Surrey Hills · Silent Pool
For about two weeks in late April the woods between Shere and Silent Pool go completely blue. It is worth arranging your year around.
The ancient woodland along the Shere to Silent Pool path is one of the better bluebell stretches in the Surrey Hills, at its best in late April into early May. It is a gentle walk, partly along the River Tillingbourne, through trees old enough to do this properly.
Mandira's Kitchen sits on the track at the Silent Pool end, a 400-year-old converted cowshed serving masala chai, Indian lunch, cake and Afternoon Tea seven days a week. Bluebells are a short season. The chai is not, but the timing is still worth getting right.
What you actually eat here
Lunch, seven days a week
Lunch is Indian street food, the kind Mandira grew up eating, not a curry-house menu. Samosa chaat with tamarind drizzle, papri chaat, biryani, kathi rolls, keema pav, the forbidden chilli cheese toast, all handmade with our own chutneys. Chai ice cream and lychee martini sorbet if you have room. Gluten-free options. Eat in the barn or out on the patio over the pool. Booking a table is wise, especially at weekends.
The weekend thali
At weekends we make a limited number of thalis: a round platter of small dishes that changes every week, and comes with a Bollywood playlist, a film recommendation and a quiz, because a thali should be an afternoon, not a plate. They must be pre-booked and are picked up Friday or Saturday. If you are further afield or on the monthly subscription, we can post one (it arrives the Tuesday after).
Freezer meals to take home
The same food, cooked by hand in small batches in the barn and frozen the same day, never cooked from frozen in a factory. Take a stack home from the cafe after lunch, or have them delivered anywhere in the UK in insulated boxes, free over £100. Larger trays for four or ten when people are coming over and you would rather they thought you cooked.
A barn above one of England's strangest pools
Silent Pool is a spring-fed former chalk quarry on the Albury Estate, so still and so clear it looks lit from below. Tennyson came here to think. Agatha Christie's car was found just up the hill at Newlands Corner in 1926. There is a legend about a girl called Emma and a king on a horse, which may be Victorian invention but is told anyway, usually in a lowered voice. Our barn sits on the track just above all of it, where pilgrims once walked the old North Downs way and the smell of ground cardamom now drifts across the hills by mid-morning. Four hundred years a cowshed. These days, something rather better fed.
Good questions, briefly answered
Where can I see bluebells in the Surrey Hills?
The ancient woodland between Shere and Silent Pool is one of the best stretches, at its peak in late April into early May, an easy walk partly along the River Tillingbourne.
When is the best time for bluebells near Silent Pool?
Typically the last two weeks of April into early May, though it shifts slightly with the season.
Is there somewhere to eat after the bluebell walk?
Yes. Mandira's Kitchen is on the track by Silent Pool, serving chai, Indian lunch, cake and Afternoon Tea seven days a week.
Is the walk suitable for families?
Yes, the Shere to Silent Pool route is gentle and around 2.8 miles, suitable for most, with the pool and cafe at one end.
Book chai after the bluebells
Open seven days a week, on the track above Silent Pool.
Book chai after the bluebells →