Tom's Coffee House

Tom's Coffee-house, No. 17 Russell Street, formerly Great-Russel Street, Covent Garden, stood on the north side over-against Button's, and was so called after Captain Thomas West, the landlord, who, November 26, 1722, threw himself in a delirium, occasioned by gout, out of a back-window two stories high, and died immediately.¹

With careful brows at Tom's and Will's they meet,
And ask, who did elections lose or get.
Rowe, Epilogue to Tamerlane, 4to, 1703

After the Play the best company generally go to Tom's and Will's Coffee Houses near adjoining, where there is playing at Picket, and the best of conversation till midnight. Here you will see blue and green ribbons and Stars sitting familiarly, and talking with the same freedom as if they had left their quality and degrees of distance at home.—Macky, A Journey through England, 8vo, 1722, vol. i. p. 172.

Mr. Murphy said he remembered when there were several people alive in London who enjoyed a considerable reputation merely from having written a paper in The Spectator. He mentioned particularly Mr. Ince, who used to frequent Tom's Coffee House.—Boswell, Life of Johnson, 8vo ed., p. 505.

The house in which I reside (17 Great Russell Street, Covent Garden) was the famous Tom's Coffee House, memorable in the reign of Queen Anne; and for more than half a century afterwards: the room in which I conduct my business as a coin dealer, is that which, in 1764, by a guinea subscription among nearly seven hundred of the nobility, foreign ministers, gentry, and geniuses of the age was made the card-room, and place of meeting for many of the now illustrous dead, and remained so till 1768, when a voluntary subscription among its members induced Mr. Haines, the then proprietor (and the father of the present occupier of the house), to take in the next room westward, as a coffee-room; and the whole floor en suite was constructed into card and conversation rooms.—William Till, Descriptive Particulars of English Coronation Medals.

The Craftsman in 1727 was printed for R. Francklin "under Tom's Coffee-house in Covent Garden;" and here lived Lewis, the bookseller, the original publisher of Pope's "Essay on Criticism."² The house was pulled down and rebuilt in 1865.

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¹ Historical Register for 1722, p. 52.

² Prospectus of Carte's Life of Ormond, dated February 2, 1733.

Club at Tom's Coffee-House.

Covent-Garden has lost many of its houses "studded with anecdote and history;" and the mutations among what Mr. Thackeray affectionately called its "rich cluster of brown taverns" are sundry and manifest. Its coffee-houses proper have almost disappeared, even in name. Yet, in the last century, in one short street of Covent-Garden—Russell-street—flourished three of the most celebrated coffee-houses in the metropolis: Will's, Button's, and Tom's. The reader need not be reminded of Will's, with Dryden, the Tatler and Spectator, and its wits' room on the first floor; or Button's, with its lion's head letter-box, and the young poets in the back room. Tom's, No. 17, on the north side of Russell-street, and of somewhat later date, was taken down in 1865. The premises remained with little alteration, long after they ceased to be a coffee-house. It was named after its original proprietor, Thomas West, who, Nov. 26, 1722, threw himself, in a delirium, from the second-floor window into the street, and died immediately (Historical Register for 1722). The upper portion of the premises was the coffee-house, under which lived T. Lewis, the bookseller, the original publisher, in 1711, of Pope's Essay on Criticism. The usual frequenters upstairs may be judged of by the following passage in the Journey through England, first edit., 1714:—"After the play, the best company generally go to Tom's and Will's coffee-houses, near adjoining, where there is playing at piquet and the best conversation till midnight. Here you will see blue and green ribbons, with stars, sitting familiarly and talking with the same freedom as if they had left their quality and degrees of distance at home; and a stranger tastes with pleasure the universal liberty of speech of the English nation. And in all the coffee-houses you have not only the foreign prints, but several English ones, with the foreign occurrences, besides papers of morality and party disputes." Such were the Augustan delights of a memorable coffee-house of the reign of Queen Anne. Of this period is a recollection of Mr. Grignon, sen., having seen the "balcony of Tom's crowded with noblemen in their stars and garters, drinking their tea and coffee exposed to the people." We find an entry in Walpole's Letters, 1745:—"A gentleman, I don't know who, the other night at Tom's coffee-house, said, on Lord Baltimore refusing to come into the Admiralty because Lord Vere Beauclerk had the precedence, 'it put him in mind of Pinkethman's petition in the Spectator, where he complains that formerly he used to act second chair in "Diocletian," but now he was reduced to dance fifth flower-pot.'"

