Jamaica Wine House

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Jamaica Wine House
Jamaica Wine House

Jamaica Wine House was the first coffee house in London[1]. It is now a pub and is set within a labyrinth of medieval courts and alleys in the City of London. It has historic links with the sugar trade and slave plantations of the West Indies and Turkey. There is a plaque on the wall which reads 'Here stood the first London Coffee house at the sign of the Pasqual Rosee's Head 1652.' Rosee was a Ragusian manservant brought to London from Ottoman Smyrna by his former employer, Mr Daniel Edwards. The two fell out and Rosee went into business with another ex-servant, Edwards' coachman. They opened a coffee house in 1652, known in some accounts as The Turk's Head.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Monday 10 December 1660 (Pepys' Diary)