Tea with style from London Underground
I love great gifts that come from places that you wouldn’t expect to find something for a foodie with taste. As part of our trip to London at the weekend we ended up browsing in the shop of the London Transport Museum. And I have to say they have some stunning stuff for the kitchen.
If you need something for a tea lover then there is a beautiful teapot and separate teacups based on a design by Andre Edouard Marty. Very pretty and 1920s style, it will bring a pretty vintage edge to afternoon tea.
Arthur Watts Espresso Cups
For something a bit more funky in colour and for the coffee drinkers, then these espresso cups are great. Based on a design by Arthur Watts, they’re a perfect size for a strong shot or two in the morning, but look interesting.
The shop also has a great selection of very stylish teatowels, covering every kind of graphics that have ever been used on the Underground. If you’ve been commuting for some time, then have a look at the apron in the 1970s moquette pattern, as this will be so very familiar to you!
There are some great museum shops now online, and they are a great source of unusual gifts, not just for foodies. The Tate shop has some great homewares stuff, perfect for the contemporary art loving foodie. As you might expect, the Eden Project shop is great for gardening foodies as well as for their kitchen, and for living out of doors.
If they’re a geeky gadgety kind of foodie then have a look at the Science Museum Shop. There’s the aeropress coffee maker, and the power plant to make something else out of your herb growing! The Design Museumis great for those with a strong design aesthetic, so expect unusual cutelry, beautifully designed ceramics and funky textiles. And, as you’d expect, the V&A has a huge range, covering every kind of style you could ever want.
So, if you’re wandering about where to shop for something different, for a difficult to please foodie, then these are not a bad place for something a bit more unusual and unique.
Good finds. TfL have always been good at design even if the tubes don’t always work as well as we might hope!
Very true, on both counts. I love their designs, and there is such an amazing archive. Stopping at a teatowel was hard!