Des Blenkinsopp, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Eat and drink · Lechlade-on-Thames
Mulberry and Thyme, Hillier Garden Centre, Lechlade
The café and restaurant at Hillier Garden Centre on the Fairford road out of Lechlade, open daily for breakfast, lunch, cakes and booked afternoon tea.
Family-friendly
A reliable garden-centre restaurant just outside Lechlade, open seven days, for breakfast until 11.30am, a hot lunch or tea and scones. Useful on a Sunday or when the town's cafés are full.
- Good: Open every day, including Sundays
- Good: Breakfast served until 11.30am
- Good: Sweet or savoury afternoon tea, with refills of tea or coffee
- Good: Free parking at the garden centre
- Worth knowing: Afternoon tea needs 48 hours' notice
- Worth knowing: Hot food ends at 3.30pm, or 3pm on Sundays
About
Mulberry and Thyme is the restaurant at Hillier Garden Centre on Fairford Road, under a mile west of the Market Square in Lechlade-on-Thames. It is run by Hillier, the garden centre and nursery company, with Hillier's own coffee blend.
Breakfast is served until 11.30am every day. At lunchtime there are lighter lunches from noon to 3.30pm, or 3pm on Sundays, and hot lunch specials from noon to 3pm. Cakes and scones come out of the oven through the day, with tea or freshly ground coffee.
Afternoon tea comes in a classic sweet version or a newer savoury one, both with unlimited tea or filter coffee, and must be booked at least 48 hours ahead. The restaurant opens from 9am to 4.30pm from Monday to Saturday and from 10am to 4pm on Sundays.
It is a car stop rather than a walk from the town, with free parking at the garden centre, which Hillier describes as dog friendly (it does not say whether dogs may come into the restaurant, so ask). In town, Lynwood & Co on the Market Square is the café to walk to, and the Riverside by the Thames serves food all day from Friday to Sunday.
Opening hours and season
| Monday | 09:00 to 16:30 |
|---|---|
| Tuesday | 09:00 to 16:30 |
| Wednesday | 09:00 to 16:30 |
| Thursday | 09:00 to 16:30 |
| Friday | 09:00 to 16:30 |
| Saturday | 09:00 to 16:30 |
| Sunday | 10:00 to 16:00 |
Breakfast until 11.30am; lighter lunches noon to 3.30pm (3pm Sunday); hot lunches noon to 3pm. Hot food ends at 3.30pm, 3pm on Sundays.
The details
- Food
- Café food
- Serving
- Breakfast · Lunch · Afternoon tea
- Booking a table
- Walk-ins only
- Features
- Café · Shop · Parking
- Parking
- Free parking at the garden centre.
Photos
The garden centre entrance 
The outdoor plant area
Location
Places to stay nearby
-
Bridge House Campsite
Camping · Lechlade-on-Thames
A small family-run touring and camping field on Thames Street, Lechlade, a short walk from the river and the town, with 42 pitches and three bell tents, open from late March until it closes for the winter.
Dog-friendly · Walker-friendly
Verified Nov 2026
-
The New Inn Hotel
Hotel · Lechlade-on-Thames
A 17th-century coaching inn on the Market Place in Lechlade-on-Thames, with thirty rooms, a restaurant and bar, and weddings.
Wedding venues
Verified Nov 2026
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The Lakes by YOO
Self-catering · Lechlade-on-Thames
An 850-acre lakeside estate at Coln Park, west of Lechlade, with rooms, apartments, cabins and houses sleeping up to 14, a spa with a 17-metre pool, and a lakeside bar and kitchen.
Family-friendly · Hot tubs
Verified Nov 2026
Nearby walks, places and things to do
- The Riverside, Lechlade 1.2 km away
- New Wave Brasserie and Bar, Lechlade 1.2 km away
- Lynwood & Co, Lechlade 1.2 km away
- Bridge House Campsite 1.3 km away
Sights nearby
-
Halfpenny Bridge, Lechlade
Sight · Bridge · Lechlade-on-Thames
The single tall stone arch that carries Thames Street over the Thames at Lechlade, built under a turnpike Act of 1792, with a little square tollhouse on its corner. Named after the halfpenny walkers paid until 1839. Grade II; free.
-
River Thames at Lechlade
Sight · River · Lechlade-on-Thames
The young Thames at Lechlade, where the Coln and the Leach join it and the old Thames and Severn Canal met it at the Round House: long the head of the navigable river, with the Thames Path past Halfpenny Bridge to St John's Lock.
-
St Lawrence's Church, Lechlade
Sight · Church · Lechlade-on-Thames
Lechlade's wool church on the Market Place, rebuilt in Taynton stone in the 1470s, with a spire seen across the Thames meadows and a churchyard that moved Shelley to verse in 1815. Grade I; closed for restoration through 2026, with reopening expected by Christmas.
-
St John the Baptist, Inglesham
Sight · Church · Lechlade-on-Thames
A tiny church by the Thames at Inglesham, south of Lechlade, saved from Victorian restoration by William Morris: box pews, medieval screens, seven layers of wall paintings and a late Saxon Madonna and Child. Grade I; Churches Conservation Trust, open daily.