The Assembly House

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Award-winning hotel and restaurant in the heart of Norwich. We put the extra in extraordinary, every single day 💖
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Home of iconic themed Afternoon Teas, decadent bedrooms, unforgettable weddings and glittering events. The Assembly House is a gorgeous Georgian gem perfectly located in the heart of Norwich. Designed by architect Thomas Ivory in 1754, the Grade-I listed House is famous for its historic elegance, glittering celebrations, beautiful bedrooms and legendary Afternoon Teas. "...The Assembly House, one of the UK’s loveliest boutique hotels, offers a storming afternoon tea..." TV presenter and journalist Grace Dent, writing in The Guardian newspaper

We set out to create the kind of establishment we'd love to find in one of the UK's most beautiful cities, one where old-fashioned hospitality is valued, food is delicious and where beautiful surroundings can be found hidden around every corner. Our characterful bedrooms are like jewellery boxes, each one different, many filled with genuine antiques, some with gardens, some their own balconies, all boasting a generous sprinkle of glamour and magic. With a restaurant that opens daily for breakfast and Beforenoon Tea, lunch or one of our famous themed Afternoon Teas, menus are by director and renowned Norfolk chef Richard Hughes. The House hosts stunning weddings, impressive events, standout conferences and is the home of The Richard Hughes Cookery School, the inaugural winner of The British Cookery School of the Year. Come and immerse yourself in the world of The Assembly House: we can't wait for you to be our guests!

14/10/2026

🍎 THE APPLE BETTY SHOT GLASS 🍎

Look, we love Alfie the Acorn, we do.
He’s tiny, he’s adorable, he’s got his little acorny face and, frankly, he’s become something of a celebrity around here.
But we feel there’s a serious case of apple-shaped injustice going on - because what about Apple Betty?
She’s been sitting quietly on the sidelines while Alfie gets all the attention. No fuss, no fanfare, no dramatic entrance. Just patiently waiting for someone to notice that she is, quite frankly, the star of the show too.
And so we thought it was time to give Betty her moment.
We’re not saying there’s rivalry between Alfie and Betty.
We’re simply saying that if Alfie happens to find himself sharing the limelight with a certain apple this season…he’d better learn to share.
This is the Apple Betty Shot Glass from our Autumn Whimsy Afternoon Tea 🍂✨
A tiny American pudding with a very big personality.
🍂 Autumn Whimsy Afternoon Tea: £37.50 per person
🍰 Children up to 12: £20.95
🥂 £45 including a glass of Flint Vineyard Charmat Rosé or Charmat white
Book your table: www.assemblyhousenorwich.co.uk/afternoon-tea/menus
🍂 AUTUMN WHIMSY AFTERNOON TEA
September 7 to October 16
🎃 Halloween House of Horrors: October 17 to 31
🍁 Autumn Whimsy returns: November 1 to 13
🎄 Christmas Afternoon Tea begins: November 14
Come and give Apple Betty the transatlantic comeback tour she deserves 🍎

12/10/2026

🚨 SCAM ALERT: PLEASE SHARE AND WARN YOUR FELLOW TRADERS! 🚨

We have been made aware of a FAKE EMAIL (see below) inviting businesses to book stalls at The Assembly House Christmas Fairs on 22 and 29 November 2026.

THIS IS A SCAM. THE EMAIL IS NOT FROM US.

The email is being sent from [email protected]. This is NOT an official Assembly House email address, and the information being circulated is false.

To be absolutely clear:

🔴 We have not sent this email
🔴 The email address is not ours
🔴 There is no ‘Assembly House Christmas Fair Coordination Team’. We are a small, perfectly real organisation, not a sprawling public-sector quango with a mysterious Christmas division
🔴 We have not authorised this invitation or the associated application form

DO NOT CLICK THE LINK, SUBMIT YOUR DETAILS OR MAKE ANY PAYMENTS. WE HAVE REPORTED THE ACCOUNT.

We are particularly concerned that independent traders and small businesses could be persuaded to hand over their personal information or money in the belief that this is a genuine opportunity to trade with us.

