Rainbow Coffee House - Wikipedia

London coffee house

51°30′49″N 0°06′40″W / 51.5137°N 0.1111°W / 51.5137; -0.1111 The Rainbow Coffee House was a famous coffee house located at 15 Fleet Street, London.[1] It was opened by James Farr in 1657, becoming London's second coffee house.[2]

The Rainbow provided a meeting place for freemasons and French refugee Huguenots who established an information centre there.[3] The Rainbow was also featured in the furore created by Titus Oates, who accused Sir Philip Lloyd of denying the existence of a popish plot there, finding witnesses from amongst the coffee drinkers to testify against him[4]

In 1719 John Woodward wrote a satire The Two Sosias: Or, the True Dr. Byfield at the Rainbow Coffee-House, to the Pretender in Jermyn-Street

David Hughson wrote in 1807 that the Rainbow was replaced by Nando's Coffee House in the same building, later in the 17th century.[5]

Notable people

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Many notable Huguenots were associated with the Rainbow Coffee House. However, there were also other German and English notable people.[6]

French exiles

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• Paul Colomiès (1638–1692)
• César de Missy (1703–1775)
• John Theophilus Desaguliers (1683 – 1744)
• Pierre des Maizeaux (1673–1745)
• David Durand (1680 – 1763)
• Peter Anthony Motteux (1663 – 1718)
• Michel de La Roche (fl. 1710–1731)
• Voltaire (1694 – 1778)

Others

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• Anthony Collins (1676 – 1729)
• David Hume (1711 – 1776)
• Richard Mead (1673 – 1754)
• Daniel Maichel (1693–1752)
• Thomas Sprat (1635 – 1713)
• John Toland (1670 – 1722)

References

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1. ^ Norman, Philip (1905). London Vanished & Vanishing. Macmillan.
2. ^ J J O'Connor; & Robertson; E F. "London Coffee houses and mathematics". Retrieved August 15, 2012.
3. ^ Koselleck, Reinhart (1988). Critique and Crisis. Oxford: Berg. p. 64. ISBN 085496 535 1.
4. ^ Shelley, Henry C. "Coffee-houses of old London". Retrieved August 15, 2012.
5. ^ Hughson, David (1807). London. p. 57.
6. ^ Dunan-Page, Anne (2006). The Religious Culture of the Huguenots, 1660-1750. Ashgate. p. 166.