The Outer Studio Café at Charleston, Firle (near Lewes), East Sussex, UK

Type of shop: English café

I visited Charleston, the beautiful South Downs countryside home and retreat of the Bloomsbury Group, a few weeks ago on a glorious early summer day. The house and gardens are open for around seven months a year and feature designs and art work by the artists Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant. The house is a museum piece with the rooms presented to look as it did when it was lived in and entrance on most days is by guided tour only. A visit to Charleston is a must for anyone with an interest in the Bloomsbury Group or early 20th century English art.

Charleston House

Refreshments were required after my guided tour and where better to stop than than the on-site café, The Outer Studio Café? The cafe is open from midday and is housed in Charleston’s out-buildings which once functioned as the family laundry, apple store and garage.

Galleon Cafe, St Kilda, Melbourne

Type of food: Breakfast/brunch and Australian café

My first impressions of Melbourne were cold and very rainy. The weather surprised me as, being from the UK, I thought Melbourne was always warm and sunny. I have since spoken to some Australian friends who said that you really can get four seasons in one day in Melbourne!

Anyway, we stayed at a nearby hotel in St Kilda for a business trip and fancied somewhere different to the hotel for breakfast. So we popped into the Galleon Café at 7.15 in the morning and it was the perfect place for a couple of people who were still a little bleary eyed and just waking up. The rainy day just added to the mood and ambience.