Coffee Houses & Reading in Public

Places

Sharita Gilmore, Tatiana Sheppard & Maya Smith

Restoration & 18th Century Literature Dr. Niles

• During the 18th century, coffee houses began to spring up all over London. By the closing of the century, over 3,000 coffee houses existed in London.

• Coffee house participants included doctors, merchants, writers and politicians

• Coffee houses were called ‘penny universities.’ With a penny you were admitted into the coffee house and were able to read, newspapers, join a debate, or simply relax and listen.

HISTORYThe first coffee house in London was established in 1652. One of the first coffee houses in London was The Turk’s Head Coffee House. It was established by an English Merchant who dealt with Turkish goods such as coffee.

Coffee House History cont’d

• Coffee Houses served as the sanctuary of health, the nursery of temperance, the delight of frugality, civility, and free school of ingenuity.

• In London the coffee-house was unique in the way it combined the social, cultural, commercial, and political life of the city.   "Foreigners remarked that the coffee-house was that which especially distinguished London from all other cities," wrote Thomas Macauley in his History of England, "that the coffee-house was the Londoner's home.

• Coffee Houses functioned as reading rooms, for the cost of newspapers and pamphlets was included in admission charges. In addition there were bulletins announcing sells, sailings and auctions covered the walls of establishments, providing valuable information to businessmen

• even during the plague and the great fire that followed it, Londoners continued to visit their favorite coffee houses.  Patrons of coffee-houses were no longer prepared to talk freely with strangers, and would approach even close acquaintances only after inquiring after their health and that of the family at home. 

• The plague did affect the amount of individuals who would attend but once these dangers were past, the coffee-house again assumed its place as the major social institution of its day.

• Coffee houses were sometimes known for their illicit behavior • Coffee House runners would run from coffee house to coffee house, relaying major

information discussed during the day

So What was Going On??

• Read newspapers• Discuss literature• Debate contemporaries/ Lecture • Explore social issues

Besides taverns, coffee houses were the first places where people could come sit, read, debate and discuss various social issues

Coffee Houses became the hub of new information, a place where new ideas were formed

Steven Johnson Discusses London Coffee Houses

Besides drinking coffee, coffee houses provided a space for men to do a number of things….such as….

The Coffee House as A Social Institution

Women & The Coffee House

Women disliked coffeehouses, specifically coffee. The women felt that coffee decreased their husbands want to engage in sexual activity as well as induced sterility.*Coffee was referred to as drying, enfeebling liquor*In 1674 a petition was put forth, protesting the against the ills of the coffeehouse culture of England. This petition was known as “The Women’s Petition Against Coffee”.*The petition begins by discussing the days when men were virile and lusty and excited for sexual activity; these days no longer existed!*Women also felt that coffeehouses were reforming the culture. The men who congregated in the coffeehouses are associated with feminine attribute: gossiping and talking

The Coffee House as A Social Institution cont’d Politics Surrounding the Coffee House

Coffee-houses attained some degree of political importance from the volume of talk which they caused. It was common for each sect and party to hold meetings in the coffeehouses, specifically the Whigs and the Tories. London life become more animated due to the political and witty conversations that could be heard in the coffeehouses*Charles II tried to suppress the coffeehouses, believing they were places where “the disaffected met and spread scandalous reports concerning the conduct of His Majesty and His Ministries” *“So that often you may see a silly fop and a worshipful justice, a griping rook and a grave citizen, a worthy lawyer and an errant pickpocket, a reverend non-conformist and a canting mountebank, all blended together to compose a medley of impertinence”- Thomas Jordan

Popular Coffee Houses Will’s Coffee House: perhaps, the most

famous coffee house of the century, owned by William Urwin. Located in the more stylish area of London off Russell Street in Covenant Garden. John Dryden regularly visited which helped increase popularity.

The Grecian Coffee House: located in Devereux Court and was known as the meeting place for the “Learned Club” and people closest to the law. A famous and violent incident occurred here, a vicious argument over the pronunciation of a Greek word, resulting in a horrible fight. Some believed this was the coffee house to pick up prostitutes in the alleyways nearby

Button’s Coffee House: became famous after Will’s lost popularity due to the death of John Dryden. Both Joseph Addison and Alexander Pope were regular attendees and helped to boost popularity. Most known for the Lion’s Head Letter Box, a location provided where individuals could drop writings for publication in The Guardian, local newspaper

Popular Coffee Houses cont’dBedford Coffee House: this was

the coffee house of the witty. Writers such as Henry Fielding and Williams Hogarth were attracted to this coffee house. It was known as the “emporium of the wit, the seat of criticism and the standard of taste.” Eventually however, coffee houses became less witty as the were replaced with private clubs

Other notable Coffee Houses: The Rainbow Coffee House [perhaps, the second most popular], Jamaica Coffee Houses [associated with finance], Garraways and Child’s [the haunts of doctors] and The Widows Coffee House [opened by King Charles II’s mistress Nell Gwynne]

Lloyd’s Coffee House: owned by Edward Lloyd and was the meeting place for merchants and ship owners. The continued meetings, habits and issued discussed here eventually helped to form Lloyd’s insurance

The Coffee House as InspirationOver time coffee houses began to extend beyond walls and began to inspire new works of literature and art. Coffee Houses started to appear in art work, poetry and songs. [art work portrayed both the positive and negative sides of the coffee house]

William Hogarth’s “Midnight” for example, portrays drunkenness @ coffee houses as some of them served alcohol.

Thomas Jordan composed “Triumphs of London,” a song about the types of conversations that occurs at coffee houses such as Lloyds.

John Sebastian Bach wrote Coffee Cantata in 1732 and it was performed at Zimmerman’s Coffee House. It was intended to be an ode to coffee as well as a critique on the movement in Germany to keep women from drinking coffee.

Coffee Houses also influenced Alexander Pope’s The Rape of The Locke . The piece was inspired by gossip he heard @ the coffee house.

A Look @ The ‘Coffee House Art’

Around 1700, Ned Ward, in his journal the London Spy, described the coffee houses as “a rabble going hither and thither, reminding me of a swarm of rats in a ruinous cheese-store.  Some came, others went; some were scribbling, others were talking; some were drinking (coffee), some smoking, and some arguing; the whole place stank of tobacco like the cabin of a barge”.

Other Public Reading Spaces

The Salon!!Salons are

gatherings of intellects, social and political individuals that represent the elite. The host or hostess leads the gathering.

Salon gatherings were used to educate and to please one another as the attendees would refine, reshape and rethink their tastes through the conversations held during the gathering.

Salon gatherings would typically take place under one roof, generally the home of the host or hostess

Did you have your morning coffee?

Bibliography Aytoun, Ellis. The Penny Universities: a history of the coffee. London : Secker&Warburg, 1956.Colby, Charles W. "Modern History Sourcebook: The First English Coffee- Houses,c. 1670-1675." 1920. 23 February 2010 <http://fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1670coffee.html>.Jordan, Thomas. The Restoration and the Eighteen Century: Topics . 2010. 22 February 2010 <http://www.wwnorton.com/college/english/nael/18century/topic_1/coffeehouses.htm>.Klein, Lawrence E. "The Huntington Library Quarterly, Vol 59 No.1." 1996. JSTOR. 23 February 2010 <http://www.jstor.org/stable/3817904>.L.Pelzer, J. Pelzer&. "Coffee Houses of Augustan London ." History Today . 1982. 40-47.