In 1764 there appears to have been formed here, by a guinea subscription, a Club of nearly 700 members—the nobility, foreign ministers, gentry, and men of genius of the age; the large front room on the first floor being the card-room. The Club flourished, so that in 1768, "having considerably enlarged itself of late," Thomas Haines, the then proprietor, took in the front room of the next house westward as a coffee-room. The front room of No. 17 was then appropriated exclusively as a card-room for the subscription club, each member paying one guinea annually; the adjoining apartment being used as a conversation-room. The subscription-books are before us, and here we find in the long list the names of Sir Thomas Robinson, Bart., who was designated "Long Sir Thomas Robinson," to distinguish him from his namesake, Sir Thomas Robinson, created Lord Grantham in 1761. "Long Tom," as the former was familiarly called, was a Commissioner of Excise and Governor of Barbadoes. He was a sad bore, especially to the Duke of Newcastle, the minister, who resided in Lincoln's Inn Fields. However, he gave rise to some smart things. Lord Chesterfield being asked by the latter Baronet to write some verses upon him, immediately produced this epigram:—

"Unlike my subject now shall be my song,
It shall be witty, and it shan't be long."

Long Sir Thomas distinguished himself in this odd manner. When our Sovereign had not dropped the folly of calling himself "King of France," and it was customary at the Coronation of an English Sovereign to have fictitious Dukes of Aquitaine and Normandy to represent the vassalage of France, Sir Thomas was selected to fill the second mock dignity at the coronation of George III., to which Churchill alludes in his Ghost; but he assigns a wrong dukedom to Sir Thomas:

"Could Satire not (though doubtful since
Whether he plumber is or prince)
Tell of a simple Knight's advance,
To be a doughty peer of France?
Tell how he did a dukedom gain,
And Robinson was Aquitain."

Of the two Sir Thomas Robinsons, one was tall and thin, the other short and fat: "I can't imagine," said Lady Townshend, "why the one should be preferred to the other; I see but little difference between them: the one is as broad as the other is long."

Next on the books is Samuel Foote, who, after the decline of Tom's, was mostly to be seen at the Bedford. Then comes Arthur Murphy, lately called to the Bar; David Garrick, who then lived in Southampton-street, (though he was not a clubbable man); John Beard, the fine tenor singer; John Webb; Sir Richard Glynne; Robert Gosling, the banker; Colonel Eyre, of Marylebone; Earl Percy; Sir John Fielding, the justice; Paul Methuen, of Corsham; Richard Clive; the great Lord Clive; the eccentric Duke of Montagu; Sir Fletcher Norton, the ill-mannered; Lord Edward Bentinck; Dr. Samuel Johnson; the celebrated Marquis of Granby; Sir F. B. Delaval, the friend of Foote; William Tooke, the solicitor; the Hon. Charles Howard, sen.; the Duke of Northumberland; Sir Francis Gosling; the Earl of Anglesey; Sir George Brydges Rodney (afterwards Lord Rodney); Peter Burrell; Walpole Eyre; Lewis Mendez; Dr. Swinney; Stephen Lushington; John Gunning; Henry Brougham, father of Lord Brougham; Dr. Macnamara; Sir John Trevelyan; Captain Donellan; Sir W. Wolseley; Walter Chetwynd; Viscount Gage, etc.;—Thomas Payne, Esq., of Leicester House; Dr. Schomberg, of Pall-Mall; George Colman, the dramatist, then living in Great Queen Street; Dr. Dodd, in Southampton-row; James Payne, the architect, Salisbury-street, which he rebuilt; William Bowyer, the printer, Bloomsbury-square; Count Bruhl, the Polish Minister; Dr. Goldsmith, Temple (1773), etc. Many a noted name in the list of 700 is very suggestive of the gay society of the period. Among the Club musters, Samuel Foote, Sir Thomas Robinson, and Dr. Dodd are very frequent: indeed, Sir Thomas seems to have been something like a proposer-general.

Tom's appears to have been a general coffee-house; for in the parish books of St. Paul's, Covent Garden, is the entry:—

	£.	s.	d.
46 Dishes of chocolate	1	3	0
34 Jelleys	0	17	0
Biscuits	0	2	3

Mr. Haines, the landlord, was succeeded by his son. Thomas, whose daughter is living, at the age of eighty-four, and possesses a portrait, by Dance, of the elder Haines, who, from his polite address, was called among the Club "Lord Chesterfield." The above lady has also a portrait, in oil, of the younger Haines, by Grignon.

