Sip Back in Time - A history of UK coffee culture

A swift look back at the how coffee shops have fallen in and out of favour - and the role in society they played in previous eras.

The last couple of decades have of course seen an explosion in so-called ‘cafe culture’ - and the popularity of both coffee shops, and drinking coffee itself - in the UK (previously traditionally known - in recent history anyway - as a nation of tea drinkers)

However, coffee shops and cafe culture are not actually a new phenomenon. Coffee houses - as they were known then, first emerged in the UK during the 17th Century.

The first English ‘coffeehouse’ was opened in Oxford in 1650 by Jewish entrepreneur Jacob Evelyn. As a university city, Oxford had plenty of aspiring poets, writers and scholars, and the coffeehouse became a popular location for debates, discussions, and writing.

London soon followed – with its first coffeehouse, The Jamaica Wine House was opened by Pasqua Rosee (it’s still there today – though now operates as a pub, in St Michael’s Alley EC3 close to Bank station in the City of London).

By 1675, England had more than 3,000 coffeehouses, including 82 in London. They were seen as more civilised than ale houses (pubs) and people would gather to drink learn the news of the day and discuss matters of mutual concern.

The origins and establishment of coffeehouses are now associated with the ‘Age of Enlightenment’ due to the nature in which they helped with the growth in culture of society. Early western coffeehouses often stocked the latest newspapers and encouraged conversation. They were places of ‘social levelling’, open to all men regardless of class or profession, where ‘opportunities were available to all’. They were said to have an atmosphere of ‘wit’. If you could bring ‘sharp humour’ to the coffeehouse, you could sit there and talk to other people.

That element of democracy may explain why coffeehouses soon came to be known as ‘penny universities’. Ordinary people could attend for the price of a penny, read newspapers, and become involved in the discussions and debates of the day. This was, however, not the case for women – as coffeehouses were off-limits to them unless they were employed there.

In a pamphlet produced in 1674 – as part of the Women’s Petition, they apparently bemoaned the fact that coffee-drinking was such an intellectual, effeminate pastime that it had rendered their husbands impotent. Coffee was referred to as a new-fangled, abominable, heathenish liquor called coffee. In the 1674 They also complained that coffee made their husbands too talkative. ‘They sup muddy water, and murmur insignificant notes till half a dozen of them out-babble an equal number of us at gossiping," the anonymous authors wrote.

(There is however some doubt over whether this was actually written by women – as the coffee houses with their atmosphere of political debate and sociability were seen as a threat to the establishment by Charles 11)

Up to the late 18th Century, coffee houses continued to be instrumental in creating a society where ‘social climbing’ was a possibility, as shown in novels such as Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe. They were hubs of art, literature and debate – where ‘opportunities were available to all’.

However, the thirst for coffee declined during the 19th century, as tea became more popular and “exclusive clubs” were formed by local entrepreneurs. The East India Company started importing tea for the owners of the new “tea clubs” who saw a gap in the market, and became a welcome alternative to the inns and pubs.

Revived in the Victorian era and run by the Temperance Movement, coffeehouses were set up again as alternatives to pubs, now as places where the working classes could meet and socialise. Major enterprises were even founded in these spaces: the insurance giant Lloyd’s of London, and auction houses like Christie’s and Sotheby’s grew out of London coffeehouse culture. In America, the organisation that later became the New York Stock Exchange started in the Tontine Coffeehouse on Manhattan’s Wall Street.

This remained the case until the 1950’s, which again saw the re-emergence of coffee ‘bars’ = = as they were now known. There was an excitement around coffee during this period when it came off rationing, following the war, but the coffee itself was very much secondary to the social side of things.

This was particularly evident in London’s Soho area during the 50’s and ’60’s, as it became a diverse and vibrant centre for the newly burgeoning ‘youth culture’, and as a result, coffee shops started to emerge.

In 1953, what is described as ‘major cultural event’ took place. Italian actress Gina Lollobrigida opened the Moka Bar in Frith Street Soho. This was the first coffee house in London to install the ‘revolutionary’ Gaggia espresso machine.

Described as a ‘gleaming dispenser’ of ‘strong, black espresso and sturdy provider of milky, frothy coffee’, this soon to become an indispensable feature of the capital’s coffee bars.

Indirectly, it also helped to stimulate a burgeoning music scene that quickly broke out of the bars of Soho and would later make London the pop music capital of the world.

