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The History and Philosophy of The Victorian Teashop
The
Victorian Teashop in Matlock Bath was the concept of existence and
necessity – we needed a cup of tea while doing the renovation
work upstairs for the Life in a Lens museum and
got the idea for our own teashop, a place where not only we
could drink tea, but visitors to the museum and the general public
could drink it too.
We
instantly realised this was a good idea because the famous French
existentialist philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre had once said to me:
"Hell is other people – unless you make them tea!"
Good advice indeed, but it took thirty years and Matlock Bath to
sort it out. Existentialism works in mysterious ways.
Serving tea, amongst other things, now also serves as a 'meaning
of life'. It also includes the all essential 'freedom of choice'
for ourselves and our customers
– we can choose to serve them or not – they can have
milk and sugar, or not – or even go wild and choose a flavoured
tea, such as Earl Grey or Camomile.
Existentialist
philosphy is all about the 'meaning of life' over 'mere existence'
– making choices, choosing paths – so we're not only
in harmony with our own existence (so far as one can be) we have
also given that choice to others.
Tea was invented in China thousands of years ago and spread in popularity
all over the world like wheels and sliced bread.
Our
building was constructed is 1861 and was a Victorian guest house
with a shop where the teashop is now. Rumour
had it that we were coming soon with our teashop idea and companies
all over the empire began producing tea. Even though we were over
one hundred years away from starting our project, the stock markets
came up with the excuse for selling shares in our venture by calling
them 'futures' – no one has ever looked back and we are proud
here at The Victorian Teashop that all those years
ago it was we that started it all – even though we
didn't exist at the time. You just don't get more dedicated than
that.
By
the late 1880's in both America and England, fine hotels began to
offer 'tea service' in 'tea rooms' and 'tea courts'. Served in the
late afternoon, Victorian ladies and their gentlemen friends would
meet for tea and conversation.
That
can still happen, but now there's toasties – that's where
the sliced bread came in.
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