Joanne Major

With Wimbledon in full swing, thoughts – naturally – turn towards that perennial British summer favourite, fresh strawberries and cream.

One thing we need to get straight, you don’t use cheese to make these cheesecakes. They are more akin to a Yorkshire curd tart.

An ancient building, made of timber and plaster with a flat tiled roof, the Cheesecake House stood in the park from at least the reign of Charles II (and perhaps even earlier). To gain access to the front door, you crossed the small stream which ran in front of the building via a rudimentary wooden bridge. Samuel Pepys was a visitor; in 1669 he took his wife. They sat outside in their coach and ate ‘a cheesecake and drank a tankard of milk.’

So, how to make the perfect cup of Georgian-era coffee? Mrs Maria Eliza Rundell, in A New System of Domestic Cookery, 1808, gives a recipe.