Bettys Cafe Tea Rooms, York

Mr Plum and I recently spent 5 days in Yorkshire, house and Nanna sitting, while the in-laws were on holiday in Devon.

There are certain things that we must do while up North, these include:

1.  Visiting relatives

2.  Visiting friends

3.  Go to York and visit Bettys!!!!

York is a beautiful city - full of lovely little streets and quaint shops.  I lived there for 18 months (1999-2001) and have done lots of the tourist stuff (Jorvik, Castle Museum, the York Dungeon, Shambles etc!) .... 

Whenever we get to go back to York now, we head straight for Bettys Tea Shop! This is the most amazing place - and we never grow tired of a piece of tea loaf, stem ginger cake, pikelets, pot of tea ... 

We had found out that by the Ladies there is a mirror. During the Second World War, Canadian Airmen who were stationed outside York would visit Bettys Bar regularly - so regular in fact, that when the MOD wrote to Bettys threatening to requisition the building for the war effort - Bettys wrote back and said that there was no way the MOD could requisition the building as they were currently serving 20,000 meals a week - mostly to the airmen!  Anyway, on this mirror - the airmen have all signed their names ... a cursory glance at the mirror, and you would think that it was just graffiti ... until you look at the dates on the glass (1941).  The most poignant thing about this is that Mr Plum's Nanna was in the Land Army and based outside York ... she used to go to dances at Bettys with her Canadian Airman ......

I would recommend a visit to Bettys - don't be put off by the long queue ... it is well worth the wait! Have a look at the mirror - it is downstairs to the right of the ladies toilet!