Cafe Bagatelle in The Wallace Collection

More and more people are visiting museum cafés and restaurants. I think that the way people use these places has been changing. Before, visits to these cafes and restaurants were seen as part and parcel of going to a museum. Now, however, you can see them from a different angle: instead of the arts and artifacts being the main purpose of a visit to a museum, why not look at them as merely a marginal attraction with the cafes and restaurants being the main purpose of the visit? This is what I sometimes do. There is a lovely café/restaurant in the centre of London that I enjoy popping into while shopping or walking. It is Café Bagatelle in The Wallace Collection.

The Wallace collection is housed in Hertford House, Manchester Square in London. The house was built as Manchester House in 1776. The Museum is easily accessible from both Bond Street and Baker Street Stations. Admission to the Wallace Collection is free of charge. It has Europe’s finest collections of works of art, paintings, furniture, arms and armour and porcelain.

Café Bagatelle serves morning coffee, lunch, and afternoon tea. It has a very elegant interior and also boasts a magnificent glass ceiling. What a good break from shopping a visit to this place makes! A finely-tuned service is offered here. Not only can you choose the size of your dish, any item on the a la carte menu can be ordered as an appetizer.

The restaurant not only caters for visitors to the museum, but has also established itself as a venue for local people and residents.
You can enjoy it while taking a break from shopping or walking as well. There is a big department store, Selfridges, near the museum.

The atmosphere in the museums with their superb works of art, adds to the pleasure of drinking and eating there. You can enjoy delicious food and drinks and authentic arts in a historical building all at the same time! It might be one of the best ways to enjoy life in an everyday context.

On top of all this, the cafes and restaurants make a good excuse for visiting museums if you are not all that interested in the arts. Perhaps you might even be tempted to join the ever-growing numbers of people now visiting museums for their arts and artifacts.