Robert Hooke's London
Life and science in Restoration London
The resorts of idle and disaffected persons
Posted on 11 April 2012 by felicityhen
On Thursday 30 December 1675, a startling proclamation was printed in the London Gazette:
Whereas it is most apparent, That the Multitude of Coffee-houses of late Years set up and kept within this Kingdom . . . and the great resort of Idle and Disaffected persons to them, have produced very evil and dangerous Effects, as well for that many Tradesmen and others do therein mispend much of their time, which might and probably would otherwise be employed in and about their lawful Callings and Affairs; but also, for that in such Houses, and by occasion of the meetings of such Persons therein, divers false, malitious and scandalous Reports are devised and spread abroad, to the Defamation of His Majesties Government, and to the Disturbance of the Peace and Quiet of the Realm; His Majesty hath thought it fit and necessary, That the said Coffee-houses be (for the future) Put down and Suppressed . . .
(read the whole proclamation on the London Gazette website)
There was a public uproar and he had to back down, but His Majesty Charles II did have a point. Anyone reading Hooke's diary is under no illusions that a good deal of Hooke's time that might otherwise have been spent doing who knows what, possibly one of his several lawful callings, was in fact employed in meeting friends at Garraway's or Jonathan's. Furthermore, every Restoration Londoner knew that the coffee-house was the place to go for false, malicious and scandalous reports (second only to the palace of Whitehall for really juicy gossip). Hooke probably didn't go specifically for the scandal, although occasionally he ran across scandal in the course of a visit. He went to meet friends, talk to people, and read the latest news from home and abroad. Of course, the main topic of conversation on 30 December 1675 was the royal proclamation.
You could run into just about anyone at a coffee-house, from shoe-makers to courtiers. Hooke's friends and associates had their own particular haunts – Hooke often visited Man's with Sir Christopher Wren, and select Fellows of the Royal Society regularly adjourned to the Crown Tavern in Threadneedle Street after meetings. In the 1670s Hooke's favored establishment was Garraway's in Exchange Alley, run by Thomas Garraway; in the 1680s and 1690s he preferred Jonathan's, kept by Jonathan Miles, again in Exchange Alley. Hooke sometimes visited Jonathan's three times in a day, and usually met some of his particular friends there. He recorded such visits in a truncated fashion in his diary. Part of an entry for Thursday 17 January 1689 reads:
. . . at Jon Gof Lod Sp Wal: Hayn. Mev. Cur. Pag. of flood. Atlantis &c . . .
meaning 'at Jonathans. [met] Godfrey, Lodwick, Spencer, Waller, Hains, Meverell, Currer, Paggin. [talk] of flood. Atlantis, &c'. The listing of names became almost compulsive for Hooke in the later part of his diary – this is a typical entry. On this occasion the talk turned to the Biblical flood and its consequences, something Hooke was particularly interested in at this time as part of his theorising about the history and formation of the earth. On other visits Hooke was more interested in reading the latest news printed in the London Gazette, or papers from Scotland, Ireland, Holland and Paris. It was at Jonathan's that Hooke first learnt of the death of Queen Christina of Sweden (he noted this on Monday 18 March 1689, and again on Thursday 9 May, when the Paris Gazette apparently ran an obituary of the prominent monarch). Happenings closer to home were also discussed, including London mayoral elections and military affairs in Scotland and Ireland.
Just one contemporary drawing of the interior of a seventeenth-century coffee-house exists, now in the British Museum collections. (view it here) It's just a watercolour sketch, but it gives a good impression of the tobacco pipes, coffee and conversation on offer – a convivial place to spend an evening with Hooke and his friends.
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3 thoughts on "The resorts of idle and disaffected persons"
Antiquarian on 29 September 2013 at 7:41 pm said:
Are there any descriptions of the Crown tavern in Hooke's journals or diary? If you or any other readers of this site know of any please do drop me a line via my e-mail contact details. I'm aware of several references to the tavern in Samuel Pepys' diary and am sure there will be similar in Hooke's writings but have yet not looked for them.
Keep up the good work on your blog.
felicityhen on 13 November 2013 at 10:53 pm said:
I'm sorry to have taken so long to respond to this question! Yes there are quite a few references to the Crown tavern in Hooke's earlier diary (between 1672 and 1680) and he seems to have gone there fairly regularly with some of his Royal Society friends. I can send the extracts to you in an email – although I assume there might have been more than one Crown tavern so you will need to decide whether Hooke is visiting the right one!
Antiquarian on 13 November 2013 at 11:10 pm said:
Yes please do send me the references please. Odds on if he's speaking of the Crown in the same context as his Royal Society friends it will be the Crown in Threadneedle Street as members of the Society regularly met in this tavern after their meetings and for a while held their annual dinners their.
http://pepyssmallchange.wordpress.com/2013/10/12/thomas-blagrave-at-the-crown-tavern-in-threadneedle-street/
(pepystoken@virginmedia.com)