AKA Coffee, Conversation & Commerce: How London Became the Centre of the World
Coffee didn’t just wake London up. It fuelled its takeover of the world…
Mark brings London’s coffee-house world vividly to life.
In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, a strange new drink transformed London.
Coffee played a crucial role in turning London into the global centre of trade, finance and speculation.
Pasqua Rossee’s Coffee House and Jonathan’s and Garraway’s and Lloyd’s and countless other establishments became places where news was swapped, fortunes made and lost, and modern capitalism was improvised at small, crowded tables.
In hundreds of bustling coffee houses, merchants, shipowners, insurers, pamphleteers, gamblers and visionaries gathered at cramped wooden tables to argue, gossip, calculate, scheme and change history.
The Coffee-House Big Bang traces the arrival of coffee from the Ottoman Empire and shows how a bitter black drink sharpened minds, loosened tongues, weaponised rumours, lubricated deals, and helped create modern capitalism. Coffee houses became places where fortunes were made and lost, newspapers were born, markets moved and the future was improvised at small crowded tables.
A visitor to London in 1698 marvelled at what he found:
“You have all Manner of News there. You have a good Fire, which you may sit by as long as you please. You have a Dish of Coffee. You meet your Friends for the Transaction of Business, and all for a Penny, if you don’t care to spend more.”
– Maximilien Misson
We walk lanes and alleyways once frequented by Samuel Pepys and Benjamin Franklin and meet some of the other regulars who haunted these establishments. Scientists, spies, swindlers and visionaries all rubbed shoulders here, including the man who was Christopher Wren’s best friend and Isaac Newton’s most implacable enemy.
Mark uncovers how pillars of the British economy, from Lloyd’s of London to the Stock Exchange, began life in coffee houses. Not as respectable institutions but as noisy, argumentative, occasionally riotous rooms where dark deals were struck, sharp practice was admired, and the future of the world was hammered out over “dishes” of coffee strong enough to keep you awake for days.
Henriko Kalter –
Mark gives a fantastic tour. The pictures he shows during the tour really add a lot to the experience. I wish more guides did this.
David Sohl –
We’ve been on many Walks (first Walk was in 2006), so great to see a new one! Mark is a great guide, and I think wins the prize for having the most visuals and props of any walk I can bring to mind! The walk itself is over a pretty small area starting at the Royal Exchange, so no worries if you’re not up for a long hike. However, the history and stories are the exact opposite – deep and long, covering many topics, but keeping a center around coffee.
Grant Haskell –
Perfect!
Stephen –
Excellent — from pre-walk info through to post-walk feedback with additional information, and of course the walk itself in between. Mark gave us a fluently presented and well-prepared tour of coffee houses and much related history. And all within a 300m radius of the Royal Exchange. Highly recommended
Melanie Curtis –
Excellent walk with very engaging guide who brought a lovely set of pictures to help take us back in time and gave us lots of interesting information. I so enjoyed this walk that I might well do it a second time.
Paaras –
Mark’s tour of the city through the lens of coffee houses was fantastic! Anyone wanting to learn more about the city, grounded in historical fact, would thoroughly enjoy the walk. My friend and I chose this tour because of the added theme of coffee houses layered on top of the history of London itself. It was a great decision. Mark was an excellent guide, knowledgeable, engaging, and clearly passionate about the subject.
Joanna E –
This was an excellent walk with Mark, who really knows his subject and was fascinating to listen to. As other reviewers have said, the images that Mark showed us really brought this subject to life. We thoroughly enjoyed our time with Mark and highly recommend this history of coffee walk.
Vibeke Arentz –
Wow, what an excellent walk! Mark’s knowledge of and passion for the subject are infinite, and he’s lovingly compiled dozens of illustrations and quotations that even further help the grand story of coffee houses in London come to life. And we saw lovely corners of The City that we never wouldn’t have seen otherwise. Absolutely superb!
Sue Howard –
The Power of Coffee! Such a super interesting walk with smart Mark with his helpful pics and stories. I loved being in the finance capital with all it’s stories, tiny hidden lanes and amazing architecture from the 15th century to the present Lloyd’s brutalist magnificence! Wow!
Team Burgess –
We really enjoyed Mark’s Coffee House walk – especially the fascinating insights he gave into the relationships between coffee drinking, economics and trade, and london newspaper reading. Fascinating! It was also brilliant to be taken down some of the quirkly little lanes buried deep within the City of London.