The Enlightenment Coffeehouses

The London coffeehouses of the 17th & 18th centuries were the engines of creation that helped drive the Enlightenment – the European intellectual movement of the time that emphasized reason and individualism rather than tradition.

Modern-day coffee shops such as the likes of Starbucks, Costa Coffee, and Caffè Nero have their roots in these old coffeehouses but they were quite unlike the establishments we know and love today.

In 1652 Pasqua Rosée, a Greek opened the first coffee stall in the churchyard of St Michael's Cornhill in the City of London and the rest is history as they say but what a fascinating story - one I have been researching these last few years.

I'd love to see the return of those old coffeehouses. Not for the vile coffee of the day but for the real face-to-face conversation.

I'd love to walk into a Starbucks and sit down next to a total stranger and yell out “Your Servant Sir what news from Tripoli?”