London coffee houses around Exchange Alley

Garraways Coffee House was a London coffee house in

Exchange Alley Exchange Alley or Change Alley is a narrow alleyway connecting shops and coffeehouses in an old neighbourhood of the City of London. It served as a convenient shortcut from the Royal Exchange on Cornhill to the Post Office on Lombard Street ...

from the period when such houses served as important places where other business was performed. Its original proprietor, Thomas Garway, was already said to be the first person in England to sell tea prior to the house's founding, and when he began to sell it here in 1657 it became the first place in England to do so. The

Hudson's Bay Company The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), originally the Governor and Company of Adventurers of England Trading Into Hudson’s Bay, is a Canadian holding company of department stores, and the oldest corporation in North America. It was the owner of the ...

conducted its first sale of furs at the coffee house in 1671. Different kinds of merchants patronised different coffee houses, with tea merchants patronising Garraway's, as well as many investors in the

South Sea Bubble South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both west and east. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþa ...

of the 1710s. The establishment became famous as a

sandwich A sandwich is a Dish (food), dish typically consisting variously of meat, cheese, sauces, and vegetables used as a filling between slices of bread, or placed atop a slice of bread; or, more generally, any dish in which bread serves as a ''co ...

and drinking room, it being said that the sandwich-maker spent two hours preparing each day's food. The works of

Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English novelist, journalist, short story writer and Social criticism, social critic. He created some of literature's best-known fictional characters, and is regarded by ...

include multiple references to Garraway's, and

Daniel Defoe Daniel Defoe (; born Daniel Foe; 1660 – 24 April 1731) was an English writer, merchant and spy. He is most famous for his novel ''Robinson Crusoe'', published in 1719, which is claimed to be second only to the Bible in its number of translati ...

wrote of it being frequented by wealthy traders from the City. The site of Garraways Coffee House rebuilt 1874

References

{{coords, 51.5129, -0.0870, display=title Coffeehouses and cafés in London Former buildings and structures in the City of London 17th-century establishments in England 17th century in London 18th century in London London Stock Exchange

See also

References