London Specialty Coffee & Historic Brews Walk
From 17th-century caffeine hubs to third-wave espresso temples
London · 11 stops · 4.1 km · ~1.5 h · 30 min audio · Generated
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1. Attendant Coffee Roasters
27A Foley St, London W1W 6DY
Photo: Google
Look closely at the sidewalk here on Foley Street, and you will spot an ornate wrought-iron cage surrounding a staircase leading down into the earth. To a passerby in late-nineteenth-century London, this was a proud symbol of Victorian civic engineering. Built around eighteen ninety, this subterranean vault was a gents' public lavatory commissioned for Fitzrovia, fitted with lavish porcelain crafted by Doulton and Company.
For decades, neighborhood workers trod these stone steps. But in the nineteen sixties, the iron gates were padlocked, and the room fell silent. For over fifty years, it sat completely dormant beneath the feet of central London.
Generations of pedestrians walked past every day, unaware that a forgotten piece of Victorian history lay sleeping just beneath their feet.
In the early two thousand tens, two visionary entrepreneurs saw potential where others saw ruin. After two years of painstaking deep-cleaning and restoration, the space reopened in two thousand thirteen as Attendant, transforming a forgotten underground bathroom into one of London's most famous specialty coffee bars.
Step down into the subterranean room, and you will see how beautifully the history was preserved. The white ceramic tiles, brass piping, and overhead cisterns are all original. But the real highlight is the seating along the wall. Those porcelain dividers creating individual coffee booths are the original eighteen ninety urinals, thoroughly sanitized, polished, and fitted with a wooden countertop. Sitting inside a Victorian urinal while sipping a flat white might sound absurd, but it became an instant icon of London coffee culture.
Beyond the quirky design, the coffee here is taken very seriously. Attendant roasts its own ethically sourced beans, crafting espresso paired with organic British milk to highlight delicate notes of chocolate, berries, and stone fruit.
And here is a hilarious bit of local irony. Despite being built inside a famously restored underground toilet, this cafe actually has no bathroom for customers today!
So find a spot at the porcelain bar, savor the rich aroma of fresh coffee, and enjoy one of London's most unique architectural reinventions.
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2. Kaffeine
66 Great Titchfield St, London W1W 7QJ
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3. Flat White
17 Berwick St, London W1F 0PT
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4. Algerian Coffee Stores
52 Old Compton St, London W1D 4QE
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5. Bar Italia
22 Frith St, London W1D 4RF
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6. Monmouth Coffee Company
27 Monmouth St, London WC2H 9EU
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7. WatchHouse Seven Dials
7 Upper St Martin's Ln, London WC2H 9DL
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8. Site of Button's Coffee House
10 Russell St, London WC2B 5HZ
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9. Site of Will's Coffee House
1 Bow St, London WC2E 7AX (corner of Bow St and Russell St)
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10. Department of Coffee and Social Affairs
14-16 Leather Lane, London EC1N 7SU
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11. Prufrock Coffee
23-25 Leather Lane, London EC1N 7TE
