Change Alley and more Coffee Houses

The Jamaica Wine House

Tucked away in medieval St Michaels Alley is the site of London's first Coffee House - now The Jamaica Wine House, seen further back at the black and white sign.

The original coffee house was named Pasque Rosees Head in 1652 (or Turks Head) 

Garraways Coffee House

Built in 1669 after the Great Fire in Exchange Alley (now known as Change Alley) and rebuilt in 1874.

Thomas Garraway the founder is the first person to have retailed tea in England - at £10 per pound in 1660.

Auctions took place here 'by the candle', while an inch of the candle burns. A pin is placed in the wick, about an inch from the top. The candle is lit and the bidding begins and continues until the melting tallow dislodges the pin. The last bid made before the pin falls secures the lot, and the phrase 'you could hear a pin drop' refers to the intense silence when everyone is trying to hear who has made and won the final bid. 

Plaque to the site in 1930. Note the Gresham grasshopper! 

Jonathan's Coffee House

In 1698 the owner John Castaing started to issue a list of commodity and stock prices, and so began the Stock Exchange, with its stock brokers and 'jobbers'.  It was also the scene of the South Sea Bubble in 1745.

In 1748 a fire destroyed many of the Coffee Houses in Change Alley.