From the Sparchives: Tea Time

Welcome to our new online installation of “From the Sparchives!” We’re excited to take a look back in time at some old and interesting spa and wellness photos. Here’s our first:

We barely know anything about this photograph—only that it was taken at a spa in England in 1940—and yet we don’t need to. It’s all right here: the English infatuation with daily rituals like tea, the English practice of importing those dearly held rituals into the most unlikely places, and the English habit of taking social situations seriously, even when they’re out-and-out comical. Monty Python was nearly three decades in the future when this picture was taken, but as it turns out, there all the time. —Gary Walther (originally published in Luxury SpaFinder)