The coffee-house business closed in 1814, about which time the premises were first occupied by Mr. William Till, the numismatist. The card-room remained in its original condition; "And, here," wrote Mr. Till, many years since, "the tables on which I exhibit my coins are those which were used by the exalted characters whose names are extracted from books of the Club, still in possession of the proprietress of the house." On the death of Mr. Till, Mr. Webster succeeded to the tenancy and collection of coins and medals, which he removed to No. 6, Henrietta-street, shortly before the old premises in Russell-street were taken down. He possesses, by marriage with the grand-daughter of the second Mr. Haines, the old Club books, as well as the curious memorial, the snuffbox of the Club-room. It is of large size, and fine tortoiseshell; upon the lid, in high relief, in silver, are the portraits of Charles I. and Queen Anne; the Boscobel oak, with Charles II. amid its branches; and at the foot of the tree, on a silver plate, is inscribed Thomas Haines. At Will's the small wits grew conceited if they dipped but into Mr. Dryden's snuffbox; and at Tom's the box may have enjoyed a similar shrine-like reputation. It is nearly all that remains of the old coffee-house in Covent Garden, save the recollection of the names of the interesting personages who once thronged its rooms in stars and garters, but who bore more intellectual distinctions to entitle them to remembrance.

1366. Tom's Coffee House, Russell Street Covent Garden. No. 17.

1700–10

Mostly referred to as Covent Garden. Its site, whether on the south-side, or on the north side, was long disputed; Cunningham places Tom's on the north side. Timbs mentions both No. 8, and No. 17, Great Russell Street, as marking the site of Tom's which he says was established about 1700 by Thomas, or Tom West. Wheatley refers to Captain Thomas Weft. Ashton includes Tom's Coffee House, Russell Street, Covent Garden in his list of coffee-houses in the reign of Queen Anne.
     The 'Evening Post' No. 69, 19–21 Jan. 1710, advertises that the paper is sold at Tom's Coffee House, Covent Garden. The full text of this Notice is given under Boiden's Coffee-house. See No. 153. 1710 Thomas Smith of King Street, Westminster, to whom reference is made in the 'Tatler', No. 195, July 7, 1710, as Doctor Thomas Smith 'the corn-cutter of King Street' advertised his daily round of calls as follows: 'I am to be spoken with till 8 in the morning and at 6 at night at Home, and every day at these Coffee-houses following. morning and evening. The "Rainbow" at Fleetbridge and at Richard's, Nandos, Temple, Mannaring's, "The Grecian" and Brown's, all in Fleet-street near the Temple. From 1 to 4, at Grigby's in Threadneedle-street, the backside of the Royal Exchange, or at the Lisbon Coffee-house next door and at the Amsterdam Coffee-house, the London Coffee-house by the Antwerp Tavern, and each evening going home, I call at all the Coffee-houses above Toms and Wills near Covent Garden, Squire's in Fuller's Rents, Holborne, Ormondestreet at Mr. Man's, the Royal Coffee-house near Whitehall, Mrs. Wells under Scotland-Yard gate, Alice's, Waghorn's, and all the Parliament Coffee-houses all adjoining to the Parliament House, where I am ready to serve any Gentleman or Lady.' (Quacks of Old London—Thompson.) Note—This advertisement is quoted here in full, as reference to it is made under the coffee-houses named.

1710

The 'Tatler', No. 261, Dec. 9, 1710 quotes 'A Letter subscribed Thomas Clement: By the Profitable Society at the Wheatsheaf over against Tom's Coffee-house in Russell Street Covent Garden, new proposals for promoting a contribution towards raising two hundred & fifty pounds, to be made on the baptizing of any infant born in wedlock.' Is obviously a reflection upon the morals of the time.

1712–13

The 'Guardian', No. 71 contributes the news that 'Mr. Ironside has, within five weeks last past, muzzled three lions, gorged five, and killed one. On Monday next the skin of the dead one will be hung up in terrorem, at Button's Coffee-house, over-against Tom's in Covent Garden.'
     Sundry writers mention that after the death of Dryden in 1700, Will's Coffee-house began to lose its popularity and its patrons transferred to a house on the other side of the street 'over against Tom's near the middle of the south side of the street' which became Button's. The expression 'over against' tends to be misleading as it is used to denote a site opposite: this may well account for the long wrangle as to whether Tom's was on the north, or south side of Russell Street.

1722

The Historical Register, 1722, records the death of Thomas West, the landlord of Tom's Coffee-house, who on 26 November, threw himself in a delirium, occasioned by gout, out of a back-window two stories high, and died immediately.

1722–24

In 'A Journey through England' (1724, Vol. I, p. 167), Mackay relates: 'After the Play the best Company generally go to Tom's and Will's Coffee-houses, near adjoyning, where there is Playing at Picket, and the beft of Conversation till Midnight. Here you will fee blue and green Ribbons and Stars fitting familiarly with private Gentlemen, and talking with the same Freedom, as if they had left their Quality and Degrees of Distance at Home; and a Stranger tastes with Pleasure the universal Liberty of Speech of the English Nation ....'

