Tea Shops of London

Tea-shops, for instance. I remember when I first was an art-student in
London there wasn't such a thing as a tea-shop anywhere near where we--the
girl-students--could go and get some lunch or a cup of tea. The only places
of the sort were the 'Zoedone'. In the 'nineties they were very rough and
quite impossible to go to, though perfectly well conducted. Tea, coffee, or
cocoa was served over the counter at three-halfpence a cup. I remember the
joy and excitement caused by the opening of the first A.B.C. shop close to
Oxford Circus. I can only speak for art-students, but I am sure that every
girl or woman-worker in the neighbourhood felt that the era of luxurious
living had dawned on good old London at last.

Baroness Orczy, Links in the Chain of Life (autobiography), 1947
From The Victorian Dictionary