This is the story of London’s original coffeehouses: a heady brew of greed, gossip, idleness…and crucified crocodiles.
Dr Matthew Green returns to give his sell-out talk to enthralled pupils. During this evening, Dr Green will place the Idler Academy within a London coffeehouse tradition stretching back 350 years to a muddy churchyard in the heart of the City of London, where a Greek visionary with a twirly moustache and shocking English accent dispensed a foul-looking liquid from a smokey wooden shack. From these humble beginnings arose a cultural phenomenon that would transform the face of the metropolis – and then vanish without a trace.
Caffeine-addicted brokers discuss tulip bubbles and the South Seas
Hear about the meteoric rise of coffeehouses in 17-century London, their blossoming in the 18th century, and their slow death in the 19th. See actors in period costume breathe life into the atmospheres they fostered and all they spawned – from the stock exchange to master ventriloquists; professional journalism to lethal duels over Latin grammar; democracy to dissected dolphins. Marvel at a world where you could begin a conversation with anyone you liked simply by asking for the latest news or gossip, an alien concept in our increasingly virtual world.
A Heated Argument about the Teaching of Latin in Schools
Is the Idler Academy the beginning of a resurgence of Georgian-style coffeehouses or is it destined to remain a liberating oasis in a desert of Starbucks clones?
A Typical Afternoon at the Idler Academy
Dr Matthew Green, coffeehouse expert
Dr Matthew Green recently completed a PhD from Oxford University examining how the media shaped the ideas, worldviews, and personalities of 18th-century London diarists. He is shamelessly taking the most readable element of that – the history of London’s early coffeehouses – and turning it into a popular history book. To get out of the library, he is also writing, presenting, and co-producing a series of London tour Apps for Unreal City Audio having presented previous tours for the Guardian. He also works as a history tutor, teaching everything from King Cnut to Stalin, and moonlights as a warehouse hunter.
Date: Wednesday 29 February 2012
Time: 6.30pm for 7pm. Ends 8.30pm
Place: The Idler Academy, 81 Westbourne Park Road, London W2 5QH. Tel: 0207 221 5908
Cost: £20 or £15 for the London poor. Price of entry includes wine and nibbles. BOOK HERE.
