sleep. It’s a soul-destroying state to be in at any time of the day and one that we do everything we can to avoid by only reviewing places that do excite our palates!

We decided in the end to return to the Cathedral and have our afternoon tea at the Undercroft Restaurant behind the Cathedral itself.  Run by a large catering company, this is not usually the kind of place we review, but the cakes are at least baked in-house and the sandwiches looked a bit livelier than what we had had for lunch.  The tea was just a Tetley tea bag, but again was an improvement on our lunchtime cuppa.

So, unless readers of our blog know of anything better and let us know before the book goes to print at the end of 2012, this will be going into our Cathedrals book.  After all, it does have an eclectic mix of customers, from the staff in their grand purple or red robes, through tour parties, to the 70 or 80 school kids who invaded the place just after we sat down to tea (and playing havoc with our chances of taking photos or videos…): these were the choir members of the local Durham School which holds its half-term service here before the kids go off for a week.  A very pleasant chat with the choir master/music teacher set us on our way; we were only sorry we couldn’t stay for their service…

And here is my interpretation of the sketch!!

I love the Funny Coffee set. I made the coffe sleeves and the backing strip on the card with an actual coffee sleeve, yay for recycling!!