London has been in love with coffee for almost four centuries. But where did it all begin?
Hidden among the alleys and courts of Cornhill in the City of London is the Jamaica Wine House, on the site where in 1652 Pasqua Rosée opened London’s first coffee house. It arrived at an extraordinary moment in English history. Civil War had torn the country apart, the king had been executed, England was experimenting with a republican government and Londoners were developing a taste for a strange, dark and bitter new drink. Coffee houses soon spread across the City.
But people weren’t simply coming for coffee. They came for news, conversation, gossip, ideas and each other. For the price of a cup, a Londoner could sit among strangers and discover something of what was happening beyond their own street, in a growing world of discoveries, exploration and possibility.
In this London story, I wander through the old lanes around Cornhill to discover how the coffee house became one of the great meeting places of 17th-century London and why, nearly four centuries later, our habits haven’t changed very much at all.
Follow @timthelondonwalker for more hidden London, unusual histories and stories from the streets of the city.
📍 The Jamaica Wine House, St Michael’s Alley, Cornhill, City of London
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