Coffee Houses

Every GB postal history collector should have a representation of this important phase in the development of the postal service. From the late 1600's the Coffee Houses acted as receiving houses for the receipt and dispatch of the mail. Imagine you are a sugar broker or a slave trader corresponding with your contact in Jamiaca ... then you might have gone along to the Jamaica Coffee House in St Michael's Alley London... popped your letter in the sack on the wall earmarked for the next sailing and then relaxed with a coffee... your pipe...and discussed the latest Popish plot. We recommend collectors should acquire one cover addressed to a Coffee House, one written at a Coffee House and one referring to a proposed meeting within a Coffee House - full story illustrated in three covers. They lost their importance from a postal perspective with the emergence of the receiving houses and of course the letter box.