Join the Portico Kitchen team for a unique afternoon tea experience inspired by great works of literature - Shirley Jackson & witches.

‘We eat the year away. We eat the spring and the summer and the fall.’

Merricat, We Have Always Lived in the Castle

Join the Portico Kitchen team for a unique afternoon tea experience inspired by great works of literature from Manchester and the wider world.

For our final instalment this year, we look at Shirley Jackson’s novella We Have Always Lived in the Castle. Running alongside the Portico’s Witches and Healers exhibition, our menu explores the prominent role food plays in a gothic masterpiece by a notorious novelist who was once described as ‘perhaps the only contemporary writer who is a practising amateur witch’.

Ticket price includes a full afternoon tea service including bottomless Brew Tea Co loose leaf tea or Adam’s and Russel filter coffee. Add a glass of prosecco for £6 or a bottle for £25. A sample menu is below (please be aware that this is currently subject to change).

Tickets can be booked individually or in groups. Individual ticket holders may be asked to share a table with other guests.

Please make us aware of any dietary requirements at the time of booking. We can cater for vegetarians and will accommodate other requirements wherever we can, however, due to the nature of these events, this may always not be possible. For any enquiries, please contact kitchen@theportico.org.uk

Sample menu (subject to change)

Gloucester rarebit

Mushroom vol au vents

Scones with cultured butter and tomato chutney

Sandwiches:

Summer preserves

A little luncheon meat

Rum cakes

Peanut brittle

Cousin Charles’ untouched pancake

Blackberry tartlets with “powdered sugar”

Description supplied by the event organiser.