If you have received this email and are unsure whether something is genuinely from The Assembly House, please contact our team directly using the contact details on our official website or call us on 01603 626402 to check before responding. We will always be happy to help you establish whether a communication is genuine.

You can report these mails as phishing through your email provider and forward the original email to [email protected] so the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre can investigate.

We are appalled that someone would use our name in this way and potentially exploit hardworking independent businesses trying to make a living, particularly in the run-up to Christmas.

Honestly, people can be the absolute WORST 🤬

PLEASE SHARE THIS POST so we can get the warning out to as many Norfolk businesses, makers, artists and independent traders as possible.

Let’s make sure nobody loses money or personal information to these scammers.

❤️ The Assembly House

11/10/2026

🍰 IS IT AFTERNOON TEA OR HIGH TEA? 🍰

A question which appears to require a lengthy historical explanation involving the Victorians, social class, dining tables and possibly the Industrial Revolution.
Another in our ongoing series of things we hear, questions we're asked and matters we feel it is our civic duty to settle.
And this one is actually quite simple: Afternoon tea is the lovely one filled with tea, sandwiches, scones, cakes and all the rest of the good stuff, traditionally served in the afternoon.
High tea is something different altogether: traditionally, it was a more substantial evening meal, often eaten at a dining table rather than the low tables associated with afternoon tea.
So when you come to The Assembly House for one of our spectacular towers of sandwiches, scones and patisserie…it’s afternoon tea, not high tea.
Don't get us started on confusing Afternoon Teas for Cream Teas.
The Assembly House: sorting out life's little confusions, one cake-related question at a time. You're welcome.

PS This is Afternoon Tea. If you'd like to book it, hasten to this page on the World Wide Web: www.assemblyhousenorwich.co.uk/afternoon-tea/menus

10/10/2026

🍂✨ AUTUMN WHIMSY IS TAKING A LITTLE BREAK IN SEVEN DAYS✨🍂

There’s one week to go before Autumn Whimsy Afternoon Tea takes a very short seasonal sabbatical.
It's not going anywhere, it's not retiring and it isn't being dramatically wheeled off into the sunset, it's just taking a little break while Halloween takes over the building🎃👻
So if you’ve been meaning to come for a taste of apples, blackberries, cinnamon, crumble and all things gloriously autumnal, this week is your moment.
Then, from 17 October, it’s time for the 10th Assembly House of Horrors X Halloween Afternoon Tea, so a week today 👻
And once the ghosts have gone home, Autumn Whimsy 🍂✨ will be back from 1–13 November for one final autumn flourish.
And then…well: Twill almost be time for Twas the Night Before Christmas.
For now, you have one whole week of Whimsy, then a little Halloween interlude, then Whimsy returns: it’s not goodbye, it's au revoir 🍂👻

08/10/2026

🥓🍳 BEFORENOON TEA: FOR PEOPLE WHO BELIEVE BREAKFAST SHOULD COME WITH A SENSE OF OCCASION 🍳🥓
Some breakfasts are purely functional.
A sad banana eaten while looking for your keys, cereal bar inhaled in the car, half a slice of toast abandoned next to a cup of tea you forgot to drink because life came at you too fast before 8.30am.
Beforenoon Tea rejects this entirely: Beforenoon Tea wakes up, puts on proper shoes and says: “no actually. I DESERVE hollandaise.”
Served every morning from 9am to 11.30am, this is breakfast that has absolutely no intention of behaving itself.
You begin with a mini version of one of our hot breakfast favourites. Think:
🍳 Eggs Benedict
🥓 a glorious fry-up
✨ other deeply comforting things involving butter
And then…THREE TIERS OF BREAKFAST TREATS arrive at your table. THREE.
It is essentially our award-winning Afternoon Tea after one very productive morning,
a motivational podcast and two strong coffees
There are pastries, there are savouries, there are tiny surprises pretending to be fried eggs, there is enough food to turn “just popping out for breakfast” into a full-blown event.
It’s where Calvin Harris should go immediately after putting on his shoes. (A niche moment for the millennials there.)
Book your table here: www.assemblyhousenorwich.co.uk/dining/breakfast

