In 1652, a Greek merchant named Pasqua Rosée opened London's first coffee house in St. Michael's Alley near Cornhill in the City of London, introducing a caffeinated beverage culture that would fundamentally transform English social and intellectual life. Coffee houses quickly multiplied across the capital, becoming known as "penny universities" where customers could purchase coffee for a penny and engage in philosophical, political, and literary discussions. These establishments created a new public sphere for the exchange of ideas that preceded and influenced the Enlightenment, while establishing caffeine as the first modern stimulant food consumed in dedicated social spaces.

London coffee houses became indispensable gathering places for the era's greatest writers, with John Dryden holding court at Will's Coffee House and Alexander Pope frequenting the Buttonhole Coffee House, making these spaces central to the development of Augustan English poetry. The coffee house environment fostered the satirical, conversational poetic style that defined Restoration and eighteenth-century verse, while also serving as venues for poetry readings, manuscript circulation, and literary patronage that shaped the careers of Pope, Swift, and Gay.