Bedford Coffee House

The Bedford Coffee-House, in Covent Garden.

This celebrated resort once attracted so much attention as to have published, "Memoirs of the Bedford Coffee-house," two editions, 1751 and 1763. It stood "under the Piazza, in Covent Garden," in the north-west corner, near the entrance to the theatre, and has long ceased to exist.

In The Connoisseur, No. 1, 1754, we are assured that "this Coffee-house is every night crowded with men of parts. Almost every one you meet is a polite scholar and a wit. Jokes and bon-mots are echoed from box to box: every branch of literature is critically examined, and the merit of every production of the press, or performance of the theatres, weighed and determined."

And in the above-named Memoirs, we read that "this spot has been signalized for many years as the emporium of wit, the seat of criticism, and the standard of taste.—Names of those who frequented the house:—Foote, Mr. Fielding, Mr. Woodward, Mr. Leone, Mr. Murphy, Mopsy, Dr. Arne. Dr. Arne was the only man in a suit of velvet in the dog-days."

Stacie kept the Bedford when John and Henry Fielding, Hogarth, Churchill, Woodward, Lloyd, Dr. Goldsmith, and many others met there and held a gossiping shilling rubber club. Henry Fielding was a very merry fellow.

The Inspector appears to have given rise to this reign of the Bedford, when there was placed here the Lion from Button's, which proved so serviceable to Steele, and once more fixed the dominion of wit in Covent Garden.

The reign of wit and pleasantry did not, however, cease at the Bedford at the demise of the Inspector. A race of punsters next succeeded. A particular box was allotted to this occasion, out of the hearing of the lady at the bar, that the double entendres, which were sometimes very indelicate, might not offend her.

The Bedford was beset with scandalous nuisances, of which the following letter, from Arthur Murphy to Garrick, April 10, 1769, presents a pretty picture:

"Tiger Roach (who used to bully at the Bedford Coffee-house because his name was Roach) is set up by Wilkes's friends to burlesque Luttrel and his pretensions. I own I do not know a more ridiculous circumstance than to be a joint candidate with the Tiger. O'Brien used to take him off very pleasantly, and perhaps you may, from his representation, have some idea of this important wight. He used to sit with a half-starved look, a black patch upon his cheek, pale with the idea of murder, or with rank cowardice, a quivering lip, and a downcast eye. In that manner he used to sit at a table all alone, and his soliloquy, interrupted now and then with faint attempts to throw off a little saliva, was to the following effect:—'Hut! hut! a mercer's 'prentice with a bag-wig;—d—n my s—l, if I would not skiver a dozen of them like larks! Hut! hut! I don't understand such airs!—I'd cudgel him back, breast, and belly, for three skips of a louse!—How do you do, Pat! Hut! hut! God's blood—Larry, I'm glad to see you;—'Prentices! a fine thing indeed!—Hut! hut! How do you, Dominick!—D—n my s—l, what's here to do!' These were the meditations of this agreeable youth. From one of these reveries he started up one night, when I was there, called a Mr. Bagnell out of the room, and most heroically stabbed him in the dark, the other having no weapon to defend himself with. In this career the Tiger persisted, till at length a Mr. Lennard brandished a whip over his head, and stood in a menacing attitude, commanding him to ask pardon directly. The Tiger shrank from the danger, and with a faint voice pronounced—'Hut! what signifies it between you and me? Well! well! I ask your pardon,' 'Speak louder, sir; I don't hear a word you say.' And indeed he was so very tall, that it seemed as if the sound, sent feebly from below, could not ascend to such a height. This is the hero who is to figure at Brentford."

Foote's favourite Coffee-house was the Bedford. He was also a constant frequenter of Tom's, and took a lead in the Club held there, and already described. [24]

Dr. Barrowby, the well-known newsmonger of the Bedford, and the satirical critic of the day, has left this whole-length sketch of Foote:—"One evening (he says), he saw a young man extravagantly dressed out in a frock suit of green and silver lace, bag-wig, sword, bouquet, and point-ruffles, enter the room (at the Bedford), and immediately join the critical circle at the upper end. Nobody recognised him; but such was the ease of his bearing, and the point of humour and remark with which he at once took up the conversation, that his presence seemed to disconcert no one, and a sort of pleased buzz of 'who is he?' was still going round the room unanswered, when a handsome carriage stopped at the door; he rose, and quitted the room, and the servants announced that his name was Foote, that he was a young gentleman of family and fortune, a student of the Inner Temple, and that the carriage had called for him on its way to the assembly of a lady of fashion." Dr. Barrowby once turned the laugh against Foote at the Bedford, when he was ostentatiously showing his gold repeater, with the remark—"Why, my watch does not go!" "It soon will go," quietly remarked the Doctor. Young Collins, the poet, who came to town in 1744 to seek his fortune, made his way to the Bedford, where Foote was supreme among the wits and critics. Like Foote, Collins was fond of fine clothes, and walked about with a feather in his hat, very unlike a young man who had not a single guinea he could call his own. A letter of the time tells us that "Collins was an acceptable companion everywhere; and among the gentlemen who loved him for a genius, may be reckoned the Doctors Armstrong, Barrowby, Hill, Messrs. Quin, Garrick, and Foote, who frequently took his opinion upon their pieces before they were seen by the public. He was particularly noticed by the geniuses who frequented the Bedford and Slaughter's Coffee-houses."[25]

