51°30′49″N 0°06′40″W / 51.5137°N 0.1111°W / 51.5137; -0.1111 The Rainbow Coffee House was a famous coffee house located at 15 Fleet Street, London.[1] It was opened by James Farr in 1657, becoming London's second coffee house.[2]

The Rainbow provided a meeting place for freemasons and French refugee Huguenots who established an information centre there.[3] The Rainbow was also featured in the furore created by Titus Oates, who accused Sir Philip Lloyd of denying the existence of a popish plot there, finding witnesses from amongst the coffee drinkers to testify against him[4]

In 1719 John Woodward wrote a satire The Two Sosias: Or, the True Dr. Byfield at the Rainbow Coffee-House, to the Pretender in Jermyn-Street

David Hughson wrote in 1807 that the Rainbow was replaced by Nando's Coffee House in the same building, later in the 17th century.[5]

Notable people

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Many notable Huguenots were associated with the Rainbow Coffee House. However, there were also other German and English notable people.[6]

French exiles

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Others

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References

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  1. ^ Norman, Philip (1905). London Vanished & Vanishing. Macmillan.
  2. ^ J J O'Connor; & Robertson; E F. "London Coffee houses and mathematics". Retrieved August 15, 2012.
  3. ^ Koselleck, Reinhart (1988). Critique and Crisis. Oxford: Berg. p. 64. ISBN 085496 535 1.
  4. ^ Shelley, Henry C. "Coffee-houses of old London". Retrieved August 15, 2012.
  5. ^ Hughson, David (1807). London. p. 57.
  6. ^ Dunan-Page, Anne (2006). The Religious Culture of the Huguenots, 1660-1750. Ashgate. p. 166.