Page 5 - Ian Marshall - London Coffe Houses - Standing Display January 2016

1838: Saw the emergence of a new kind of refreshment house, namely the
Coffee Room; of which no less than 332 were listed in directories -
as distinct from Coffee-houses. The destruction of the Royal
Exchange (and many coffee-houses) by fire accelerated the end of
many coffee-houses.

1840s: Many larger undertakings e.g. Lloyd's, The Com Exchange, The
Royal Exchange, The Stock Exchange, The Bank of England and
Commercial Hall had all moved away from their coffee-house
origins although a number lived on in their coffee-houses e.g. the
Baltic and East India Company.

1850s: Social changes accelerated the demise of the coffee-houses with
social bodies, clubs and institutions increasingly catering for their
specific needs, coupled with the growing appearance of family and
other hotels, and eating houses, resulted, in the words of the
journalist Cyrus Redding (writing in 1858) "since the ruin of coffee-
houses by the rage for clubs, the Nassau Coffee-house with hundred
others has been shut up".

Although the early coffee-houses have long since disappeared, many
survive in various form. Notably the Jamaica Wine House in St.
Michael's Alley, Cornhill, on the site of the earlier Jamaica Coffee
House, and yet earlier house the Pasqua Rosee known as the "oulde
coffeehouse Bowman's" standing here before the Plague and the Great
Fire of London. A photograph of the Jamaica Wine House today is on
the reverse