Windsor Castle’s first ever café has opened up - in one of the 1000-year-old royal residence's oldest surviving spaces.

It is in the Undercroft - which dates back to Edward III’s major renovations during the 1350s and served as the castle's principal wine cellar for centuries.

Visitors to the Undercroft Café can enjoy freshly prepared meals, including sandwiches, wraps and salads, served alongside an exclusive selection of teas. Sweet treats range from vanilla mille-feuille and vegan chocolate cake to fruit scones and Victoria sponge. During the summer months, the café will serve ice cream produced using milk from the Jersey herd at the Royal Farms, Windsor.

The Undercroft is on the ground floor of the castle under St George’s Hall, where state banquets take place.

Following the Windsor Castle fire of 1992, the Undercroft walls had absorbed large amounts of water and had to be stripped back to allow them to dry out. This revealed that more of the room’s early fabric had survived than previously thought. Subsequent restoration work has turned the space back into the medieval interior it once was.

Michelle Lockhart, commercial director Royal Collection Trust, said: "The opening of Windsor Castle’s first café in what was fittingly the medieval cellar is an exciting development in our ongoing programme of works to deliver the best-possible experience of visiting this royal residence. We hope that our visitors will enjoy the opportunity to pause for a cup of tea or a bite to eat while taking in the atmospheric surroundings of the Undercroft, one of the few surviving parts of Edward III’s magnificent Gothic palace.The Undercroft Café is open daily for visitors with an admission ticket to Windsor Castle."

For visitor information and tickets for Windsor Castle: www.rct.uk, T. +44 (0)30 3123 7304.