The History of London Coffee Houses - A Walking Tour

with David Harry, The London Spy

City of London

Wednesday 17 June 2026

1pm to 3pm

David Harry, our guide, is 'The London Spy'.  Winner of the 2025 Walking Tour Company of the Year in London, from the Travel and Hospitality Awards as well as a Tik Tok sensation and Insta star!  David will guide us past the ages-old and famous Coffee Houses of the City. We will follow narrow alleyways around The Royal Exchange where the revolutionary commodity, coffee, was first sold in 1652.

Advertised as "A simple innocent thing, composed into a drink, by being dried in an oven and ground to a powder, and boiled up with spring water, and about half a pint of it to be drunk", it transformed London's business world in the City and the literary world in the West End.

Starting in the Puritan era, surviving an attempted ban by Charles II, supplanted by tea in the 19th century and then roaring back in the post-war Soho youth culture and then again in the 90s via Starbucks, Costa et al, this extraordinary addictive substance has made this nation what it is.

We will meet at a convenient location in the City which will be advised in due course.

The walk is 2 hours long, please wear appropriate footwear.

Places: 15

Cost: £26.00