Dawn of the Coffee Craze
Most people consider the coffee shop craze to be a 21st Century thing, with its roots in the 1990s. Historians of London will know that in fact it was a massive social phenomenon (among men, anyway) in Georgian London, fuelling trade, theatre, insurance, publishing, literature, philosophy, medicine all the things, in fact, that made London a modern city and a great global city.
No sphere of public life was untouched by the proceedings of the coffee house. But actually, it all started in the middle of the previous century, during the Commonwealth. The man responsible was a Greek Sicilian called Pasqua Rosee. He was the manservant of an English merchant, one Daniel Edwards of the Levant Company. Pasqua opened a coffee stall in the churchyard of St Michael Cornhill. Despite the hot black liquid being rather disgusting, the little shop became an instant hit as a meeting place. Others emulated the exotic coffee vendor and the coffee house phenomenon took off, surviving various attempts to suppress it, not least by Charles II himself.
These are the bare bones of a delightfully rich guided tour we took last Saturday, presented by Unreal City Audio. I say presented because it is just that. Dr Matt Green does the tour-leading and academic talking, while his cast of supporters act out various roles, mainly an extremely exuberant Pasqua Rosee. There are also contemporary songs. It’s different, it’s a great deal of fun, and it’s greatly informative: Matt Green knows his stuff and I learned loads.
The tours last about two hours and cost £13.50, except to London Historians members, who pay £10.
Thanks for this report on the coffee tour – sounds as if it was a lot of fun. I recently wrote about Garraway’s (http://baldwinhamey.wordpress.com/2012/10/06/garraways-coffee-house/) Sorry about the self-promotion.
Not at all, excellent post. I avoided too much detail here in case anyone wished to go on the tour. I’ll add you to the History blog roll.
Thanks for adding me to the blog-roll; really appreciated.
Pasqua was the most hammy actor I’ve ever seen…but in a totally brilliant, memorable way. A great tour all round.
Great tour and well worth doing. But I don’t believe Charles II was annoyed by the sight or smell of bad coffee. Rather he was worried about what sort of insurrection could be brewing, inside the closed and all-male confines of a club. He was right to be cautious..we coffee drinkers are a potentially sneaky lot.
Must be a wonderful walk! I sent a tweet to promote the tour in December
I am actually researching this at the moment. During the Restoration (and no doubt after) the government used to use some coffee house owners as spies.
Reblogged this on The History Vault and commented:
I am researching this area at the moment. How Coffee House culture shaped the politics of Restoration society.
Who knew my cup of Joe had so much history.
Can’t come December – when isit being done again?
Not sure, they seem to do them every other month at least. Best to keep an eye on their site. But Matt has joined London Historians now, so we’ll be promoting them as and when. As we do!