Winterbourne House & Garden — Attraction in Birmingham

My friend and I visited Winterbourne Garden with high hopes of enjoying an afternoon tea. Given the beauty and reputation of the place, we anticipated a good experience.

We requested vegetarian and pescatarian options and paid for two people which costed £39.90 (This does not include the price to enter the venue, we paid additional cost for that, which was reasonable). However, we received only three small slices of baguette style bread. Two slices were topped with plain tuna, lacking mayonnaise, sweetcorn, or any other accompaniments. The third slice had some grated cheese and nothing else on it. It was puzzling to receive only three pieces when we had ordered for two people. Additionally, we were served a few vegetarian sausage rolls which were dry, tasteless, and had a soft pastry. The chutney that accompanied them was nice, but the rolls themselves were inedible.

The biggest disappointment was the cakes. They tasted artificial and were poorly made, with a sloppy texture. The worst part was the pre-made scones, topped with what seemed like artificial cream and jam, rather than the traditional clotted cream and jam that typically accompany afternoon tea, allowing you to assemble them yourself.

We received one cup of tea and one Americano with our afternoon tea, which was disappointing given the price. We expected at least a small pot of tea. Additionally, we were asked to wait at the counter to carry the afternoon tea to our table ourselves. This was quite unusual, as it would have been easy for us to accidentally spill it on ourselves or other guests while walking by. Surely, this is something staff members should handle?

Overall, this experience was a major letdown, and we left feeling very disappointed. We didn't mention our dissatisfaction to the staff, as the venue was quite busy that day.

Despite the disappointing afternoon tea, the garden itself is beautiful, and I would highly recommend visiting for a...

Our first visit and we loved it. It absorbed us for two hours .

The garden was very extensive and on a sunny January day we enjoyed sitting outside for our coffees and cakes before exploring the house.

Three levels to enjoy . Lots of great memorabilia from the Nettlefold family . Photos ,diaries and books. Lovely arts and crafts decor with William Morris wallpaper curtains and bedspreads.

A room dedicated to the way this family had made their money from screws!

A room which had lino prints recently designed to tell the story of the family and their house and garden.

The highest floor was given over to a temporary art exhibition of drawings by Dina Razin the illustrator for Ruth Millington's recent art history book Muse. You can purchase copies of Dina's prints on line and you can buy Ruth's book in the gift shop .

The garden had a number of very interesting greenhouses with tropical plants , orchids, cacti and spring flowers. Some fantastic specimens !

The woodland walk takes you through a sunken garden to a Monet style bridge. You can also walk to a huge lake teeming with seagulls herons cormorants swans and ducks! If you are lucky you might spot a parakeet!

Plenty car parking space. A lift inside for those with mobility issues. Toilets available. A bookshop and gift shop . Lots of garden seats .

Students are free. Senior citizens have a discount.

I recommend it if you are a garden lover or an art enthusiast. Historians will...

Winterbourne is an easy ¾ mile walk across the campus from University Railway Station. We visited in January so we saw the structure of the garden with Spring bulbs starting to emerge as we wandered around. We look forward to visiting again later in the year. Gardeners were hard at work preparing for the growing season ahead. The house had several rooms set out similar to how they would have been when it was occupied soon after being built in Arts and Crafts style, but more informally than if it were a National Trust property. Several rooms were exhibition spaces both in the house's previous roles as part of the University Botany and Art departments. There was also an exhibit of the history of GKN engineering products, part of the history of the house. The café had a good quality, value for money selection of simple fare. We were able to sit outside in the Winter sun and had a friendly Robin and not so friendly crows come looking for titbits. We bought some souvenirs from the shop and several books from the reasonably priced second hand book shop. The books looked to be a better selection than usual as you might think being part of the University! We were told our ticket entitles us to revisit free of charge within a few months. Overall, well...