The Coffee Houses

It was in the Muslim monasteries near Mocha, Yemen, in the middle of the 15th century, where the coffee seeds were roasted and brewed for the first time. 

By the 16th century, the coffee was not only a drink in Arabia but in all the Middle East, Persia, northern Africa and Turkey. 

Decades later, and thanks to the British East India Company, coffee became popular in England too. The Jamaica Coffee House, opened in 1652 by Pasqua Rosee, is the oldest one. Located in St Michael's Alley, in the City of London, is still opened after more than three hundred years.

The artist Adam Dant wanted to pay homage to these popular places with a new map. “I’ve always wanted to do a map of the Coffee Houses, because it marks a moment when intellectual activity had a parity with mercantile activity. They called them the penny universities”. And he explained, as well, that "there were thirty here in these streets behind the Royal Exchange, until a fire that started in a peruke shop burnt them all down. The only reason we know where they all were is because somebody was commissioned to draw a map of them, assessing the damage.”

Now you have another reason to get lost in between the beautiful and ambiguous passages and courtyards of the City.