London walk · Optional A · Lunch or tea
Café Royal — lunch or tea today, Bram’s supper in 1885
Pause for lunch or afternoon tea at Café Royal, as an optional stop between the London Library and Henry Irving’s statue. Bram records a supper here with Henry Irving and Richard and Isabel Burton on 27 June 1885, after a performance of Olivia.
They had hoped for a long evening of conversation, but the licensing rules intervened: at midnight they were obliged to leave. It is a vivid, documented meal in Bram’s London life.
Today’s Hotel Café Royal offers afternoon tea in its historic Grill Room. The painting alongside, Sydney Starr’s At the Café Royal (about 1890), evokes the period..
From the London Library, follow the public pavement around St James’s Square to Duke of York Street, then use Jermyn Street and Eagle Place to reach Piccadilly. Continue to Café Royal on Regent Street. After lunch or tea, follow the dotted route via Piccadilly Circus towards Henry Irving’s statue beside the National Portrait Gallery, where you rejoin the main walk. This optional Library–Café Royal–Irving route is about 1 km in total: allow around 20 minutes walking, plus your meal or tea. Use marked crossings.
Optional paid refreshment stop. Reserve ahead; check current menus, prices and access arrangements with the venue. You can complete the main walk without stopping here.
Bram’s memoir: Richard Burton, chapter XL ↗
Afternoon tea and reservations ↗
