"Cupfuls of History"

Cupfuls of History

Walking Lecture by Kim Dewdney

           Through one of my women's clubs, I was fortunate to be able to attend a walking lecture by Kim Dewdney today on the history of tea and coffee in London.  She had fascinating tales of the tea and coffee coming up the Thames and how some small coffee houses grew into powerhouse financial businesses of today.  We wandered around The City of London while she talked and pointed out the various old warehouses or coffee shops of years ago.

            Devonshire Square in The City of London is where the old East India Tea Company had their warehouses.  When the buildings were redesigned for modern use, they left the old fire bell and left some of the outer buildings the same as they had been in the 1600's.  The East India Tea company was by far the most successful business anywhere in the world at the time and was it the same today, probably would be the same in the world today.  They traded silk, spices, tapestries, rugs, tea and had monopolies on many of their items.  Indeed, from 1600 to 1812, they did have the sole monopoly on tea and thanks to Charles II’s wife Catherine; tea became the "in" and popular drink to have. 

           

Big boats weren’t able to come far up the Thames so goods would be loaded onto smaller boats and brought further up river to London.  The river was quite crowded in those days and it could take as long as 3 weeks to unload your cargo and by that time, a good portion of it could have spoiled.  In 1799, the West India Company started building their own docks – specifically around Canary Wharf - ­­and the East India Company watched with great interest and decided they could do the same.  They didn’t build their warehouses along the river though like other companies but built a road directly from their docks to their warehouses where Devonshire Square is now located. 

            East India Company had a sweet deal in that they had bonded warehouses.  No one else did.  This meant that when their goods came into port, they could unload them immediately and take them into their warehouses and then would pay tax on them as they were sold.  Other companies didn’t have this benefit so as they came into port, their captain or cargo master would have to go to the harbormaster and check in, then to the customs office which was a long room with lots of tables and clerks using primitive adding machines and ledgers.  They would have their bill of lading with them and as each item was taxed at a different rate and a ship might have as many as 200 different kinds of items on it, it would take a long time to calculate the amount of tax that a ship owed the government.  Finally, maybe one or two or three days later, the cargo master would take his tax bill to the long table at the end of the hall and pay his bill.  The bill was then stamped and only then was he allowed to return to the ship and start unloading his cargo.  East India Company was able to bypass all this with their bonded warehouses.  They had 4000 men working their docks and warehouses and took all their tea to warehouse #6 in the chests that it had traveled the seas.  They also had 400 clerks taking care of all the paperwork. 

            Like I said earlier, they didn’t deal in just tea but also ivory.  A very old photo shows a man standing in front of the ivory warehouse.  He looks to be about average height but the ivory “hill” was over twice as tall behind him.  The Cutler family was makers of knives and had a factory close by as the ivory was important in the handles of their knives.  At this point in history, there were no forks and all spoons were wooden but knives were metal with ivory handles.  The Cutler family still owns a good portion of the land around that area and many of the current businesses pay them rent for the land. 

            By 1700 there were 3000 coffee houses in The City of London and the area of Westminster.  And we thought that a Starbucks on each corner was a bit much! (As an aside, Starbucks currently is trying to go with fair trade beans totally but there aren’t enough of them.  Their siren logo was to “lure” everyone in for coffee.  Their tea isn’t that great and they conducted a poll about 18 months ago to ask if people would come in for tea if it was properly brewed and brought to the table and served.  Starbuck was the name of the first mate in the Hermann Melville tale “Moby Dick”)

            As another aside, the “Gherkin” building in London, the one that looks like a Gherkin pickle, stands on the spot where the Baltic Exchange had their offices.  The Baltic Exchange is now in their annex building next door.  The Gherkin got the land after a couple of IRA (Irish Republican Army) bombs demolished the Baltic Exchange in the 1990’s.  Only saved was one of their board rooms which was eventually sold to Estonia, a Balkan country.  Also saved were the stained glass windows, in shards and pieces and filling dozens of bins, but saved they were.  Some people took on the project of putting the windows back together and they are now on display at the Maritime Museum in Greenwich.

            Back to history of tea and coffee, the Baltic Exchange also dealt with trading coffee and such but has evolved into a shipping exchange in that anything, ship or airplane, that is chartered, goes through them.  If someone/some company, doesn’t have their own airplane or ship, they go to the Baltic Exchange to rent one or rent space. 

            Lloyd’s of London started as a coffee house.  With 3000 in the area, Mr. Lloyd needed a hook to bring people into his coffee shop.  He would send small boys running to the waterfront everyday where they would climb trees and try to spot ship flags.  As soon as they had one identified, they would run back to Mr. Lloyd and tell him that such and such a ship was in the Thames and at such and such a location.  People who had money invested in the ships or cargo would come into Lloyd’s coffee shop and get the news on the incoming ships.  Mr. Lloyd also put out a newsletter everyday of everything he could find on ships all over the world and where they were, what they had, when they were coming, etc. etc.  Just anything he could find on shipping.  This continued to evolve until he became insurance.  Lloyd’s insures everything except life insurance.  Some of the odder things insured today: Elton John’s fingers and Tina Turner’s legs.  He would also insure outcomes on races and such.

