Coffee-houses

Coffee-houses were first heard of in Europe at Constantinople, in the middle of the 16th century, and are spoken of as among Turkish habits by Burton (1621) and Bacon (1627). They were introduced at Venice in 1645. Jacobs, a Jew, opened one at Oxford in 1650. The first in London was set up about 1652 in St Michael's Alley, Cornhill, by Pasqua Rosee, a Ragusan. The Rainbow was the second (1656). The first coffee-house in France was opened at Marseilles in 1671, and some years later an Armenian kept one in Paris. The Café Procope (1725), the first of the Parisian literary cafés, was founded by a Sicilian, Procopio Cultelli. The Régence became favoured in after-years by the romantiques. Coffee-houses were established in Sweden in 1674, at Hamburg in 1679, and at Vienna in 1683. In 1675 an attempt was made by Charles II. to suppress them by proclamation as the resort of political agitators. For nearly a century they were in England much what they have remained in France to the present day, free and open clubs. Among the most famous were Garraway's, where tea was first retailed, and Jonathan's, both in Change Alley, the latter the stock-jobbers' resort; Dick's; Lloyd's (q.v.); the Jerusalem, one of the earliest city news-rooms; Don Saltero's, at Chelsea, with an absurd museum of curiosities; St James's, the resort of the Whigs from the reign of Queen Anne to the close of George III.; and Wills's, the predecessor of Button's, and the resort of Dryden. Addison and Swift patronised Button's. Other coffee-houses were Tom's in Birch Lane, Cornhill; the Bedford, Tom King's, and the Piazza, in Covent Garden; the Chapter in Paternoster Row; and Child's in St Paul's Churchyard. Cocoa and chocolate houses were coffee-houses under other names. The modern philanthropic coffee-tavern system was first promoted by Mr and Mrs Hind Smith in 1867. In 1875 a number of cocoa-houses were started in Liverpool, and at the present time about four hundred temperance coffee-houses, owned by public companies, are prospering in various towns of Great Britain. Modern coffee-houses are eating-rooms without excise licenses, and French cafés-chantants merely music-halls.