In 1703, Ned Ward colorfully described a particularly loathsome coffeehouse in The London Spy:

“Come,” says my Friend, “let us step into this Coffee-House here, as you are a Stranger in the Town, it will afford you some Diversion.” Accordingly in we went, where a parcel of Muddling Muck-Worms were as busie as so many Rats in an old Cheese-Loft; some Go­ing, some Coming, some Scribbling, some Talking, some Drinking, some Smoaking, others Jangling; and the whole Room stinking of Tobacco, like a Dutch-Scoot, or a Boatswains-Cabbin.

Despite Ward’s scabrous description, coffeehouses were spaces where men could do business, exchange news, and engage in conversations and debates, though the quality of such discussions could vary significantly. Regarding Will’s Coffee House, Samuel Pepys writes, “It will be good coming thither, for there, I perceive, is very witty and pleasant discourse.”

Fifty years later, Jonathan Swift complained:

Indeed, the worſt converſation I ever remember to have heard in my life, was that at Will’s coffee-houſe, where the wits (as they were called) uſed formerly to aſſemble; that is to ſay, five or ſix men, who had writ plays, or at leaſt prologues, or had ſhare in a miſcellany, came hither, and entertained one another with their trifling compoſures, in ſo important an air, as if they had been the nobleſt efforts of human nature, or that the fate of kingdoms depended on them; and they were uſually attended with an humble audience of young ſtudents from the inns of courts, or the univerſities, who, at due diſtance, liſtened to theſe oracles, and returned home with great contempt for their law and philoſophy, their heads filled with traſh, under the name of politeneſs, criticiſm, and belles lettres. By theſe means the poets, for many years paſt, were all over-run by pedantry.

The illustrations below provide further depictions of the interiors of 18th century coffeehouses; see the Additional Resources for further discussion of their role in society. (Additional notes on 18th century coffee are on a separate page.)