The Road of Coffee
Contents › Chapter 2 Coffeehouses
Penny Universities
Europe's coffeehouses — places to read the news and argue
View in 3DA Debate for the Price of a Cup
In the 1600s, coffee crossed the Mediterranean to Europe. A coffeehouse opened in Oxford, England, in 1650, and another in London in 1652. For the price of a cup, anyone could come in, read the newspapers and listen to debates.
Why?People in taverns got drunk and picked fights, but coffee kept their heads clear. Merchants and students met in coffeehouses to talk business and swap news.
Learn moreBecause you could learn so much for a penny, people called London coffeehouses "penny universities." One coffeehouse, where people traded news about ships and cargo, later grew into a big insurance company.
- When
- 1650 → 1660
Read more
Wikipedia: English coffeehouses in the 17th and 18th centuries
More in the series
Routes are simplified — drawn as the shortest path between two places — and dates vary between records. Café counts come from Korea's local business license records (rest-food shops registered as coffee shops), shown with the date of the snapshot.