London Day Trip #2: Camden Market, Matilda the Musical, and Afternoon Tea

London Day Trip #2 is going to be a hard one to beat. I think it will be a day I look back on longingly when Fiona is grown up and living far away from me. We really had the best day together! One of the main items on our bucket list was to see a West End theatre production while were here. Fiona has never been to the theatre and I have only been to small productions. ‘Go to the theatre’ only moved higher on our list when we discovered that Matilda the Musical is currently on. Fiona is a huge Roald Dahl fan; she’s read everything he’s written, most more than once, but Matilda was one of her first and she’s probably now read it at least half a dozen times. 

Since we had matinee tickets to Matilda, our first order of business was to figure out how to spend a morning in London. On of my favorite parts of London is it’s various markets - each with its own personality. Visiting a market seemed like the perfect way to spend the morning. Since I knew we were going more to look around than to actually shop, I decided the Camden Markets, with their super eclectic shops and yummy food stalls, would be the perfect balance for some wandering. 

We found stalls selling everything under the sun - soaps, hand painted converse shoes, only black clothing, antiques, nothing but stained glass lamps...I could really go on forever.

We sampled what was billed as a “traditional” Cornish pasty (steak, potatoes, and onions wrapped up in a delicious pouch of bread. I’ve always wanted to try one and it did not disappoint. Delicious!

Fiona’s favorite? This little gem of a place - and she didn’t even fully appreciate the humor. But this is sheer genius, right? They had a never ending line selling bowls of cereal for nearly $10 each.

Fiona was also really into this very strange store called Cyberdog. It was like walking into an underground club and basically made me feel like my mother when I used to try to get her to go in to Abercrombie as a teenager (“It’s too loud in here!”) Hi Mom! ;) It was nearly pitch black with the exception of lots of black lights and strobe lights and never ending bass that shook me to the core. Fiona loved it. I couldn’t get out fast enough.

Anyway, it was a really fun market and we had a great morning exploring!

After a stop in a used book store where Fiona found more books than we’ll likely ever get in our suitcases, we stopped for you yummy Mexican along the canal for lunch before heading to the show.

As we made our way to the Tube, we passed the actual Camden locks:

We made it to the West End with lots of time to check out the theatre and find our seats.

I was pretty set on just getting us a couple “cheap seats” so we could get the general experience, but then I spotted a pair of “discounted” last minute - albeit NOT cheap - 6th row aisle seats and Jason encouraged us to just go for it. I couldn’t be more thankful for his little nudge because the seats were fantastic and being so close to the action definitely made for a magical experience!

I was expecting a show for kids that wouldn’t really be all that entertaining for me, but boy was I wrong! The 2 1/2 hour show flew by and was so, so good! It was funny (at both a child and an adult level) and the acting - Matilda especially - was really impressive!

When the show let out, we were hungry and thinking about just grabbing a quick dinner to eat on the train back to Cambridge, but on a whim I decide to look up a store that had been recommended both for it being a really posh store that is a lot of fun to look around and for the fact that it does an excellent afternoon tea. It turned out that we were only a few blocks away and they had a seating available an hour later for a 5:45PM “afternoon tea.” I thought it would be perfect for dinner and a fitting end to our very London day.

Founded in 1701, Fortun & Mason is known for stocking and selling exotic and specialty provisions. They had self upon beautiful shelf of teas, coffees, chocolates, biscuits (cookies), chocolates, jams, and more.

This is there stunning perfume department!

After a little browsing, we made our way upstairs, past the flying tea cups to the tea rooms.

We were seated in the most peaceful room and given menus describing the endless (ie order more of whatever you like because it’s all included!) afternoon tea.

When our tea trays arrived, I didn’t know how we’d ever eat it all!

The tea itself was also amazing and we were encouraged to try as many of their 50+ teas as we anted. Fiona ordered the strawberry tea which was delicious. I thoroughly enjoyed the vanilla and nought tea.

Fiona’s children’s tea included finger sandwiches (that she completely ignored), miniature scones, cookies (she eventually ate half a dozen!), and some sort of jelly based dessert off of which she ate all the strawberry flavored marshmallows that she couldn't’ stop talking about.

My palette is roughly the inverse of Fiona’s, so I ended up devouring most of my yummy finger sandwiches, a large scone (on which I put the the most delicious lemon curd ever!), and pretty much ignored the super sweet desserts on top. They were beautifully executed though!

We loved the proper tea service for loose leaf tea and talked about how it would be the perfect souvenir to bring back with us. Then we looked for it in the shop and found it for $410. Oh well...nice thought anyway!

Once we had eaten until we both felt like we would burst, we asked for the check and got ready to leave. That was when the waitress informed us that we still needed to make our selections from the cake cart! Not wanting to offend, I very politely tried to decline saying I was sure the cakes would be delicious, but we just couldn’t possibly eat another bite. She smiled and said, “Oh no, no! The cake is to be wrapped up for you to take with you.” Wow! We each chose what we thought Jason would like since had missed out on all the fun. We left with a slice of flourless chocolate cake and another of lemon with raspberry filling. We also stopped in the shop on the way out to pick up our favorite teas and a jar of the lemon curd. What a perfect end to a perfect day!