Tea: social fuel

“Find yourself a cup of tea; the teapot is behind you. Now tell me about hundreds of things.”
British writer Saki wasn’t wrong when he wrote this back around the turn of the 20th century. Tea rooms have, from their beginnings as an alcohol-free alternative to pubs, always been a place for social interaction. And, just like in pubs, it is the owners and staff who see these stories unfold right in front of them every single day.

Leo Pickering, 20, works at Stoke’s High Bridge Café in the heart of Lincoln. Despite only having worked at the coffee and tea establishment for a few years he can already tell his fair share of stories about the people he serves. “On busy days like Saturdays our place is usually filled with regular shoppers wanting a cup of tea or coffee, but on the more quiet weekdays you can quite often find a few familiar faces in the crowds.” Says Leo. “Not just because we’ve seen them before and know what their usual is, but a lot of them are quite eccentric. Although I prefer to call them bohemian, it sounds a bit nicer and I think is goes better with the place’s quite classic setting here on the bridge”.

Some of the stories are not much more than customer’s habits or preferences. “Every afternoon on which it is a little bit quiet this really smartly dressed gentleman comes in and sits right over there in the same place and drinks his tea and reads his paper.” He points at a table by the window. “He doesn’t talk to anyone else and only leaves after having thoroughly read the paper. Funny thing is that if that seat’s taken, he doesn’t even bother coming in.”.
But not all visitors of the café (which offers an impressive 21 different varieties of tea) visit for an hour of solitude. “Many couples and small groups use the café as a meeting spot, you quite often see them here at around the same time of day and they talk about how there day has been and things like that. It really is like those people who meet in the pub every day. I don’t really know if these people actually ever see each other in places other than the café. It would make a great setting for a soap or something! They always meet in the same places to meet up with each other.”

So, with all these people meeting is this social hub that is the café, have the staff ever noticed any romances developing amongst the cups and scones? Leo can’t recall any stories of this sort himself but remembers his boss pointing out a married couple once. “He told me that they used to come here quite often when they were younger, with their friends, separate from each other. They always used to talk and they later started arriving together whenever they came here.” Tells Leo as he tries to recall his boss’ story. “He didn’t think that much of it at the time, until a few years later when they actually went up to him and told him they were getting married. They told him that it wouldn;t have happened if it wasn’t for getting to know each other in the café. I think my boss actually went to their wedding reception and everything. It’s quite a sweet story, actually.”

Leo believes the café does seem to generally attract nice people. “The worst cases of people are those who seem a bit menacing and you are not quite sure wether they actually are like that or not, but it has always been peaceful inhere. It’s not the type of place that would attract trouble makers, it’s quite quint. The most offensive visitor we’ve ever had inhere was a rep trying to sell us instant coffee. Not normally a problem but as the place is owned by the city’s most well-known coffee roaster it was a bit of a slap in the face, really!”