Short History of London Coffee Houses and Cafes
London's Cafe Culture Reflects Capital's Social Change
Jun 15, 2009
Coffee was once associated with subversion, rebellion and creativity. Even as far back as the sixteenth century when coffee houses first appeared in London, they were dens of predominantly male creativity, political debate, philosophical speculation and downright dirty gossip, That’s because coffee, unlike alcohol, was thought to stimulate the brain.
The Coffee House Penny University
It’s hardly surprising that coffee houses were known as ‘penny universities’. Rich or poor, you followed that sweet aroma, paid your penny and once inside you could read the newspapers, join in a debate, or just relax and listen.
The Variety of Coffee Houses in London
Each area of London attracted its own clientele. For instance:
- In the City of London, Jonathans, Lloyds and the Jamaica coffee houses became associated with finance.
- Garraways in Change Alley and Childs in St Paul’s Churchyard were the haunts of doctors
- The Puritan coffee house in Aldgate was a hotbed of political debate.
- King Charles II’s mistress, Nell Gwynne, opened The Widows coffee house in Islington where apprentices met to sow the seeds of radical unionism.
If you work in the City its highly likely that your job had its origins in a coffee house. The Stock Exchange itself operated for years out of City coffee houses.
It couldn’t last. By the end of the 1700s coffee houses had turned into private clubs and coffee itself became the second class cousin to tea. (There were some exceptions, one being a working class cafe opened in Hungerford Market, London, in the 1850s by Carlo Gatti, an Italian immigrant. Although its clientele was working class families, it was famouse for its coffee, ice-cream and light music.)
The 1950s - The Italian Coffee Bar
All this changed after the Second World War. In the 1950s people began to look outwards, to Europe and America. Italian prisoners of war and immigrants who didn’t want to go home opened places where young people could gather to exchange gossip, dance to rock'n'roll and discuss movies. The coffee bar was born.
With their gleaming chrome Italian espresso coffee machines, clear Pyrex cups, shining formica tabletops and neon jukeboxes, coffee bars became the crucible of post-war youth culture
Sadly the coffee bar gave way to the growing trend for live music in pubs and even the famous 2-Is coffee bar in Soho had to close.
The 1960s - The Working Men's Cafe or Greasy Spoon
But in the 1960s wonderful places where you could sit and have a coffee or tea, a cigarette and a chat – the working men’s cafes – became popular with the middle classes. In winter the windows steamed up and in summer the doors opened onto the street. Builders and postal workers, City gents, gutter press hacks and ladies of the night all mingled.
A fug of smoke hung in the air and students and CND supporters imagined they were in Paris conversing with Existentialist poets. Writers spread out their notebooks, and ordered a coffee that lasted all day. They observed the cast of bizarre characters whose unwitting performances would fuel their literary imaginations. Authors like Quentin Crisp, Colin Wilson, Nell Dunn and Ian Sinclair have all captured the democratic spirit of the old ‘greasy spoon’.
Old Cafes and Coffee Bars Still Exist in London
You can still find places like this in London. They are snapshots of the city’s history, islands of sanity in a shrink-wrapped, polystyrene-cupped, corporate world. Try Pellicci's in Bethnal Green, Dante Sandwich Bar in Mayfair, or Bar Italia in Soho to name a few.
London is full of ethnic diversity and every district has a friendly local cafe where the price is right and everyone knows your name.
Sources:
- London's Coffee Houses Antony Clayton (Historical Publications Ltd, 2003)
- Classic Cafes website
- Coffee and Ices: The Story of Carlo Gatti in London Felicity Kinross (Felicity Kinross, 1991)
See Also:
- Oxford Coffee Houses and Student Life - how early 17th century Oxford coffee houses affected student social and political life.
- Carlo Gatti Inventor of Penny Ice Cream - brief biography of a Swiss-Italian immigrant to Victorian London who set up Parisian-style music halls, cafes and cheap ice cream.
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