Historical version 5 of Category Coffee Shops (view current version)

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There are two types of coffee shop in London. Traditionally, from Victorian times, there were coffee importers and vendors, who would usually have a sampling room at the back. The sampling room grew into a café, and did more trade than over the counter sales of beans and ground coffee. Alongside pubs, coffee houses were the setting for the start of many political organisations and philosophical debating societies, including the Cogers.

There are a few coffee vendors left, including the [Drury Tea & Coffee co.]? and the [Monmouth Coffee House, WC2H 9EU]?.

A much more recent phenomenon are the Cafe chains [Starbucks]?, [Coffee Republic]?, [Costa Coffee]?, etc. which originated stateside. These tend to have little or no character, and often serve as a spare meeting room for local offices. The coffee is also sometimes of inferior quality.

In a few parts of London, people have tried experimentally setting up Dutch style cannabis coffee shops, but they are still illegal, and the police have been closing them down whenever they appear. The most successful of these was the Cafe Cairo, but they have now ended their lenient policy.



This is version 5 (as of 2003-12-10 09:33:44). View current version. List all versions.