Teapot Island

Teapot Island was a small museum in Yalding, Kent, housed in a former 1950s café beside the River Medway. It began as a private collection started by Sue Blazye in 1983 after her grandmother gave her a painted terracotta teapot. Friends and family added to the collection, which soon needed a larger space. In November 2002 the Riverside Diner became Teapot Island, displaying over 8,500 teapots by 2024. The building still carried the feel of its earlier life as a diner, with worn tables and a counter preserved among the displays. The museum held the Guinness World Record for the largest teapot collection from 2004 until 2011. In 2011 it appeared in the book Crap Days Out, where the authors noted it was ‘awful if you don’t like teapots, but probably all right if you do.’ In 2014 King Charles III and Queen Camilla visited, and Camilla bought a novelty camel teapot. The property was put up for sale in 2023 as the owners wished to retire, though the teapot collection itself was sold separately to a collector in Bournemouth. Inside, visitors found teapots arranged on shelves, tables and even the old diner counter. There were delicate bone china pieces, colourful novelty designs and plain earthenware examples. The café area still showed its original fittings, with mugs and saucers left in place beside the teapots. Outside, the riverside setting offered benches where people could sit and watch boats pass by the former diner. The whole place gave the impression of a teapot celebration frozen in time.