London Revisited: Coffee, Satire and Bubbles
About this episode
This episode explores the coffee culture of 1690s London and its impact on financial speculation and public print culture, featuring insights from Markman Ellis.
The coffee served in London in the 1690s was notoriously unappetising, likened at the time to ‘burnt shoes and charcoal’. Nonetheless it was extremely popular, not least for the energy and locations it provided for two great booms in London life: financial speculation and a genuinely public print culture. For this episode, Rosemary is joined by Markman Ellis, professor of 18th-century studies at Queen Mary University of London, to look at the architecture, literature and culture of ‘politeness’ that emerged after the so-called Glorious Revolution of 1688, and the stories spun out of it by Daniel Defoe and John Gay. They discuss the coffee houses where London’s stock exchange and marine insurance market were created, the front rooms where women enjoyed the new ‘visiting system’ and the increasingly hazardous streets where Moll Flanders and others sought their fortune. Reading by Fiona Sheehan Non-subscribers will only hear an extract from this episode. To listen in full, and to all our other Close Readings series, sign up: Apple Podcasts: https://lrb.me/applesignuplr Other podcast apps: https://lrb.me/scsignuplr Read more in the LRB: Steven Shapin on coffee…
People in this episode
Host: Rosemary
Guest: Markman Ellis
Topics covered
- coffee culture
- 18th-century literature
- financial speculation
- public print culture
- politeness
- London history
Keywords
- coffee
- London
- 18th century
- financial speculation
- public print culture
- politeness
- Daniel Defoe
- John Gay
- Moll Flanders
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Queen Mary University of London
Books & works: Moll Flanders
Places: London
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- London Revisited: Pepys, Plague and Fire
- Narrative Poems: ‘The Eve of St Agnes’ by John Keats
- The Man Behind the Curtain: ‘Middlemarch’ by George Eliot
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