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Wednesday 14 May 2014

Coffeehouses in England

Initially a substitute for alehouses, coffeehouses became a popular alternative form of meeting-place for the English intelligentsia. With an emphasis on quiet conversation, while drinking coffee or chocolate they would find out the latest political, military and general news.

The first coffee shop in England was opened by a Turkish Jew named Jacob in 1650 at the Angel Inn in Oxford.  Coffee had been introduced to England a few years earlier, but it was still a novelty. Jacob's coffee shop was a popular meeting place for students and scholars, and it helped to popularize coffee in England.

Pasqua Rosée, a Greek or Armenian man, is credited with opening the first coffee house in London in 1652. The coffee house was located in St. Michael's Alley, off Cornhill, in the City of London.

Rosée was a servant to Daniel Edwards, an English merchant who had lived in Smyrna (modern İzmir, Turkey) in the Ottoman Empire. In Smyrna, Edwards had become accustomed to drinking coffee, and he brought Rosée back to London with him to serve him coffee.

Rosée's coffee house was a popular spot for merchants, lawyers, and other professionals. It was also a place where people could discuss politics and current events. The coffee house became so popular that it spawned a number of imitators, and coffee houses soon became a fixture of London life.

Edward Lloyd opened a London coffee house in 1688 which became popular with shipowners and merchants who gathered there to create insurance for their journeys and cargo. It is now Lloyds of London.

Separate coffee shops specialized in different aspects of news. Edward Lloyd’s Coffee Shop for example was of particular interest for merchants who came for the latest information on commerce. Because of the turmoil in the political parties around this time, some of these establishments specialized in becoming public meeting places for people of a particular political persuasion.  Tories, for instance, went to the Cocoa Tree Chocolate House, Whigs to St James’s Coffee House.

In a typical coffeehouse the gentlemen would sit at long communal tables drinking their coffee from tall cups whilst reading newspapers or discussing business or the latest news. These establishments were adorned with bookshelves, gilt-framed pictures and mirrors.  Ladies were excluded from these premises, the only female present would be the lady who poured out the coffee from a coffee-pot, which were ranged at an open fire and she would be separated from the men-folk by a canopied booth.

By 1710 there were over 500 coffeehouses in London, occupying more premises than any other trade in the city. Every respectable Londoner had his favorite house, where his friends or clients could see him at known hours. By this stage they were spreading to provinces, Bristol in particular having a good number of these establishments.

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