Algerian Coffee Stores

Overview

Algerian Coffee Stores was founded in 1887 at 52 Old Compton Street in Soho by an Algerian merchant remembered as Mr Hassan — historic shopfront photos identify the original window signage as M. Siari, suggesting Hassan Siari as the probable full name. The shop has traded continuously from the same address through two world wars, the Blitz and 21st-century gentrification; it passed to a Belgian merchant, Mr Boerman, in 1928, then to an Englishman, Mr Jones, in 1946, whose daughter married Italian Paul Crocetta, and Crocetta's daughters Marisa and Daniela run the business today.

Known for

• London's oldest continuously operating coffee retailer, trading since 1887 at the same Soho address
• Original 19th-century wooden counter, shelving and crimson-red fascia still in use
• Stocks roughly 80 coffees and 120 teas including rarities like Jamaican Blue Mountain, Hawaii Kona and Kopi Luwak
• Five generations of immigrant ownership — Algerian, Belgian, English, Italian — under a single trading name
• Famously low takeaway prices in central Soho, with espresso historically held to a couple of pounds

Why it matters

Predates the third-wave specialty movement by more than a century, and is an unbroken thread to 19th-century London coffee retail in a Soho that has otherwise been almost entirely rebuilt around it.

Production

destoning

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head roaster

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roaster machine

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filter equipment

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roastery location

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espresso equipment

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Café

52 Old Compton Street, London W1D 4PB

Sources

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algerian_Coffee_Stores
• https://algeriancoffeestores.com/
• https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/algerian-coffee-stores-london-soho-spc-intl/index.html
• https://algeriaconnect.com/algerian-coffee-stores-how-one-immigrants-vision-became-a-london-institution/
• https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/algerian-coffee-stores