Jamaica Wine House

The Rocket Cup doesn’t work 24 hours a day—it also gets taken out for leisure purposes from time to time. In this case, we decided to seek out a plaque in Cornhill marking the location of London’s first coffee house, the Jamaica Wine House, dating back to 1652. The cup and I paid homage to the noble history of coffee in the great city.

The cup and I visit the plaque in Cornhill marking the location of London’s first coffee house.

The t-shirt I’m wearing is significant too. It was one of the rewards from the third season Kickstarter campaign run by the 99% Invisible podcast, a fantastic podcast about design and architecture. If the podcast could be said to have a motto, the phrase “Always read the plaque” would be it. These words were immortalized in t-shirt form. In our travels around the UK during the past months, we’ve discovered that it’s excellent advice.

I don’t know what the coffee is like at Jamaica Wine House these days (it’s primarily a pub), but the plaque is a short walk from the Bank and Monument locations of Taylor Street Baristas, and from the excellent Curators Coffee (to which I will hopefully return as part of the World Tour).