A recent phenomena? No – coffee shops have been part of our culture in Great Britain for hundreds of years! Cafe Allez! embarks on a historical journey…

1. The first coffeehouse in England was opened in Oxford in 1650. A coffeehouse still stands on the site today. London followed closely, opening its first in 1652 with coffee imported from Turkey.
2. There were 3,000 coffeehouses in England by 1675! – we were way ahead of France and the USA.
3. Coffeehouses were known as places of political importance and heated debate. Charles II scorned them as “places where the disaffected met and spread scandalous reports concerning the conduct of His Majesty and his ministers”. Whilst the conversation was undoubtedly good, (can you imagine strangers striking up a debate in Starbucks today?), the coffee was awful … but it was addictive and effective!
4. They were also known as “Penny Universities” and were great social levellers – for the entry price, (one penny), you were in!
5. Lloyds of London and the London Stock Exchange were both born in coffeehouses – the former because underwriters of ship insurance met in a coffeehouse to conduct business. The same goes for auction houses Sotheby’s and Christie’s.
6. For all that coffeehouses were deemed to be great levellers, women were banned from coffeehouses in the early days. Maybe women were ok with that … the Women’s Petition Against Coffee (1674) complained that their menfolk had been transformed into effeminate, babbling layabouts, idling their time away in coffeehouses.
7. In Victorian times, the temperance movement set up coffeehouses for the working classes as booze-free pub alternatives.
8. In 1950s Britain, espresso bars became popular hang-outs for teenagers as cheap, warm places to meet. This was maybe sealed by Cliff Richard’s 1960 film, ‘Expresso Bongo’.
9. Starbucks made it to the UK from its beginnings in Seattle, USA. They used the concept of ‘the third place’ (a theory set out by Ray Oldenburg in his 1989 book “The Great Good Place”, explaining that we all need a ‘third place’ that is neither home, nor work “where you encounter familiar faces and make new acquaintances”).
10. Costa Coffee is now the biggest coffee shop chain in the UK – and in Europe in fact – with over 2000 stores nationwide. Cafe Allez! is following closely behind with (currently) 1 van and 1 shop in the pipeline…