A visit to Edith’s House – an N8 cafe
Tea cosies and vintage china spring to mind every time I think of Edith’s House cafe. Ever since it opened up in Crouch End just over a year ago, I’ve always enjoyed popping in for a pot of tea, or a bowl of soup and a cheese scone, or (don’t tell anyone) a big slice of cake.
Lily, my dog loves it too – they provide special dog blankets for visiting pooches so they can sit comfortably on the couches.
The cafe is a delight. Owners Eaton and Michael, who both used to be actors, have created a unique little eaterie. Each area of the cafe is set up as a different room from the past, modelled upon Eaton’s Nanna Edith’s house.
Room for everyone
You can lounge in the living room – believe it or not, there’s even a knitting bag full of wool and needles if you fancy working a few rows, which I have done on a few occasions.
Or maybe you prefer to sit and sip in the scullery, or even have a tea sitting on the toilet balancing your tray on the washbasin (this seems the preferred photo stop for visitors to the area!).
Then there’s a kitchen, a parlour, a dining room, a telephone table…
I particularly love the dressing-table area, and the bedroom even has a sewing machine ready and waiting on the table…
So if you could choose, I’d love to know where you’d sit!
They needed cosies!
Most of the crockery is all old and mismatched and floral, with trays of sugar bowls and tongs, milk jugs and flowery teapots. When Eaton told me they’d just bought some new white, single-cup teapots that needed little tea cosies and asked if I could design some for them, of course I jumped at the chance.
I came up with five designs, all knitted with crochet flowers added on at the end, and I absolutely love them. So, it seems, do the Edith’s House customers…
I’vm going to be adding the basic pattern over on the pattern section of the website in case you fancy giving them a try…
Plant Pot cosy
Blue Belle cosy
Picket Fence cosy
Candy Colours cosy
Blooming All Over cosy
Sadly, Edith’s House has now closed – we miss it.