The 1950’s saw the emergence of the ‘teenager’ as a cultural and consumer phenomenon (this takes me back to my Sociology degree and theories on subcultures – mods and rockers etc). For the first time, young people had disposable income to spend on smart clothes, records, and socialising, but suffered from a dearth of places in which to get together.

Too young to drink in pubs and uninterested in ballrooms and youth clubs, many of them saw the new espresso bar as an escape route from their parents – a place where they could meet and listen to the new rock ‘n’ roll music, either on a jukebox or, more excitingly, played live by musicians standing just a few feet away. As the 60’s dawned, these lively places became a symbol of the burgeoning ‘counterculture’.

My own parents are old enough to have experienced this (ok maybe not the counter-culture thing but socialising in coffee bars in their youth) – albeit in provincial Salisbury not via the smoky glamour of Soho.

My Dad tells stories of long-gone places in the ‘city’ where he would hang out with his mates, find out what gigs or parties were on that evening, and chat-up girls. He also allegedly took my mum to one on their first date.

Just recently (June 2024) the French chanteuse Francois Hardy passed away. My Dad was reflecting on how ‘really liked’ - her in the early '60’ and recalled going in a coffee bar in Salisbury, which was called 'The Madrid’.

Apparently, they had a kind of early video jukebox which had little promo films to accompany songs on it which you could select to play. He remembered one of these for one Francois's songs – which featured her sitting on a swing, which him and his mates used to regularly select to play.

Coffee shops would be open from early morning until late evening and became more diverse than ever. They weren’t only frequented by the young though - customers would include everyone, factory workers, office workers, businesspeople, musicians and all types of nationalities.

Towards the end of the 60’s, however, things changed once again. The UK was arguably the pop music capital of the world, and teenagers preferred to hang out at live music venues, nightclubs, and record shops. As a result, coffee shops started to fall out of favour.

As branded instant coffee became more popular through the 1970s and 1980s, the clientele began drinking their coffee elsewhere. Coffeehouses were largely replaced by (the lower rent) ‘greasy spoon’ style cafés selling cheap breakfasts, tea, and instant coffee. Coffee shops remained laid low in the UK for another few decades.

The ‘80’s are where my own experiences and memories of coffee begin. When I was a young boy people drank coffee of course but there really wasn’t much ‘culture’ around it. If you were out shopping with your parents on a Saturday, they might take into a BHS or Littlewoods restaurants (now long-gone low-rent department stories) - there were no big coffee chains, and certainly no ‘hipster’ independents.

I also have vivid memories of my mum taking me and my brother into this formica-palace called Sara’s - that was situated opposite the marketplace in Salisbury (again); which had a long serving counter at the front that you slid a tray along, with lots of plastic seating and patterned carpet at the rear.

We would be excited to get a tiny plastic cup with syrupy limeade or cola in it, while mum would have had a milky coffee in a little cup and saucer I imagine.

At home, it was mostly weak instant stuff (brands like Maxwell House – oh how those of us of a certain age can recall those ads with a trio of forgotten English actors like Gareth Hint would shake the coffee beans in what – in retrospect – seems a hilariously suggestive way, or Nescafe) that people drunk.

I don’t think Cafetiere’s and Espresso makers didn’t really become popular until the 90’s. I do remember my parents buying a little coffee ‘percolator’ – like a large glass jar thing that you put paper filters in to make ‘posh’, ‘proper’ coffee, which seemed real luxury then.

I can remember one of the mousey wholesome girls that were so common at Southampton University when I was there in the 90’s (ngl - I don’t like to admit I am this old) – thinking she was the height of middle-class sophistication when she bought a cafetiere (yeah hardcore partying, smashing the system, raving - student life there definitely wasn’t)

It’s only really since the turn of the Millennium that people here have really started to get into (or rediscover) coffee and coffeeshop culture in the UK.

in 2023, approximately 98 million cups of coffee were drunk each day in the UK (up by a staggering 25 million cups since 2008) with the average person drinking 2 cups a day.

The coffee industry as a whole was worth £10.billion to the UK economy a year in 2018.

1998 arguably marked a turning point – with the opening of the first Starbucks in the UK (whatever your opinion on this controversial multi-conglomerate chain) and possibly the beginning of what has been called ‘the second wave of coffee culture’.

