The London Tea Room has launched an online bakery selling house-made scones, cakes, macarons, sausage rolls and tea for pickup at its 255 Union Blvd. location in DeBaliviere Place, giving St. Louis fans a way to grab the shop's British staples without booking a formal Afternoon Tea seat. The bakery went live Thursday and will take orders Wednesday through Sunday, matching the tea room's regular pickup schedule.
The launch, also reported by Sauce Magazine, comes from co-owner Josh Richardson, who described the new venture as intentionally modest. “We are starting small on purpose. Limited quantities, a focused selection, and a real willingness to change it based on what people ask us for,” he said, according to the outlet's report. The menu currently includes about a half dozen seasonal scone flavors, a rotating assortment of six macarons, the tea room's blueberry lemon cake, and English sausage rolls served with HP sauce and mustard. Customers can also order tea brewed to order in a take-home carry case.
A Kitchen Operation Dating to 2007
The bakery draws on a kitchen tradition that predates the current DeBaliviere Place space by nearly two decades. The London Tea Room has baked its own scones and other treats since 2007, the same year the Richardson family formally established the tea room in St. Louis, according to the Sauce Magazine report. That kitchen legacy traces even further back, according to STL.News, to 1995, when the Richardson family established a furniture business that later became English Living and moved to Washington Avenue — a business that closed in 2012, long after the tea room it spawned had become the more enduring venture.
The new bakery items are made using the same pastry team responsible for the dining room's sweets, per the Sauce Magazine account, positioning the online orders as an extension of the tea room's longtime kitchen operation rather than a separate concept. Nathan Richardson heads the kitchen, and he and his brother Joshua run the business.
From Tower Grove South to a DeBaliviere Rebirth
The path to 255 Union Blvd. has not been a straight line. The Richardson family moved the tea room from Tower Grove South to Downtown West in 2022, but the business closed that Downtown West location in 2024. According to the tea room, a court granted its request to be released from the lease at 1900 Locust St., and the business would pay the disputed arrears.
Sauce Magazine also reported that former owner Jackie James stepped away from operating the restaurant around that time in part to care for her daughter, who has a progressive disease, and to work with a nonprofit foundation supporting related research. That transition opened the door for third-generation family members Joshua and Nathan Richardson to take the reins, and the tea room later opened at 255 Union Blvd. in DeBaliviere Place, a historic building known as The Era Collective near Forest Park.
Restored Floors, a Fresh Focus on Takeout
The current space features restored historic floors and wood paneling, along with expansive windows that maximize natural light, Sauce Magazine reported. The online bakery adds an a la carte option alongside the Afternoon Tea and High Tea format.
Josh Richardson said the new system lets customers bring the tea-room experience home, with takeout orders available for scones, cakes and tea. Orders can be placed up to 14 days in advance through bakery.thelondontearoom.com, with same-day pickup available given advance notice; whole cakes require one day's notice, and there is no delivery option.
The Tea Behind the Treats
Jackie James remains connected to the tea room through The London Tea Merchant, the sister company that supplies and blends the loose-leaf teas served in-house and established a warehouse operation in Belleville, Illinois. Among its blends, Naughty Vicar, a black currant-forward black tea, has become one of the tea room's most popular offerings, a rise Sauce Magazine notes came despite founder Pat Richardson's initial resistance to the provocative name.
For now, the bakery is keeping its ambitions in check, with limited daily quantities across scones, cakes, macarons and sausage rolls that may expand based on customer demand. Pickup remains available Wednesday through Sunday at the DeBaliviere Place location, giving the neighborhood near Forest Park a low-key new reason to stop by a business that has spent three decades reinventing itself.
