University of Richmond UR Scholarship Repository Honors Theses Student Research Spring 2004 London coffee houses : the first hundred years Heather Lynn McQueen Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarship.richmond.edu/honors-theses Recommended Citation McQueen, Heather Lynn, "London coffee houses : the first hundred years" (2004). Honors Theses. Paper 283. This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Research at UR Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Honors Theses by an authorized administrator of UR Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. London Co_ffee Houses: The First Hundred Years An Honors Thesis Submitted To ,. ''·''"~ • . The Faculty of The Department of History Written Under the Direction of Dr. John Gordon By HEATHER LYNN McQUEEN Richmond, Virginia April 19, 2004 I pledge that I have neither given nor received any unauthorized assistance during the completion ofthis work. Abstract This paper examines how early London coffee houses catered to the intellectual, political, religious and business communities in London, as well as put forward some information regarding what it was about coffee houses that made them "new meeting places" for Londoners. Coffee houses offered places for political debate and progressively modem forms of such debate, "penny university" lessons on all matter of science and the arts, simplicity and sobriety in which independent religious groups could meet, as well as the early development of a private office space. Preface I remember as a child watching my parents pouring themselves mugs of coffee each morning, the smell of the beans filling the kitchen, and since these early sights and smells, the world of coffee has been an intriguing, interesting, exotic, and informational part of my life.