I actually clearly remember my first ever visit to a Starbucks - I think it was in the year 2000, and it was actually in the city of Bath (I didn’t move to the capital until a few months after this). I was on a day out shopping with my mum, and we spotted the shiny new chain (which I had heard of but not seen) on the main street there.

It sounds mad to say it now, but at the time it actually felt like quite an exciting. novel experience to buy coffee from there. Everything about it felt like new. The way you ordered from one person, then moved along the counter to the end to wait for your beverage.

The sturdy, branded china mugs, the interior design which actually seemed quite swish and upmarket at at the time - I think there was a lot of purple upholstery. All so standard and basic now, but not back then when cheap china and plastic-covered chairs were still commonplace.

Unbelievable as it may seem from 2024 lens - but we actually thought we were being quite sophisticated consuming a beverage in there at the time. ‘Ooh posh’ quipped my ever flippant Dad afterwards when we told him about it.

A huge explosion of Starbucks and similar chains followed as the new Millennium progressed; with the likes of Costa Coffee, Café Nero, Pret a Manger etc also appearing everywhere in the UK. In the early to mid-noughties, at least one branch, if not several, of these; sprung up on every High Street.

I guess this co-incided with my own coffee ‘journey’ (I know, I know - that sounds so naff). I started to particularly enjoy solo visits to coffee shops - where I could chill, daydream and people watch. I guess it’s all part of the slightly pretentious, dreamy-artist persona that I can’t help but inhabit lol.

This became an increasingly favourite pastime of mine. Initially, it was more like a once a week ‘treat’ - crazy to believe now but I wasn’t earning a lot and I was always desperately trying to save money for recording sessions for my music interests.

But by the mid-Noughties, while temping in central London - a visit to a coffee shop progressed a daily after work thing (and often at lunchtime too), invariably in Soho, a way to decompress/revive me after the mundanity of office life.

Since then, coffee shops have continued to play a ridiculously central role in my life - as places to socialise, work and waste time. Anyway, that’s enough about me for now.

Between 2009 and 2019, the number of UK coffee shops almost doubled from 13,000 to just shy of 26,000, according to the Allegra World Coffee Portal.

Recent years have also seen the rise of ‘independent’ coffee shops in the UK, following what is apparently known as the ‘Third Wave’ or ‘artisan’ coffee scene.

This has been traced back to 2005, when the first ‘speciality coffee shop’ – Flat White was opened in Berwick Street, Soho. Peter Hall, an Australian, and Cameron Maclure, a New Zealander. Inspired by the already thriving coffee culture in Australia (arising in Melbourne in the 1990’s) and New Zealand; to create somewhere they could enjoy a ‘quality cup of coffee’ like those they consumed in their native countries.

The number of so-called ‘quality independent’ coffee shops in the capital has risen massively from about 50 in 2010, to more than 400 in 2020 – a 700 per cent rise, according to industry research group Allegra.

The World Coffee Portal forecasts indicate that the number of independent cafés in the UK is expected to surpass 12,400 cafes in the coming year.

Nowadays, small cafes, with that somewhat cliched, if pleasing, look of exposed brick, distressed furniture, quirky-vintage accessories etc - serving food such as smashed avocado on sourdough; alongside ‘upmarket’ coffee blends of course, can be found everywhere.

And now not only in ‘cosmopolitan’ London, but on High (and low) streets in most towns and cities. Coffee consumption has become a ‘lifestyle’ – with all the accompanying snobbery. And I, for my sins, am very much part of this nonsense.

Since the pandemic, and the change in working patterns - with many people now working remotely, more and more people use coffee shops as their ‘offices’.

As someone who spends an awful lot of time in these environments, particularly over the last few years as a freelancer/outside of conventional employment - I have witnessed and experienced them often functioning as the centre of communities ( or at least their own little micro-communities).

The best ones anyway, are places where regulars (and staff) interact, joke, banter, discuss their lives and what’s going on in the world. and even become friends with each other.

From the lady in here 60’s who told me about doing drug runs from India to Spain and allegedly ending up in prison with Myra Hindley - to overhearing young streetwise guys talking about their ‘love language’ - every day in a London coffee shop can be a (sometimes unbelievable) snapshot of life, I continually find.

As we hear about more and more pubs closing (which of course is very sad), I would argue - without wanting to sound too portentous; that maybe coffee shops are increasingly once again performing a pivotal role in our society- just like they did back in the 17th Century.

To follow more of my coffee shop adventures check out:

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