Babington's tea room, established in 1893, is a traditional English tea shop at the foot of the

Spanish Steps The Spanish Steps ( it, Scalinata di Trinità dei Monti) in Rome, Italy, climb a steep slope between the Piazza di Spagna at the base and Piazza Trinità dei Monti, dominated by the Trinità dei Monti church, at the top. The monumental stairwa ...

in the

Piazza di Spagna Piazza di Spagna ("Spanish Square"), at the bottom of the Spanish Steps, is one of the most famous squares in Rome, Italy. It owes its name to the Palazzo di Spagna, the seat of the Embassy of Spain to the Holy See. There is also the famed Colum ...

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus ( legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

History

The tea room was founded by two young women, one from New Zealand and one from England, who arrived in Rome in 1893. They were

Isabel Cargill Isabel Cargill (10 December 1864 – 17 April 1944) was a New Zealand businesswoman who established English-style tearooms in Rome, Italy, in the early 1890s. Biography Cargill was born in Dunedin, New Zealand, on 10 December 1864. She was the g ...

, daughter of William Cargill, founder of the city of

Dunedin Dunedin ( ; mi, Ōtepoti) is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand (after Christchurch), and the principal city of the Otago region. Its name comes from , the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. Th ...

in New Zealand and Anna Maria Babington, descendant of Antony Babington who was hanged in 1586 for conspiring against Elizabeth I. The women decided to invest their savings (100 pounds) by opening a tearoom and reading room in the capital for the Anglo-Saxon. The company at the time involved considerable risks, above all because in Italy it was not common to drink tea, which was sold only in pharmacies. Babington's tea room was an immediate success, both because Italy was the destination of the Grand Tour for the English and because it was part of a Rome that celebrated the Jubilee and the silver wedding of the royals Umberto and Margherita. Originally the tea room was on Via dei Due Macelli, a sideroad of the Piazza di Spagna, but the establishment's success encouraged the owners to relocate to the Piazza di Spagna 23. It is located on the ground floor of an 18th-century building from which one can see the Spanish Steps, the staircase of the

Trinità dei Monti The church of the Santissima Trinità dei Monti, often called merely the Trinità dei Monti (French: ''La Trinité-des-Monts''), is a Roman Catholic late Renaissance titular church in Rome, central Italy. It is best known for its position above ...

church. This buildings are the original stables of the 18th century palazzo designed by Francesco De Sanctis, architect of the Spanish Steps. The new tea room on the Piazza di Spagna was furnished elegantly and became, according to the English language Roman Herald a favoured meeting place "where ladies or gentlemen, hard at work sightseeing could go to refresh themselves with a comforting cup of tea." During

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

, Rome society plunged into depression but the tea room survived. Cargill's sister Annie invested her life's savings to give the premises a complete renovation. Anna Maria Babington moved to Switzerland because of her failing health, but died of a sudden heart attack in 1929. Despite the anti-English policy of Mussolini, throughout the fascist period and even during the second world war, Babingtons remained open, with its very clear English sign and the solid bronze characters on a Roman travertine plaque. During the 1950s and 1960s, with the success of Cinecittà, film stars and other celebrities frequented the tea rooms, some even as regulars, including Richard Burton and Liz Taylor, Charlton Heston, Robert Taylor, Peter Ustinov, Audrey Hepburn and filmmaker Federico Fellini. Babingtons serves Victoria Afternoon Tea still in uniform. One of the tea blenders is Melania Francis Lopez, who created the Royal wedding blend. Babington's survived two world wars, the advent of

fast food Fast food is a type of mass-produced food designed for commercial resale, with a strong priority placed on speed of service. It is a commercial term, limited to food sold in a restaurant or store with frozen, preheated or precooked ingredie ...

and various economic crises, to become a Roman institution and tourist attraction. The Tea Room is run by the fourth generation of Isabel Cargill. The Babingtons staff has had a regular cat guest, whom they call Mascherino for the past 50 years. Mascherino was a stray cat adopted by Babingtons' waitresses after World War II.

References

External links

The official site
Restaurants in Rome Tea houses Restaurants established in 1893 1893 establishments in Italy Rome R. IV Campo Marzio Cargill family (New Zealand) {{Restaurants in Italy