1727

In 1727, 'The Craftsman' (1726–36) was printed for R. Francklin 'under Tom's Coffee-house in Covent Garden'. In the same year, a Lost-Reward Notice Numb. 11546, dated March 29, 1727, issued by the Beadle at Goldsmiths-Hall advertises a Reward: LOST this Day in Hyde-Park, a Note of Caswalls and Mount for 20. l. Numb. 169. payable to Mr. Will. Singleton, and dated the fame Day. Whoever brings it to the above-mentioned Place, or to Tom's Coffee-House in Covent-Garden, shall have Five Guineas Reward; if offer'd in Payment, you are defIred to stop it, and the same Reward shall be given. (Caswall & Mount was the banking firm in Lombard Street—See No. 1312.)

1731–34

In 1731, 'The Templar' of Feb. 6th is dated from Tom's Coffee House, Covent Garden. In 1733, T. Lewis the Bookseller lived 'under Tom's Coffee-house'. 'The Craftsman' for 5th October, 1734, advertises: At the dispensary near Tom's Coffee-house in Great Russell Street Covent Garden may be had all sorts of curious medicines and chymical preparations at a very easy rate.

1740

About 1740, Dr. Rd. Mead (1673–1754) of Ormond Street, spent the forenoons at Tom's Coffee House, Covent Garden, where apothecaries visited him 'with written or verbal reports of cases, for which he prescribed without seeing the patient, and took half-guinea fees ....' (Timbs, 1855.)

1744

The 'General Advertiser' 8 May, 1744, announces that Tickets were on sale at Tom's Covent Garden, for a Ball to be held at Ranelagh House on Monday 14th May, 1744.

1756

In 1756, it was a shilling fare from 'Tom's Coffee-house in Russell Street by Covent Garden to Newcastle House byClerkenwell Church'. This was the town house of the Dukes of Newcastle.

1763

James Boswell records visits to Tom's: 'London Journal' (Pottle, Heinemann) under date 1763. Sunday April 10—'We dined at Clifton's and drank coffee at Tom's ....' and May 13: 'We went to Tom's and had a pot of coffee and sat there for two hours ....'
     Timbs gives an imposing list of frequenters to Tom's Coffee-house Russell Street, Covent Garden: 'Here assembled Dr. Johnson, Garrick, Murphy, Dr. Dodd, Dr. Goldsmith, and Sir Joshua Reynolds; Foote, Moody and Beard; Count Bruhl and Sir Philip Francis; George Colman the Elder; the Dukes of Northumberland and Montague; the Marquises of Granby and Monthermor; Admiral Lord Rodney; Henry Brougham (father of Lord Brougham); George Steevens, Warner, and other Shaksperean commentators ....'

1764–68

Years later, William Till, the Coin dealer, contributes a description of Tom's: 'The house in which I reside (17 Great Russell Street, Covent Garden) was the famous Tom's Coffee House, memorable in the reign of Queen Anne; and for more than half a century afterwards; the room in which I conduct my business ... is that which in 1764, by a guinea subscription among nearly seven hundred of the nobility, foreign ministers, gentry, and geniuses of the age-was made the card-room ... and remained so till 1768, when a voluntary subscription among its members induced Mr. Haines, the then proprietor (and the father of the present occupier of the house) to take in the next room westward, as a coffee-room; and the whole floor en suite was constructed into card and conversation rooms.' (Wheatley—London Past & Present, 1891. III, p. 384.)

1768

The year 1768 appears to mark the conversion of Tom's from a coffee-house open'to the public, to that of a Subscription club. The 'Gentleman's Magazine', 23 Jan. 1768, and 1841, gives an interesting description of a sUbscription book opened at Tom's Coffee-house in 1768. It appears that the club wanted to extend the card-tables, and arranged with Mr. Haines to take in the front room of the house next door as a new coffee-room, so that the old coffee-room could be thrown into the club room. The Club agreed to bear the expense of the alterations and to guarantee the rent of the new coffee-room for four years.

1808

An obituary notice, 11 Feb. 1808, records the death of Mr. Thomas Haines, many years Master of Tom's Coffee House Russell Street.

1814

Several writers mention that the subscription-rooms were kept up as late as 1814, when the building 'passed to other uses'.

Timbs writing in 1855, remarks that some books of the Club are preserved, and the tables are used, by the present tenant, Mr. Webster, the coin-dealer.

The Crace Collection, Portfolio XVIII, item No. 108 is a watercolour Drawing by T. H. Shepherd, 1857, of 'Tom's Coffee House, No. 17, Great Russell Street'. This appears to be the original of the illustration given by Ukers in which the building bears the sign '17 ALLEN Tea & Colonian Merchant'. Timbs in 'Club Life in London' illustrates Tom's Coffee-house in which the building is sign-written: '16 WHITE LATE J. ALLEN 17'. The 'Illustrated London News' 1865, describes some of the relics of Tom's Coffee-house, and Wheatley says the house was pulled down and rebuilt in 1865.