Revisiting London's first wine auction in a coffee house
On this day, the first ever wine auction was held in Garraway's Coffee House, Change Alley in 1673
A sketch of Garraway's Coffee House in Change Alley right before its demolition in 1866 (Image courtesy Collage); Inset: Site of the location today (Photo: Ashley Winchester)
Long before hipsters spent all their daylight hours in coffee shops, ye olde England had already made them hip! In the 17th century, coffee houses in Change Alley (formerly Exchange Alley) like Garraway’s Coffee House had been a popular venue for trading shares and commodities, becoming a progenitor of today’s London Stock Exchange.
So what do you do when a quest for a coffee shop leads you straight to a grasshopper on a wall? You hop on it, of course! While that didn’t work out, we did discover a plaque above the grasshopper that announced the site of the famous Garraway’s Coffee House. But guess what really took us there though? Not coffee, not stocks or commodities. But wine!
On this day, the 20th of February in 1673, the first recorded wine auction took place in London at this very spot – Garraway’s Coffee house. Back then, auctions were of course nothing like the ones at Christie’s. Wine then was auctioned “by the candle” – the last bidder when the inch-long candle burns out wins!
What remains of Garraway's today is just the plague and a panel on 32 Cornhill displaying the “place of great commercial transaction and frequented by people of quality”.
For those of you still looking for some trading, though, the first stock exchange – the Royal Exchange – is just across Change Alley. And before we leave the grasshopper hanging, it is the family crest of Thomas Gresham (he who created the aforementioned Royal Exchange) and either his family or his business interest erected the plaque commemorating the once famous Garraway’s Coffee House.
Change Alley forms a shortcut between Cornhill and Lombard Street. The closest metro station is Bank.
Before you go….
Not just the first wine auction in London, Garraway’s is also believed to have been the first to sell tea to the public.
While we’re on the topic of wine, the most expensive wine ever sold at an auction was at Christie’s in London in 1985 called “Lafitte”. Read The New Yorker’s very interesting piece on that one here.
