General coffee house information

14 Annotations

First Reading

Phil  •  Link

Here's a book at Project Gutenberg called "Inns and Taverns of Old London," which includes some stuff about coffee houses: http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/… (it's quite a large file).

Terry F  •  Link

"The history of coffee and coffee houses in London is particularly revealing of how coffee shaped the emergence of modern society. The first coffee house opened in London in 1652. A man named Bowman, servant to a merchant in the Turkey trade, opened it in partnership with Pasqua Rosee in St. Michael's Alley, Cornhill. An advertising handbill from the shop, The Vertue of the Coffee Drink, is preserved in the British Museum. The first newspaper advertisement for coffee dates from 1657, the year in which chocolate and tea were first sold publicly in London. Political activity was linked with the coffee houses from the beginning. Pepys notes the formation of the Coffee Club of the Rota in 1659, a forum for exchange of republican views which met in the Turk's Head. The number of such establishments (most near the Royal Exchange) grew markedly following the Restoration, so that by 1663, there were licensing requirements. These early coffee houses offered minimal accommodations, often consisting simply of a large room with several tables. Neither the plague years 1664-1665 nor the Great Fire of London in 1666 diminished the growing role of the coffee house. In fact, the rapid reconstruction of the Royal Exchange (completed by 1669) was accompanied by the opening of many new coffee houses.

"Controversy accompanied the introduction of the new drink. Broadsides and pamphlets such as *A Coffee Scuffle* (1662) or *The Character of a Coffee House ... by an Eye and Ear Witness* (1665) presented opposing views of the social, cultural and even medical questions raised by coffee. In the 1670s, political intrigue was the chief focus of concerns. Coffee houses were characterized as 'seminaries of sedition.' King Charles II issued an order for the suppression of coffee houses in late December 1675, but this was rescinded before it ever took effect. Coffee houses were again at the focus of inquiries into the Popish plot of Titus Oates in 1679-1680.

"'In a coffee house just now among the rabble, I bluntly asked, which is the treason table?' was how a 1681 comedy described the state of affairs. And yet, as a place where political opinions were exchanged, and where news, newsletters, and mail were distributed, coffee houses played an undeniable role in the growth of English political liberty.

"At a time when the streets of London were largely unpaved and only barely passable, and when few merchants had offices, coffee houses served an equally important function for the trading community. The most celebrated example is Edward Lloyd's coffee house in 1691. Lloyd had special arrangements to receive news of shipping, and the Lloyd's insurance institution as well as the Register of Shipping originated in these gatherings. Similarly, London stockbrokers first met in Jonathan's coffee house." http://www.avramdavidson.org/coff…

in Aqua Scripto  •  Link

"...there being with us Captain Brewer, the paynter, who tells me how highly the Presbyters do talk in the coffeehouses still, which I wonder at.
..." http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…

Terry F  •  Link

St Michael's Alley EC3 where Bowman (or Edwards) together with Pasqua Rosee (Easter Rose) who was adept in the art of soaking the beans to produce a palatable beverage, founded the first coffee-house (as a plaque on the site attests), is called 'St Michael's Lane' on the 1746 map. It is found by taking Cornhill (ENE @ 2:00 on this segment of the map) past the Royal Exchange (on the left = N), past Burchin Lane (on the R), the, just before St Michael's Church, turn R into St Michael's Lane. http://www.motco.com/map/81002/Se…

Dr Matthew Green  •  Link

If you'd like to experience the lost world of the London coffeehouse, as visited 99 times by Samuel Pepys, Unreal City Audio runs immersive, critically acclaimed guided tours around the sites of London's original coffeehouses on the third Saturday of every month. They're led by an expert in the field, Dr Matthew Green, with actors, musicians, and free shots of gritty black coffee brewed 17th-century style. See:

www.unrealcityaudio.co.uk

On the tour, you visit the sites of many of the establishments frequented by Pepys including the Cornhill Coffeehouse, Bowman's and Garraway's. It also features Will's Coffeehouse in Covent Garden, where Pepys finds 'very witty and pleasant discourse' and sees Dryden on 3 Feb. 1664.

