London —

“Under certain circumstances there are few hours in life more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as afternoon tea,” wrote Henry James in “The Portrait of a Lady.” “Teatime” is one of those quintessential English phrases that stirs up images of steaming silverware pots being ferried across vast lawns and dished up to characters straight out of “Downton Abbey,” politely nattering behind towering tiers of delicate gateaux and finger sandwiches.

But there is more to teatime than cucumber sandwiches with “Downton’s” Dowager Countess of Grantham, and pots of tea on the ceiling with giggling uncles in “Mary Poppins.” This is a complex beast, awash with finicky rituals, multiple iterations and evolving etymology. Time, then, to put on a brew and drink it all in.

See Full Page