Ealing Nub News aims to support our community, promoting shops, businesses, charities, clubs and sports groups.

We will be profiling some of these businesses and organisations regularly in a feature called 'UP CLOSE in Ealing.'

Today we caught up with Pam Redrup, the Ealing owner of Tea Darling.

Pam Redrup is originally from Liverpool but has made Ealing her home since 2006.

Eight years ago, her daughter wanted a vintage afternoon tea party as part of her birthday celebration.

That's when it all started for Pam, who after hosting a very successful tea party, decided to start a vintage events company, called Tea Darling.

Fast forward five years later and to 2018, which is when Pam opened her first tea room shop in Acton, under the same name – Tea Darling.

Located on Churchfield Road, Tea Darling offers an 'escape from the outside world', where people can relax while enjoying their tea and cakes.

Pam told Nub News: "I don't have Wi-Fi available or tend to do takeaway, I want customers to sit, take a break from the 21st century and just enjoy their food.

"At the same time, they never leave hungry, the afternoon tea set comes with sandwiches, cakes and scones, so they're always very full and happy."

The coronavirus pandemic has forced the business to adapt however, with take away becoming more prevalent.

"Mother's Day was a huge blow for us because we were fully booked and we had to try and accommodate as many orders as we could via takeaway.

"We've been getting cake orders over the phone and customers are coming to collect them during all the lockdowns.

"Over Christmas we were very busy and I'm very grateful, but it's a lot harder to do takeaways and it's just not as enjoyable as having customers in your shop and getting to chat to them," she added.

Once the pandemic is over and things return back to normal, Pam plans to open back up as soon as possible.

She said: "Takeaway was not what I had in mind when I opened Tea Darling, it's the last thing I wanted to do, I want people to come in and sit and I feel like I need to remind them that relaxing is what Tea Darling is all about."

In the meantime though, she's doing whatever she can to drum up business, so she's releasing a new lockdown takeaway menu this weekend.