Coffee Shop Stories
Posted on 01. Mar, 2011 by charles in Entrepreneurs, London
Walk through any shopping centre or city street and you will see people in coffee shops. They have become the great meeting places of our age. But, who started the craze?
Edward Lloyd was the man who got things going in London. An immigrant from Turkey told him about the coffee habit in his country. Lloyd, therefore, opened a cafe in Tower Street and later opened another in Lombard Street. Merchants met there and set the prices of products for sale. It was the start of what we know today as the Stock Market.
Edward Lloyd was a good businessman and established a shipping register, called Lloyds’s List and also Lloyd’s Register. They still exist today over 300 years later.
Other coffee shops started and became clubs – some where for the clergy, some for actors and some for writers. In those days, few women entered a coffee shop. It was a place for men to talk business. How times have changed.
Edward Lloyd saw that his clients needed a proper market and founded what became Lloyds of London, the great insurance company. He was an amazing man and I have included him in my book Amazing People of London, which brings to life how the city developed.
How would you like to have coffee with William Shakespeare or Charlie Chaplin? It is now possible to do that via new set of amazing audios from the www.amazingpeopleclub.com. You can download and listen to their stories in ten minutes as you enjoy a quick cup of coffee.
So, as you pass by the next coffee shop, imagine what people are talking about. Maybe they are planning how to make millions, as Edward Lloyd did.
Erik Walden
Jun 3rd, 2011
Never knew there was a story behind coffee shops, Very interesting stuff.