            People were happy to come to Lloyd’s and get shipping information and close to the Baltic Exchange, they could work on getting their shipments out to sea as well.  But of course they wanted to have a good ship so Lloyd’s registry of ships developed out of this coffee house as well.  Lloyd would hire men to go check out a ship and see if it was seaworthy.  They developed a system of checking the hull with categories being from A to E.  The best category was A.  Then they checked the fittings and workings of the ship and would rate it from 1 to 5.  One was the best.  So our saying of A1 comes from this rating that it is the best and everything is good. 

            Another thing Lloyd did was have excellent service in his coffee shop.  His waiters were in red jackets and tails with a top hat.  Today there are still men working in Lloyd’s at the entrance with red tails and a top hat and called waiters but I don’t think they serve coffee anymore.  Where Lloyd’s is now is where the East India HQ building was.  So tea came up the road they built to the warehouses and past their HQ building.  Four times a year, they would hold tea auctions which were quite loud and smelly affairs.  Tea smells would permeate the air and tea dust as well. 

            Leadenhall Market, in business in the same location since 1300, was next door to the East India Company HQ.  They were the first to take advantage of the auctions and started marketing tea by the seasons such as adding orange for the spring and spices like cloves and cinnamon for winter and campaigned to make people think they needed to buy a lot to hold them over until the next auction or next season. 

            Daniel Edwards – stepping back in time a big now – was a traveler who liked going new places to find things of interest.  He went to Turkey and found coffee and brought it back with him along with a new manservant, Pasque Rosee, a Turk of dark skin and large turban.  Daniel soon discovered that more and more of his friends were enjoying coming around for a drink of coffee so he set up a coffee shop in 1652 and put a sign on Pasque Rosee and had him stand outside for people to see and come into his shop for coffee.  In later times, this became the Jamaican coffee house and also a post office for people sending things to Jamaica.  When Daniel still had the shop, there would be a lot of barrels rolled over the door so the stoop today is bowed in the middle.  There were also boxes on the side of each door.  If you were in a hurry, you could put your money in the box.  The proprietor would see you and seat you in a special section to get speedy service.  The box was called T.I.P.S.  To Insure Prompt Service.

            At the time of these 3000 some coffeehouses, women were allowed to own them, to run them and to work in them BUT they could not drink the coffee.  It was for men only.   

            Jonathan’s coffee house was also in this area and it evolved into the stock exchange.  In the 1570’s there was the Royal Exchange (during the Tudors).  Because it was the place to do business, it was quite noisy so people would meet there and then go to Jonathan’s to conduct their business.  Once finished, they would return to the Royal Exchange to sign the paperwork.  Now there is a private business club there and none of us, even Kim our guide, had any idea what that meant. 

            The Church of St. Mary’s around the corner is where Lloyd was buried.  In 1892, the underground was expanding at the Bank station which is quite large.  They were going to tear down the church which didn’t set well with the parishioners nor with history buffs.  A compromise arose in that the underground bought the crypt and land under the church but the church stayed.  Everyone that was buried in the crypt, including Mr. Lloyd, was moved to another burial site. 

            At one time, John Newton was the preacher at St. Mary’s and he was the man who wrote Amazing Grace and was also instrumental in anti-slavery laws in England. 

            When Oliver Cromwell died and Charles II was invited back to England to be king, he had figured out he wanted to live like the kings of France which meant palaces and lots of money.  He didn’t have money though so he had his advisors look around for a rich wife and he found Catherine of Breganza, Portugal.  She was a tea drinker but up until her time, most of the tea drinking in England was for medicinal purposed and it could cure anything: diarrhea, constipation, tiredness, took over stimulated, etc. etc. 

            Catherine comes sailing into England with many ships following her full of her dowry.  As the court wants to help her and impress her after a difficult seasick filled journey, they ask what she wants when she gets here and she asks for a cup of tea.  No one knew how to get her one so they got her a mug of English Ale which put her in bed for three days before she even met Charles.  But in the end, she starts brewing tea for her ladies in waiting and as everyone wants to get into her good graces, everyone starts drinking tea.

            Another aside.  Henry Tate started out as an assistant grocer.  Makes his way to London to be a grocer.  He buys the patent for sugar cubes.  Prior to this patent, sugar came in large cones and it would be the job of a servant to shave off cubes off this large cone for the day.  The shavings were not uniform and of all sizes.  Tate reasoned that a certain guaranteed size of sugar cube would make him rich and he was right.  He loved art and collected it and decided to gift it to the city.  The city got snobby and didn’t think they wanted any art from someone in trade so he said, OK by me, I’ll build my own gallery and library too so he did and is now one of the most visited art galleries in London and the world. 

            One last bit.  When the East Indianman ships were carting their goods all over the world, they would leave England in March and arrive in the Far East in October.  They wouldn’t be able to return to England until September or October of the next year.  It was an 18 month journey.  When the Americans came up with clipper ships, it cut the journey to 3 months.  But this was short lived as the Suez Canal was opened and that meant steamships took over from Clippers.