Leicester Coffee and Cocoa Company Coffee Houses

Thomas Cook and Temperance in Leicester

The Leicester Coffee and Cocoa Company Ltd

Thomas Cook was a lifelong supporter of the Temperance Movement that encouraged people to give up drinking alcohol, believing drunkenness was the cause of many social problems. Cook, a devout Christian, was a founder member in 1877 of the Leicester Coffee and Cocoa Company Ltd., whose aim was to “establish houses, rooms, coffee carts and stalls” around Leicester to provide general refreshment.  

Working men’s restaurants

As more working men lived in suburbs on the outskirts of town, there was a need for working men’s restaurants in the town centre.  Working men would carry their lunch to work and eat it in a public house as there were few other alternatives available. The coffee houses provided hot and affordable food such as “a large basin of nourishing soup for two pence” and “nutritious, comforting and healthful beverages at the easy price of a penny a pint”.  Coffee houses were made even more appealing by the fact they were designed to be bright, attractive and comfortable social spaces where both men and women could go, with newspapers and amusements readily available. Some had a ladies’ room and others a billiards room.

"An extraordinary amount of success"

The coffee houses were praised for their “Size, decoration, fittings, cleanliness and order” surpassing “all that was formerly attainable except at high charges” . The duchess of Rutland, opening the Victoria Coffee House in 1888, praised the directors for combining commercial profit with the benefit of the townspeople , stating she “was constantly receiving letters from various parts of the country asking how it was the coffee houses in Leicester achieved such an extraordinary amount of success” . The company went on to set up 14 coffee houses in the town.

Thomas Cook statue outside Leicester Railway Station

The Coffee Houses

Most of the Company’s premises were custom built and designed by the architect Edward Burgess.  The following still remain although today they have alternative uses:

East Gates Coffee House, Church Gate (1885)

The East Gates, opened by the Duchess of Rutland in 1885, was described as “built in the domestic style of the 15^th Century and both internally and externally much admired”. The East Gates provided a popular and profitable service for more than 40 years, but sadly closed soon after World War I.

Victoria House, Granby Street (1887)

Named in honour of Queen Golden Victoria´s Jubilee, this was the most magnificent of all of Leicester´s coffee houses. A five-storey turreted building in the French Renaissance style, it was considered “the best in the Kingdom”.

The High Cross Coffee House, High Street (1895)

Like the East Gates and the Victoria, the High Cross Coffee House was designed by Leicester architect Edward Burgess, a Quaker. The exteriors of the coffee houses were deliberately ornate to attract customers.

The end of the Leicester Coffee and Cocoa House movement

Despite a rise in the popularity of tea and coffee drinking and fall in the consumption of alcohol, the coffee houses failed to thrive after World War I and the company was liquidated.  Perhaps some of this could be put down to the fact they were not always commercially viable.  An account in the Illustrated Leicester Chronicle stated how “many regulars used to come in at midday, bringing their own food, ordering a cup of tea, which I believe was 1/2d., and asking for a plate for their sandwiches”.  Another account stated how customers “brought their own food, used the pepper and salt, and never spent a penny – and had a good warm against the stove in winter”.