https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Interior_of_a_London_Coffee-house,_17th_century.JPG

“Penny universities”, they used to call them when they began in the seventeenth century. The first English coffee house was opened in 1650 in Oxford, but it would be at the turn of that century that they truly hit their stride. Everybody met everybody at the coffee house. Social and sexual boundaries were transgressed, and a great deal of business was done.

Some of that business was of the stocks and shares variety. The London Stock Exchange has its origins in Jonathan’s Coffee House, which opened on Change Alley in the 1680s. But the cultural and intellectual legacy is far more interesting.

Join us as we frequent the Turk’s Head, the notorious Tom King’s, and the original Nando’s (no really!).

RJW F2607 Online (via Zoom)

A 5-hour short course, delivered via 2 x 2½-hour sessions on consecutive Saturdays (Saturday 7 & Saturday 14 February).

£40 (individual registration); £72 (for two people sharing one screen).