Surrey Hills · Silent Pool
Shere is the village everyone films when they want England to look like England. The walk from there to Silent Pool is one of the gentler good ones.
It is around 2.8 miles from Shere to Silent Pool, roughly an hour and ten at a wander, through ancient woodland and pasture, some of it following the River Tillingbourne. Shere itself, with its stream, ducks and twelfth-century church, has stood in for England in Four Weddings and The Holiday. Easy underfoot, suitable for most.
The walk brings you to Silent Pool, and Mandira's Kitchen is right there on the track above it, a 400-year-old converted cowshed serving chai, Indian lunch and cake seven days a week. Walk from the prettiest village in Surrey, finish with the best chai in it.
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.
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.
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.
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. 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.
Good questions, briefly answered
How long is the walk from Shere to Silent Pool?
About 2.8 miles, roughly an hour and ten minutes at an easy pace, through woodland and pasture partly alongside the River Tillingbourne.
Is the Shere to Silent Pool walk easy?
Yes, it is one of the gentler routes, with a modest elevation gain, suitable for most fitness levels.
Where can I eat at the end?
Mandira's Kitchen sits on the track above Silent Pool, serving Indian lunch, masala chai, cake and Afternoon Tea seven days a week.
Is Shere worth seeing too?
Yes. The village has a stream, ducks and a twelfth-century church and has featured in Four Weddings and a Funeral and The Holiday.
Book chai at the end of the Shere walk
Open seven days a week, on the track above Silent Pool.
Book chai at the end of the Shere walk →