The Coffee House

Georgian London saw the growth in popularity of coffee houses as a forum for business, entertainment, and social activity. They were often associated with different political viewpoints or kinds of commercial activity, such as the meeting of merchant venturers at New Jonathan's in London, that was to later become the London Stock Exchange. If you are interested in Coffee Houses in Georgian times, see Angela Hartnall's article in the July 2011 edition of Dolls House Magazine (Issue 158).

The Coffee House² is an architecturally consistent, 4 storey Georgian building with a shop on the ground floor and living accommodation above. Although the coffee shop area has a grand plaster fireplace and wooden panelled walls, it could be adapted to make other types of retail premises, like a pharmacy for example. Despite being a commercial building both the trading and domestic rooms are richly fitted out.

The Coffee House Photographs

Exterior

The building has a full width glazed shop front. A pavement finished with grouted flagstones is attached to the front panel and swings open with it. This can be used to place figures entering or leaving the coffee house. Coffee houses were scenes of much coming and going, they were even used as addresses for men who lodged in temporary accommodation nearby.

The Coffee House front view.
Looking through the shop door.
Roof with individually laid teracotta effect tiles
and real teracotta chimney pots.
Side-opening panel showing cupboard stairs to second floor.

Interior

The Coffee House combines a business premises with living accommodation. The building is decorated throughout with colours appropriate to the Georgian period. It has modest domestic rooms on 2 floors above the trading area. Skirting and coving is fitted to the shop area and the rooms of the first and second floors. The internal wooden doors are all painted or stained with turned brass door knobs. The building has stain varnished scribed floorboards with lifting boards that conceal the wiring for lights. It is already wired for fires that could be added into the kitchen alcove and inside the fireplaces which are each fitted with a hearth stone.

On bespoke orders the rooms are available in a range of colours chosen from the Farrow & Ball colour card. The pictures on this page show coffee houses finished with white painted doors and skirtings. In working areas and places where hard wear was expected, Georgians often went for dark brown woodwork to hide the marks - not necessarily to 21^st taste!

General interior.

Basement

The Coffee House basement floor plan.

The Coffee House has a large basement room with grouted, slate-effect, flagstones on the floor. The basement is fitted out as a combined kitchen/scullery and has a washing copper, bread oven and inglenook arch into which you could place a range. Cupboard stairs connect the basement to the coffee house trading area above. As a period detail: a gutter runs through the centre of the flagstone floor.

Basement kitchen with brick backed arch for range, washing copper,
and opening bread oven with dummy fire-box beneath.
Close-up view of the arch.
Kitchen showing stairs.
Stairs, dummy back door, arched storage area and drain gulley.

Ground Floor

The Coffee House ground floor plan.

The coffee shop trading area is wooden panelled with a substantial plaster fireplace typical of a gentleman's meeting house. The shop floor has four arched alcoves each containing fitted shelving which would have been used for storing, amongst other things, books and periodicals.

General view of the trading area showing four shelved alcoves,
cupboard stairs and wooden panelling.
Door to the basement stairs.
Panelling and cupboard stairs.
Stairs to the first floor.
Arched alcoves on the back wall.
Fireplace and wooden panelling.

First Floor

The Coffee House first floor plan.

The first floor domestic rooms have dado rails, covings and ceiling roses. The small Breakfast Room with its cosy corner fireplace might even be used as an office for the business below.

Drawing Room or Parlour.
Detail of Drawing Room door.
View to Drawing Room across first
floor landing seen through the
side-opening panel.
View through the side-opening panel showing
the cupboard stairs to the second floor.
View from the Drawing Room across
the landing with the side-panel closed.
The closed door conceals the cupboard
stairs.
Breakfast Room.

Second Floor

The Coffee House second floor plan

There are 2 rooms on the top floor which could be used as bedrooms for the proprietor of the coffee house or let out for lodgers.

Smaller bedroom.
Main bedroom with door to rear stairs.

Stairs

Stairs are a speciality of Anglia Dolls Houses. Due to the nature of the building, there are cupboard stairs with stain varnished steps throughout, some with stringers and winding steps.

Cupboard stairs from shop area to first
floor. Note that the staircase has a
stringer visible on right side.
First floor landing seen through open side panel. The winding cupboard
stairs on the right lead to the second floor.

Gallery

Pictures of the Coffee House as seen in Angela Hartnall's article in the July 2011 edition of Dolls House Magazine (Issue 158):

The Coffee House next to an Ely House.
Coffee House and kitchen.
Coffee House interior.
Many Geogian Coffee Houses had a library for use by patrons.
Dr Johnson by the fireplace with hob grate.

Lighting

From Autumn 2011 all fully decorated Anglia Dolls Houses include a package of lights as standard with a quality Smallworld digital transformer and Easy Wire fused distribution strip. If you prefer to specify your own choice of lights I can build these in for you. Wiring is concealed behind a false back panel, under lift up floorboards and also down the chimney breasts. The way that the wiring is done makes it easy for you to add further lights at a future date. See the Electric Lighting Datasheet for more details of the standard package of lights included with this house if purchased fully finished.

If you would like more information about this dolls house please call or email me.