Club Life of London, Vol. 2 (of 2): With Anecdotes of the Clubs, Coffee-Houses and Taverns of the Metropolis During the 17th, 18th, and 19th CenturiesTimbs, John
History
Club Life of London, Vol. 2 (of 2): With Anecdotes of the Clubs, Coffee-Houses and Taverns of the Metropolis During the 17th, 18th, and 19th Centuries
Timbs, John
Clubs -- England -- London; Literary landmarks -- England -- London; London (England) -- Social life and customs
The Turk's Head Coffee-house, No. 142, in the Strand, was a favourite
supping-house with Dr. Johnson and Boswell, in whose Life of Johnson
are several entries, commencing with 1763--"At night, Mr. Johnson and
I supped in a private room at the Turk's Head Coffee-house, in the
Strand; 'I encourage this house,' said he, 'for the mistress of it is
a good civil woman, and has not much business.'" Another entry is--"We
concluded the day at the Turk's Head Coffee-house very socially." And,
August 3, 1673--"We had our last social meeting at the Turk's Head
Coffee-house, before my setting out for foreign parts."
The name was afterwards changed to "The Turk's Head, Canada and Bath
Coffee-house," and was a well frequented tavern and hotel: it was
taken down, and a very handsome lofty house erected upon the site, at
the cost of, we believe, eight thousand pounds; it was opened as a
tavern and hotel, but did not long continue.
At the Turk's Head, or Miles's Coffee-house, New Palace-yard,
Westminster, the noted Rota Club met, founded by Harrington, in 1659:
where was a large oval table, with a passage in the middle, for Miles
to deliver his coffee. (See _Clubs_, Vol. I., pp. 15, 16).
SQUIRE'S COFFEE-HOUSE.
In Fulwood's (_vulgo_ Fuller's) Rents, in Holborn, nearly opposite
Chancery-lane, in the reign of James I., lived Christopher Fulwood, in
a mansion of some pretension, of which an existing house of the period
is said to be the remains. "Some will have it," says Hatton, 1708,
"that it is called from being a _woody_ place before there were
buildings here; but its being called Fullwood's Rents (as it is in
deeds and leases), shows it to be the rents of one called Fullwood,
the owner or builder thereof." Strype describes the Rents, or court,
as running up to Gray's-Inn, "into which it has an entrance through
the gate; a place of good resort, and taken up by coffee-houses,
ale-houses, and houses of entertainment, by reason of its vicinity to
Gray's-Inn. On the east side is a handsome open place, with a handsome
freestone pavement, and better built, and inhabited by private
house-keepers. At the upper end of this court is a passage into the
Castle Tavern, a house of considerable trade, as is the Golden Griffin
Tavern, on the West side."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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