Strand Tea Rooms

About us

The Strand Tea rooms are set on the harbour side of the Barbican, close to Plymouth Hoe and the fishing port. The Elizabethan building has appropriately period décor inside, where there are tudor tables and flagstone flooring, beamed ceilings and large windows with views over the fishing boats moored in the harbour.

There is a good selection of teas, and the cakes and scones are homemade. Devon cream teas are reasonably priced serving each guest with a pot of tea, two homemade scones, jam and clotted cream produced on a nearby farm. There are also teacakes, crumpets and a choice of lunches. The proprietor Ann Meeson started the Tea Rooms 15 years ago, being a lover of tea rooms herself, she realised the Barbican had no traditional tea room and decided to fill the gap.

She has become renowned for her homemade cakes and Devon cream teas. Having a love of the past Ann displays a wide selection of pictures of characters from the fascinating Tudor period, when the building was built and can also give anyone who is interested a potted history. The building was built in 1581 to house one of the captains who were standing in readiness to fight the Armada when the Spaniards arrived. At this time the street was re-named as New Street, from the Strand which means shore or by the sea, lake or river.

It is to commemo-rate this that the Strand Tea Rooms derived its name. It is repudiated that a ghost of a cat is in residence and has been heard meowing but has not yet been seen.