RAINBOW CAFE, LONdon, UK
The Rainbow Coffee House was a famous coffee house located in London's Fleet Street.
It was opened by James Farr in 1657, becoming London's second coffee house. The Rainbow provided a meeting place for freemasons and French refugee Huguenots who established an information centre there. The Rainbow was also featured in the furor created by Titus Oates. He accused Sir Philip Lloyd of denying the existence of a popish plot there, finding witnesses from amongst the coffee drinkers to testify against him. Quoted on www.shadyoldlady.com “Many complaints were made against Farr's notorious coffee house and indeed against coffee, as both were seen as dens of debauchery. The Phoenix Fire-office (the second office established in England for insurance against fire) was located at the Rainbow Tavern, in Fleet-street as early as 1682. The Spectator's Joseph Addison and Richard Steele were both samplers of coffee here, where the latest scandal was talked and the latest fashions exhibited. In No. 16 of the Spectator it says I have received a letter desiring me to be very satirical upon the little muff that is now in fashion ; another informs me of a pair of silver garters buckled below the knee, that have lately been seen at the Rainbow Coffee-house in Fleet Street. Writers Hilaire Belloc and GK Chesterton frequented the pub. For the past 60 years it has been a legal bookshop.” |
LOCATION
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17 Fleet Street. No longer exists as a coffee house. Currently is a bookshop.
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