Right in the heart of Brighton’s Lanes is the artfully retro Blackbird Tea Rooms offering a gorgeous nod to pre-war elegance. Set up by good friends, Mathew and Hannah, their aim was to open an affordable yet luxurious tea room that provided an oasis of calm amid the bustling streets outside.

We sat upstairs, surrounded by vintage furniture, admiring the beautiful décor; some walls painted a gorgeous dark, oily blue, others featuring a bird print wallpaper straight out of the pages of an interiors magazine.

Our waitress, dressed in a neat black uniform with a broderie anglaise-trimmed pinny, explained each dish in detail (all of it freshly cooked on site each day) and gave us a brief tour of the tea blends on offer.

I went for the full afternoon tea complete with homemade scone and the dinkiest little pot of jam, a divine selection of sandwiches and cakes, and the best blend of black rose flavoured tea that I’ve had in a long time.

My husband opted for the ‘feed-me-now’ option – The Greedy Sandwich – filled with sausage, bacon, melted onion, Portobello mushroom and Montgomery cheddar; perfect sustenance to help him face shopping with a wife who forgot exactly where she saw that dress.

Images by Elinor Hill and courtesy of Blackbird Tea Rooms