07/10/2026

🔥🍫 THE BONFIRE CHOCOLATE FLAME 🍫🔥

These little Bonfire Chocolate Flames are part of our Autumn Whimsy Afternoon Tea, and they are possibly the smallest bonfires in Norfolk.
Each one has its own little pile of chocolate logs, topped with a tiny chocolate flame, with flashes of red, orange and gold chocolate.
And there is another rather lovely thing about our bonfires.
They are a way to celebrate Bonfire Night without setting off fireworks, frightening the dog, traumatising the cat or sending every hedgehog within a three-mile radius into a state of existential crisis.
You can enjoy the glow without anyone having to dive behind the sofa and then you can eat it.
Which is really the crucial bit.
Because this is Autumn Whimsy, and whimsy is essentially the art of taking something perfectly ordinary and making it unnecessarily magical.
A bonfire? Make it chocolate. A chocolate bonfire? Put it on a cake stand. A cake stand? Add afternoon tea.
And suddenly you're sitting in a Georgian townhouse eating an entirely fictional woodland bonfire while drinking tea. Perfect.
🍂 Autumn Whimsy Afternoon Tea: £37.50 per person
🍰 Children up to 12: £20.95
🥂 £45 including a glass of Flint Vineyard Charmat Rosé or Charmat white
Book your table: www.assemblyhousenorwich.co.uk/afternoon-tea/menus
🍂 AUTUMN WHIMSY AFTERNOON TEA
September 7 to October 16
🎃 Halloween House of Horrors: October 17 to 31
🍁 Autumn Whimsy returns: November 1 to 13
🎄 Christmas Afternoon Tea begins: November 14

06/10/2026

🤫😏MEANWHILE, BENEATH YOUR FEET…😏🤫

You’re upstairs, drinking tea, eating cake, admiring the chandeliers.
And beneath you? We are Up To Something in capital letters.
We’re not going to tell you what it is yet, but it involves an undercroft, some very old walls, a lot of timber…and a rather exciting secret.
Watch this space. 👀

PS If we buried a time capsule there, what do you think it should have in it? Let me manage your expectations: the time capsule is small. We're not going to fit a politician in there, even if we fold them up.

05/10/2026

🎄✨ WE HAVE CHRISTMASSED CHRISTMAS ✨🎄
There is Christmas, there is VERY Christmas and then there is Twilight Igloo Afternoon Tea at The Assembly House Christmas.
Your own private igloo, a beautiful Afternoon Tea packed with magical festive treats that Father Christmas would give his eye teeth for, all served as the sun goes down, the Christmas trees outside begin to twinkle, the rainbow lights come on, the wreath glows above the door and the most Christmassy music imaginable fills the air.
We may even be able to persuade our server Rudy to put on a red nose and antlers because yes, we have bought some for him.
We would appreciate it if nobody warned Rudy in advance, as we are hoping to attach them to him in a stealth operation on November 13th.
At this point, short of actually putting Father Christmas in the igloo with you, we're not entirely sure what else we can do.
This is Christmas to the power of Christmas, Christmas squared, Christmas with Christmas on top.
If you don't want to be enchanted, that's absolutely fine: there are plenty of places where you can have an Afternoon Tea in a room.
But if you would quite like to sit in your own private igloo, surrounded by a forest of twinkling Christmas trees, outside one of the most Christmassy houses in Norwich, while eating a festive Afternoon Tea as darkness falls…well.
There are only a handful of Twilight Igloo dates left: November: 16, 17, 18, 19, 23, 24, 25, 26, 30, December: 1, 2, 30, January: 1, 3.
Ts, Cs and fees here:www.assemblyhousenorwich.co.uk/christmas-2026-at-the-assembly-house/igloos
Seriously, not a word to Rudy*

* NOT REALLY. I've asked him, he said yes in a heartbeat. I am a Consent QUEEN.

Address

Theatre Street
Norwich
NR21RQ

Telephone

+441603626402

Website

http://www.assemblyhousenorwich.co.uk/

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