CAFÉ CULTURE THROUGH HISTORY: HOW CAFÉS BECAME THE LIVING ROOMS OF THE CITY

How coffeehouse culture spread across Europe, and why the café is still a place to linger.

Coffee reached Europe along trade routes, and with it came a new kind of space: a place to sit, read, talk and meet others. Here is a short look at how coffeehouses spread and what they did for cities.

From Venice to Oxford and London

The first European coffeehouses opened in Venice around the middle of the 1600s, thanks to trade with the Ottoman Empire. England’s first coffeehouse opened in Oxford in the early 1650s and was called the Angel. London’s first was opened in 1652 by Pasqua Rosée. By 1739, London already had over 550 coffeehouses.

Penny universities: where people came to talk

English coffeehouses were nicknamed “penny universities”. Sources explain the name differently: some say a cup of coffee cost a penny, others that entry sometimes cost a penny. Either way, the point is the same: for a small sum you could join the conversation. Coffeehouses also offered newspapers and pamphlets to read.

In Oxford, most customers were members of the university, but locals and travellers could also mix with the dons and students and join the discussion.

From coffeehouse to office

In London, coffeehouses were also places for business.

Lloyd’s Coffee House: Edward Lloyd opened his coffeehouse in 1686. Its customers were sailors, merchants and shipowners, and Lloyd provided them with up-to-date shipping news. Marine insurance was arranged there, and the activity later grew into Lloyd’s of London.

Jonathan’s Coffee House: In 1698, a broker at this coffeehouse in Change Alley began posting the prices of stocks and commodities. The coffeehouse is regarded as a starting point of the London Stock Exchange.

When the authorities grew uneasy

Not everyone welcomed the free flow of conversation. Charles II saw coffeehouses as places where the discontented gathered, and in December 1675 he ordered London’s coffeehouses closed. The order was withdrawn soon afterwards because of public outcry.

Paris and the Enlightenment

Paris’s best known historic café, Café Procope, opened in 1686. Its regulars are said to have included Enlightenment thinkers such as Voltaire, Diderot and Rousseau, and the Encyclopédie is said to have been born from conversations between Diderot and d’Alembert there. Later, Parisian cafés such as Café de Flore and La Rotonde became meeting places for writers and artists.

Viennese coffeehouses: “extended living rooms”

There are two stories about Vienna’s first coffeehouse. Legend says Georg Franz Kolschitzky was the first to receive a licence to serve coffee after the Siege of Vienna (1683). According to the City of Vienna, however, the first one was opened by an Armenian named Diodato. Other sources date this to 1685.

The city describes Viennese coffeehouses as “extended living rooms”. Many residents lived in small, crowded flats and treated coffeehouses as a second home, a place to meet friends and other people. Viennese coffeehouse culture was added to Austria’s national inventory of intangible cultural heritage in 2011.

Coffee came to Finland through Turku

According to a Yle article, coffee culture came to Finland from Stockholm via Turku in the 1740s. By the end of the century Turku had around ten coffee rooms. Coffee was banned four times during that period, yet it remained available, and in the article’s words the smell of coffee still hung over the town.

Cafés are still the living rooms of cities

The idea of the café has stayed surprisingly constant: a place to pause, meet others and stay a while. This idea lives on at Café Victor, the café in Turku Art Museum. You can sit down with a cup and a pastry, alone or together, and enjoy the hall’s cosy sofa corners, the murmur of conversation and the timeless atmosphere. Here, too, people often talk about art and culture, just like in Paris in the 1600s!

Sources:

• History.com: How Coffee Houses Fueled Revolutions

• Brewminate: A History of the Coffeehouse

• Historic UK: English Coffeehouses and Penny Universities

• Cherwell: A social blend, the history of the Oxford coffeehouse

• Wikipedia: Lloyd’s Coffee House

• Wikipedia: Jonathan’s Coffee-House

• Wikipedia: Café Procope

• City of Vienna: Viennese coffee culture

• Yle: Turun kahvihuoneet 1700-luvulla