Jamaica Wine House
Jamaica Wine House is a Grade II‑listed Victorian pub tucked away in St Michael’s Alley off Cornhill, in the heart of the City of London’s financial district.
Known locally as “The Jampot”, it stands on the site of London’s first coffee house, opened in 1652 by Pasqua Rosée and visited by diarist Samuel Pepys.
The present red‑brick and sandstone building dates from the late 19th century and retains a traditional interior of dark wood panelling, cosy bars and period details. Set within a labyrinth of medieval courts and alleys, it offers an atmospheric retreat from the surrounding office blocks and busy streets. Today it operates as a popular pub and wine bar, frequented by City workers, tourists and history enthusiasts
In between the Georges Yard and St Michaels Alley.
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First coffee house in LondonJamaica Wine House stands on the site of London’s first coffee house, opened in 1652 by Pasqua Rosée in St Michael’s Alley, then known as “Pasqua Rosee’s Head” or “The Turk’s Head”. A plaque outside records this origin and commemorates the alley as the birthplace of London’s coffeehouse culture.
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Pasqua Rosée and Ottoman coffeePasqua Rosée was a Greek servant of Levant Company merchant Daniel Edwards, who imported coffee from the Ottoman Empire and helped Rosée set up the business. Contemporary accounts suggest the tiny shed‑like premises quickly became popular, reportedly selling hundreds of cups of coffee a day to curious Londoners.
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From “Pasqua Rosee’s Head” to Jamaica Coffee HouseThe original coffee shed was destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666 and rebuilt in the 1670s as the Jamaica Coffee House. The new name reflected its client base of West India merchants and planters and its focus on business tied to Jamaica and the wider Atlantic trade
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Deep ties to the slave and sugar tradesIn the 18th century the Jamaica Coffee House served as an informal meeting place for slave‑traders, plantation owners, merchants and insurers dealing in sugar, rum and enslaved people from the Caribbean. Notices about enslaved people and business conducted there appear in period newspapers and pamphlets, making the address a recognised contact point for West India trade
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Birthplace of “coffeehouse capitalism”Like other early London coffeehouses, this site functioned as a subscription meeting room where businessmen, ship captains and brokers exchanged news, prices and gossip, helping to shape financial markets and political opinion. Historians often cite such coffeehouses as precursors to modern clubs, exchanges and the financial information networks that underpin the City today.
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Victorian rebuilding and present pubThe current red‑brick, late‑19th‑century building is a Grade II‑listed pub interior with wood‑panelled bars and a cellar restaurant, restored and re‑opened by Shepherd Neame in 2009. Despite its modern role as a popular City pub, the Jamaica Wine House still carries visible reminders of its coffeehouse and colonial past in plaques, signage and its tightly enclosed alley setting.
