Is high tea still a thing?

I used to love a high tea....do any gransnetters remember the Fourways at Dunblane.... that was the place to go for high tea!

When I worked as a waitress in the mid 70s the Restaurant I worked in served High Tea & Afternoon Tea.

Afternoon Tea is dainty sandwiches & cakes/scones

High Tea is a cooked dish/meal followed by cake

Both were served with Tea never Coffee in those days.

I go out for either a Cream Tea (Devon resident) or Afternoon Tea once a month with friends, very enjoyable

In Scotland when I was a child afternoon tea was the posh one which not everyone had as it consisted of scones, sandwiches and cake with tea.

High tea was the evening meal for those who like my great aunt still ate dinner at midday. It consisted of things like sausage and mash, bridies and baked beans or the like, and bread and butter to "fill up the corners".

Some people considered it very working class, but the farming community ate it too. But never in my wildest imagination did I visulize the Royal Family eating anything as ordinary, even when at Balmoral or Holyrood House.

High tea is usually a hot meal between 4 and 6. Used to have lovely ones on visits to Llandudno.

I think what we use to call tea ie a light evening meal like ham salad or beans on toast or sausages with a cup of tea is technically high tea. Not posh at all! Afternoon tea in china cups with dainty sandwiches and fancy cakes is posher. But a mug of tea with a digestive biscuit isn't! I think these subtleties are very complicated especially to non native English people!

I've stayed in many hotels when my children were growing up and I was always offered high tea for the children, to allow for an earlier bath and bed before I went down to dinner at 8.30.
I expect that you could ask for it nowadays, whether they agree to provide it is another matter.
It might have been scrambled eggs on toast or a filled omelette or ham eggs and chips. There was always a choice but then, our family used the same hotels over the years so the staff knew us well and went the extra mile.

Lyons Corner Houses used to be the thing when I was a child. It was a Saturday high tea treat with mum and dad after shopping.

Interesting all the different experiences.

In my experience (in Southern England), “Afternoon tea” was dainty sandwiches, fancy cakes and scones at 4pm. Posh, and in my mind, a social meal mainly for ladies.

“High tea”, or just “tea”, was a simple, but hearty, hot meal when people came home from work at 5.30 or 6ish. Very different.

You have reminded me of the children's high tea in hotels GabriellaG I think that was a good idea. Not sure if we would leave children in hotel rooms nowadays.

My parents owned a small hotel in Scotland in the mid 50's. High tea was served between 5pm and 6pm. The menu consisted of bacon and egg, poached egg on steak mince, haddock or sole and chips. These were regular options and were interspersed with pork chops or lamp chops. Depending on the time of year, there would be cold salmon or cold meat (home cooked) with salad. You could also choose a (preordered) mixed grill. All of the above were served with toast and butter and jam, home made scones or pancakes and home baked cakes. Memories!

I think the meal with tea was just called tea, but so was a cup of tea in the afternoon so a bit confusing. So sometimes tea (the m eal) is called high tea to make that clear. It's more than a cup of tea and a snack, it's a not very posh meal eaten with tea. When I was growing up lunch was a mid morning snack (elevenses?) , midday meal waz fi ner, evening meal was tea and a drink and biscuit at bedtime was supper. I still find it odd when people refer to their evening meal as supper and imagine them drinking horlicks in their dressing gowns!

I have a rich friend/neighbour and recently I told her that DH and myself were going out to Supper. She immediately said ‘oh don’t say supper it is Dinner’. I was a bit taken aback.

I see dinner as a three course meal in a posh restaurant and supper as a pasta meal in the local Italian Café.

thuberon, that's the high tea I remember having as a wee girl, when going "doon the watter for the fair."

As children my sister and I had high tea at around 5,00 pm; my parents had dinner at around 7.30 - 8.00 p.m , My father referred to our meal as 'highty diddleyitea' - never forgotten!

wotnot - what you said about making tea by boiling the tea bags triggered a memory. Years ago I worked as a home care assistant and one of my clients was an elderly Sikh woman who lived with her son and DiL. Before I left after each visit, they would insist that I joined them for a cup of tea and a delicious home made samosa. The tea was made in that very same way - boiling tea bags in a pan of water. Maybe it’s an Indian thing?

When I was a child afternoon tea was small sandwiches, bits of quiche, scones, cake and a pot of tea with tea leaves and a tea strainer. Hi tea was a hot light meal like spaghetti or beans on toast with a sausage or bacon and a pot of tea made with tea leaves. I still make tea in a pot but most people I know use tea bags in a cup.

Tish The Fourways at Dunblane was our favourite treat when the DDs were young. Proper waitresses in black with white pinnies and a 'deedly' on their heads. Cooked main course, followed by scones and cakes on a silver cake stand, a full pot of tea with a hot water pot to refill it.

We had breakfast at 7.30am, dinner = meat, potatoes and veg, with either soup or a pudding at 12.30 and Tea at 5.30 = fish, or pies, ham salad, bacon & egg with toast, scones, cake or icecream. Supper at bedtime = milk and a biscuit, unless we had visitors when supper was sandwiches, scones, cake like an afternoon tea but in the evening.

Nowadays it is usually Soup and a filled roll at noon and 2 or 3 courses around 6.00pm.

I have never heard of “high tea” (mind you I’m common as muck). (Afternoon) tea, was sandwiches and cakes/scones usually only on a Saturday or Sunday when we ate our dinner at lunch time.

Gilly, it must be a regional thing.
In Scotland, when I was a wee girl (and very common, I'm a "lady" now ) High Tea was a special treat for the working classes.
My MIL always had to have high tea on offer when my DH's great aunties came to visit. They always insisted on lots of home baking. I've never seen anyone eat as much as those three old ladies.

Thank you for explaining MaryDoll yes perhaps a “regional thing”. Was it only eaten at weekends ? Seems an awful lot of food in one day doesn’t it ?

I remember asking if we were having a “dinner dinner” or a “ tea tea” meaning a traditional dinner ( meat,veg) or a tea (sandwiches, pies, cakes etc) . The high tea (dinner) would have really confused me !

Yes I have always thought we ate a lot more when I was young gillybob. Cooked breakfast, meat and veg in the middle of the day and another cooked meal around 6pm.
I don't remember many obese people then, I expect we all took more exercise as a matter of course.

The high tea menu was displayed in many restaurants in Scotland. I’m not sure if there are still so many as we had in the 50s/60s but, I could be wrong ?

My late mother would meet up with my aunt in Wendy’s Tearoom whenever they went into town (Glasgow). On one occasion when I was there as a child with my mother, when we left the tearoom, I excitedly showed her the threepenny bit I had found under a saucer ?

Agus, I too went to Wendy’s on our rare trips to ‘the town!’

Did it have a ‘ muriel’ of fields and a wall, or did I imagine it?

Sorry Daddima I have no memory of what was on the walls so can’t help with your muriel ?

Has anybody come across the convenient snack which gets rid of visitors politely. Inky Scottish childhood friends would come round for a high tea served around 5 to 6 o'clock with a hot dish or maybe substantial salad followed by a big choice of homemade cakes and scones and tea. The hostess sat at one end of the dining table with rows of cups and saucers before her with milk and sugar to hand. The guests would stay on for talk and maybe board games for children. Around 9 to 10 pm, the hostess would produce a tray of tea with buttered crackers and cheese served on side tables round the fire. This was the tacit sign that it was time to go home. Note no alcohol at all . My home embraced the culture of Ulster Methodism and Presbyterian ism