ROARING FIRES heated the coffee and warmed the rooms of Dublin’s many coffee houses in the 18th century.
The coffee houses were essentially a male preserve, although women were often proprietors and servers. Mrs Joyce kept The Globe in Essex Street in the 1730s and Mrs Carterwright, wife of George Carterwright, ran The Custom House Coffee-House in 1730.
Dick’s, which occupied the drawing room of Carbury House in Skinner Row, was established by Richard Pue, bookseller and newspaper proprietor, in the late 17th century.
Jos Coffee-House at the corner of Christchurch Lane and High Street in the 1730s offered a commodious room fronting on to both streets.
Politicians gathered at The Globe in Essex Street before the Royal Exchange was built in 1769. Lawyers and clerks frequented coffee houses in Winetavern Street in the first decade of the 18th century and at Christchurch Lane in the last quarter of the century.
(Source: Máire Kennedy, Divisional Librarian, Dublin City Council.)