Pasqua Rosée

Pasqua Rosée opened the first[1][2] coffeehouse in London in 1652.[3] The coffeehouse was located in St. Michael's Alley, Cornhill. However, Rosée opened his very first coffee shop in Oxford, England in 1651.[4]

Pascal Rosée was of Greek [5] or Armenian origin born in Smyrna in Asia Minor in the early seventeenth century.[6] In 1651 a merchant named Daniel Edwards, a member of the Levant Company and a trader in Turkish goods, encountered Rosée at Smyrna [7] employed him as a manservant[8] and brought him back to Britain.

Once there, Rosée set up the establishment, its sign a portrait of Rosée.[9] However, local publicans in the highly regulated alehouse trade accused him of being an interloper, although it is unclear how successful this claim was. Nevertheless as he was not a freeman of the city of London he was debarred from any trade. However Daniel Edwards and his father-in-law, Alderman Thomas Hodges backed Hodges' apprentice, Christoper Bowman to become Rosée's business partner when he completed his apprenticeship and became freeman of the city of London on 22 February 1654.[10]

The partners moved the business into premises in nearby St Michael's Alley.[10] Jamaica Wine House now reputedly occupies the same space.[11]

Later Pascal Rosée moved to Paris where he opened the first Coffee shop in the French Capital on the Place Saint-Germain in the year 1672.

References

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