Espresso, sourdough and grand cafés: London’s café culture

About Espresso, sourdough and grand cafés: London’s café culture

By the ULTIMATE London Editorial Team

Editor-in-Chief: Jai Michael

London has always been a tea city, but its coffee culture runs deep, from the coffee houses of the 17th century to the espresso bars of Soho and the speciality roasters that now fill Shoreditch and Marylebone.

Espresso comes to Soho

Coffee houses were London’s meeting places in the 17th and 18th centuries, but the modern café arrived in post-war Soho. Bar Italia opened on Frith Street in 1949, and in the 1950s espresso bars with gleaming Italian machines became the haunts of students, musicians and writers. Algerian Coffee Stores and Maison Bertaux, older still, remind you how long Soho has been fed and caffeinated by immigrant families.

The Antipodean wave

Monmouth Coffee began roasting in Covent Garden in 1978, but the bigger change came in the 2000s, when Australians and New Zealanders opened cafés such as Flat White on Berwick Street. They brought the flat white, careful espresso and brunch culture with them. Roasters including Ozone, Allpress, Workshop, Origin, Prufrock and Climpson & Sons now serve their own beans across the city.

In Soho, the espresso bar has been part of the street since the 1950s.

The sourdough revival

London’s bakeries have flourished alongside its coffee bars. GAIL’s opened its first shop on Hampstead High Street in 2005; E5 Bakehouse bakes organic sourdough under a Hackney railway arch; and Bread Ahead is known for its filled doughnuts. Beigel Bake on Brick Lane, baking since 1974, keeps the East End’s Jewish baking tradition alive around the clock.

Grand cafés and institutions

For something grander, The Wolseley on Piccadilly serves breakfast and coffee all day in a former car showroom, and Fortnum & Mason’s Parlour serves sundaes on its first floor. In Marylebone, La Fromagerie and Daylesford combine shops and cafés, and Lina Stores has sold Italian food on Brewer Street since 1944.

Our advice: start a Soho morning at Bar Italia, try a flat white at a speciality roaster, and save the grand cafés for a slow breakfast; most speciality cafés close by late afternoon.

Opening hours, prices and seasonal openings change, so please check with Espresso, sourdough and grand cafés: London’s café culture before you go.