An English country garden on Thames

What: Butlers Wharf Chop House gets a new change of floral clothing, becoming an English country garden for the evening. Think the garden from Alice in Wonderland, but with stalls of oysters, asparagus, smoked salmon and foraged herbs instead of talking flowers.

When: Tuesday 27 March

Why: To launch the Tower Bridge Summer Festival and sample some fantastic British produce, as well as dust off our floral attire after a long, cold winter.

Who: There were little food stalls of herbs from Forager, London cure smoked salmon from H Forman & Son, asparagus and month-early tomatoes from Secretts (another reason to be thankful for all the recent sunshine), cheese from Neal’s Yard Dairy, oysters and a pork spit. In attendance were foodie folk from the likes of BBC’s olive magazine, Sainsbury’s magazine and Waitrose Kitchen, flower girls, morris men and – keeping a weather eye on proceedings – the harbour master.

What they were drinking: Pink lemonade cocktails, Pimm’s, Nyetimber sparkling English wine, pear juice, beetroot & apple juice and champagne.

What they were eating: Double mustard & caraway cheese straws, which hung from branches of blossom; baskets of crudités with beetroot mayo and dill crème fraîche; south Kent lamb skewers with rosemary, garlic & fennel; British ham hock with grainy mustard & piccalilli on rye croûtes; warm shots of creamed fennel soup; chocolate tarts with basil & lime cream; treacle tarts…