Second Reading

Anthony  •  Link

There is a wonderful book (one of many similar, I gather) titled CLUBS AND CLUB LIFE IN LONDON, (1872) (https://archive.org/search.php?qu…) which has numerous anecdotes about literary and political lights of the early days of Coffee Houses. Pepys features notably at "Will's", as well as Pope, Sheridan, and many others.

Third Reading

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

Coffee houses were also known as Penny Universities. This article makes it clear that Pepys' visits to The Rota Club were held in a coffee house. And that the freedom of thought and expression scared Charles II -- but he could not close them. (Funny how want-to-be dictators fear people who think):
https://bigthink.com/the-past/pen…

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

London’s coffee craze began in 1652 when Pasqua Rosée, the Greek servant of Daniel Edwards, a coffee-loving Levant merchant, opened London’s first coffee shack against the wall of St. Michael’s churchyard in the labyrinth of alleys off Cornhill.

Coffee was a hit: within a couple of years, Pasqua was selling over 600 dishes of coffee a day. For anyone who’s ever tried 17th-century style coffee, this can be a shock — unless you like your brew “black as hell, strong as death, sweet as love”, as an old Turkish proverb recommends, and shot through with grit.

Our tastebuds have grown more discerning -- accustomed as we are to silky-smooth Flat Whites -- contemporaries also found it disgusting. One early drinker likened it to a “syrup of soot and the essence of old shoes” while others were reminded of oil, ink, soot, mud, damp and shit.

But people loved how the “bitter Mohammedan gruel” (as The London Spy described it in 1701), kindled conversations, fired debates, sparked ideas and, as Pasqua advertised in his handbill "The Virtue of the Coffee Drink" (1652), it made one “fit for business” — his stall was a stone’s throw from that great center of international commerce, the Royal Exchange.

This handbill promoted the launch of Pasqua Rosée’s coffee shack telling people how to drink coffee, and hailing it as the miracle cure for most ailments including dropsy, scurvy, gout, scrofula and “mis-carryings in childbearing women”.

Until the mid-17th century, most people in England were either slightly — or very — drunk all of the time. Drink London’s fetid river water at your own peril; most people wisely favored watered-down ale or beer (“small beer”).

The arrival of coffee triggered a dawn of sobriety which laid the foundations for spectacular economic growth in the following decades as people thought clearly for the first time.

The stock exchange, insurance industry, and auctioneering: all burst into life in 17th-century coffeehouses — in Jonathan’s, Lloyd’s, and Garraway’s — spawning the credit, security, and markets that facilitated the dramatic expansion of Britain’s network of global trade in Asia, Africa and America.
The meteoric success of Pasqua’s shack triggered a coffeehouse boom.

By 1656, there was a second coffeehouse at the sign of the rainbow on Fleet Street.
By 1663, 82 had sprung up within the crumbling Roman walls, and a cluster further west like Will’s in Covent Garden, a fashionable literary resort where Samuel Pepys found his old college chum John Dryden presiding over “very pleasant and witty discourse” in 1664 and wished he could stay longer — but he had to pick up his wife, who most certainly would not have been welcome.

Much more at http://publicdomainreview.org/201…
Picture of St. Michael's and more local information at https://www.ianvisits.co.uk/artic…

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

Did women frequent coffee shops? The jury of historians is out.
(We know they were there as owners and servers -- and trolling for business -- but this question is about being customers.)

However, this sentence about the 1674 Women’s Petition Against Coffee makes me think they were present, at least in some (just as not all pubs are "appropriate" for everyone today; we know where we are wanted):

'The women's petition also complained that coffee made men too talkative: "they sup muddy water, and murmur insignificant notes till half a dozen of them out-babble an equal number of us at gossipping," the anonymous authors write.'

If women hadn't observed this behavior, how would they know to complain?

Alternatively, perhaps men wrote the Petition as part of Charles II's campaign against these Penny Universities and the radical ideas they fostered. Blaming women (so Charles and men didn't take the heat for ending the fun) is an old ploy. But all this is after the Diary.

For the pros and cons of women publicly frequenting coffee shops, see
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/sm…

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