Coffee on Ice - London's Frost Fairs & 375 Years of Coffee

From Frost Fair to flat white: explore how London's coffee trade grew from 17th-century coffeehouses to today's café culture.

One of the most extraordinary images in the collections held at the London Archives depicts a Frost Fair held on the frozen River Thames. Amidst the tents, printers, entertainers and market traders were vendors serving one of London's newest and most fashionable drinks—coffee.

Beginning with this remarkable scene, this talk will follow the evolution of the coffee business over nearly four centuries. You'll discover how London's earliest coffeehouses became centres of news, finance, science and politics; how entrepreneurs built businesses around conversation as much as coffee; how industrialisation transformed cafés into mass-market refreshment venues; and how today's speciality coffee movement has rediscovered many of the principles that made the first coffeehouses so successful.

Along the way we'll examine changing business models, customer expectations, global trade, technology and marketing, asking a simple question: if you opened a coffee business in London in the 17th, 18th, 19th, 20th or 21st century, what would your business plan have looked like? More than a history of coffee, this is a story of entrepreneurship, innovation and the enduring importance of places where people gather to exchange ideas.

About the speaker:

Chris MacNeil is a member of the City of London Guide Lecturers Association (as a City of London Green Badge Guide), a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Pewterers and a Freeman of the City of London. Since qualifying as a guide in 2024, Chris has delivered hundreds of walking tours exploring London's history, commerce and culture, with a particular interest in the Square Mile's role as a centre of innovation and entrepreneurship.

Originally from Canada and a London resident for more than twenty-five years, Chris combines academic study in British history with professional experience in business, marketing and technology. His TEDx talk, What 17th-Century Caffeine Addicts Can Teach Us About the Future of Work, explored how London's early coffeehouses helped shape modern business culture. Through his company, Cobblestone Chronicles, he specialises in connecting London's past with the ideas and institutions that continue to influence the modern world

What to expect:

• The talk will last approximately 45-50 minutes followed by Q&A.