Third Floor
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The third floor is off-limits to most museum visitors. It houses the executive offices, the board room, the library, and the curating wing. Nigel Owen, Acting Director, and Flick Adams, Chief Curator spend much of their time up here. Note that an American like Flick considers this the fourth floor. Brits call the "first floor" the "ground floor," which changes the numbering scheme.
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Second Floor
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The second floor (the "third floor" by American reckoning) holds two small exhibition galleries — one explaining the history of tea in North and South America, the other describing the many reported health benefits of tea drinking — but most of the area is given over to the museum's conference facilities. Note also the Hawker Family Suite, an office used by the Hawkers, the benefactors of the museum. The suite plays a vital role in Dead as a Scone.
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First Floor
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The first floor (the "second floor" by American count) contains the "crown jewels" of the items on display at the museum — the almost priceless collection of tea antiquities collected by Desmond Hawker during the late 19th Century. Flick Adam's favorite antiquities are a superb set of Tunbridge Ware tea caddies, named "All the Teas in China." Much of the story told in Dead as a Scone revolves around these beautiful mosaic-covered wooden boxes.
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Ground Floor — Main Building
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The ground floor (the "first floor" to Americans) has two of the museum's most popular galleries — the World of Teas Map Room that details the geography of tea and the History of Tea Colonnade that recounts tea's fascinating history. This floor also provides access to the museum's greenhouse and The Duchess of Bedford Tearoom, a restaurant named after the 19th Century noblewoman who is credited with inventing England's aftertoon tea.
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Ground Floor — Rear
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An extension to the museum's ground floor contains the museum's greenhouse, The Duchess of Bedford Tearoom, restaurants kitchen and pantry, and various utility rooms. Nigel Owen and Flick Adams find a critical clue in these spaces that unlocks the mystery told in Dead as a Scone.
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Ground Plan
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This illustration shows the relationship of the Royal Tunbridge Wells Tea Museum, the ground floor extension, the gardens, and the museum's two parking lots. The museum faces Eridge Road, on the southern end of Royal Tunbridge Wells, a stone's throw from the border between the County of Kent and the County of East Sussex.
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