Coffee Tavern Home

On 7th November 1901 - 9 months after the death of Queen Victoria - The King Harry Coffee Tavern closed after 20 years of business in Hemel Hempstead's old high street. It had been the headquarters of the Hemel Hempstead Coffee Tavern Company, a temperance society founded by quakers in 1880 to promote the consumption of tea and coffee - particularly amongst the young people of the borough. At the time there were around 50 public houses in the town and drunkenness was a problem! A church warden named Nathaniel Wishart Robinson proposed the idea as a means of providing an alternative meeting place where the adoption of worthy principles and a healthier lifestyle might be fostered. He was partnered in this endeavour by William Henry Cranstone, a quaker and iron-founder who had been the town's bailiff and who had contributed to many local public works. Elders and much of the town's well-to-do became shareholders in the new company including Sir John Evans of John Dickinson & Sons (the international stationery manufacturer based locally), justice of the peace John Marnham, and member of parliament Thomas Frederick Halsey.

Penny tokens were minted by the company (probably at William Cranstone's foundry just across the road) which could be exchanged for 'one pennyworth of refreshment' at the tavern, and these were distributed to the worthy through the local parish churches.

One of the principal benefits of membership was the use of the members' club-room where lunch was served daily to what must have become a rather cliquey gentleman's club. The ladies' club-room was -of course! - located separately in the next room. The tavern was situated only a short stroll from the old Town Hall and Corn Exchange and was undoubtedly a popular venue amongst the ruling classes, particularly as they could always round off a wholesome three-course lunch (cooked in the extensive basement kitchens and winched up to the first floor) with a surreptitious glass or two of port at either the White Hart pub immediately next door, the Rose and Crown across the road, or the Half Moon next door but one to the south.

The building still stands today at No.28, although the ground floor and basement were altered considerably by London & County Bank who bought the property at auction in February 1902, later becoming National Westminster Bank plc. The Half Moon pub and the shop next door were re-built in 1938 as one of the first 'Burtons Gentleman's Outfitters' and is currently Danta pine shop. The town centre was relocated in 1947 to an area called Marlowes - when Hemel Hempstead re-invented itself as an experimental post-war 'New Town' - leaving the old high street behind largely unchanged. It remains with us as one of the most attractive and historic conservation areas in Hertfordshire.

The King Harry Coffee Tavern has re-opened today exactly 100 years after its closure- though sadly only as a virtual entity within this web site. Over the coming months I plan to include here a virtual re-creation of the public coffee room based on the Architect's Plan of 1880 (47Kb image: 15secs at 28Kbps). I will also introduce an 'Earlier History' section with original documents relating to John Cassidy's bakery (which preceeded the tavern from 1840 to 1880) and to the Half Moon pub (1649-1938, on whose land the bakery was constructed).

Please email me with any feedback or further information you might like to see included in this web site. Anecdotes connected with the more recent history of the building (ie. when it was the local branch of NatWest bank) may well find their way onto a web page!

kingharry@coffee-tavern.i12.com, 7th November, 2001

My thanks to Matthew Wheeler at Dacorum Heritage Trust for providing images of the high street and for historical verification throughout.