Ten years later (1754) we find Foote again supreme in his critical corner at the Bedford. The regular frequenters of the room strove to get admitted to his party at supper; and others got as nearly as they could to the table, as the only humour flowed from Foote's tongue. The Bedford was now in its highest repute.

Foote and Garrick often met at the Bedford, and many and sharp were their encounters. They were the two great rivals of the day. Foote usually attacked, and Garrick, who had many weak points, was mostly the sufferer. Garrick, in early life, had been in the wine trade, and had supplied the Bedford with wine; he was thus described by Foote as living in Durham-yard, with three quarts of vinegar in the cellar, calling himself a wine-merchant. How Foote must have abused the Bedford wine of this period!

One night, Foote came into the Bedford, where Garrick was seated, and there gave him an account of a most wonderful actor he had just seen. Garrick was on the tenters of suspense, and there Foote kept him a full hour. At last Foote, compassionating the suffering listener, brought the attack to a close by asking Garrick what he thought of Mr. Pitt's histrionic talents, when Garrick, glad of the release, declared that if Pitt had chosen the stage, he might have been the first actor upon it.

One night, Garrick and Foote were about to leave the Bedford together, when the latter, in paying the bill, dropped a guinea; and not finding it at once, said, "Where on earth can it be gone to?"—"Gone to the devil, I think," replied Garrick, who had assisted in the search.—"Well said, David!" was Foote's reply; "let you alone for making a guinea go further than anybody else."

Churchill's quarrel with Hogarth began at the shilling rubber club, in the parlour of the Bedford; when Hogarth used some very insulting language towards Churchill, who resented it in the Epistle. This quarrel showed more venom than wit:—"Never," says Walpole, "did two angry men of their abilities throw mud with less dexterity."

Woodward, the comedian, mostly lived at the Bedford, was intimate with Stacie, the landlord, and gave him his (W.'s) portrait, with a mask in his hand, one of the early pictures by Sir Joshua Reynolds. Stacie played an excellent game at whist. One morning, about two o'clock, one of his waiters awoke him to tell him that a nobleman had knocked him up, and had desired him to call his master to play a rubber with him for one hundred guineas. Stacie got up, dressed himself, won the money, and was in bed and asleep, all within an hour.

Of two houses in the Piazza, built for Francis, Earl of Bedford, we obtain some minute information from the lease granted in 1634, to Sir Edmund Verney, Knight Marshal to King Charles I.; these two houses being just then erected as part of the Piazza. There are also included in the lease the "yardes, stables, coach-houses, and gardens now layd, or hereafter to be layd, to the said messuages," which description of the premises seems to identify them as the two houses at the southern end of the Piazza, adjoining to Great Russell-street, and now occupied as the Bedford Coffee-house and Hotel. They are either the same premises, or they immediately adjoin the premises, occupied a century later as the Bedford Coffee-house. (Mr. John Bruce, Archæologia, XXXV. 195.) The lease contains a minute specification of the landlord's fittings and customary accommodations of what were then some of the most fashionable residences in the metropolis. In the attached schedule is the use of the wainscot, enumerating separately every piece of wainscot on the premises. The tenant is bound to keep in repair the "Portico Walke" underneath the premises; he is at all times to have "ingresse, egresse and regresse" through the Portico Walk; and he may "expel, put, or drive away out of the said walke any youth or other person whatsoever which shall eyther play or be in the said Portico Walke in offence or disturbance to the said Sir Edmund Verney."

The inventory of the fixtures is curious. It enumerates every apartment, from the beer-cellar, and the strong beer-cellar, the scullery, the pantry, and the buttery, to the dining and withdrawing-rooms. Most of the rooms had casement windows, but the dining-room next Russell-street, and other principal apartments, had "shutting windowes." The principal rooms were also "double creasted round for hangings," and were wainscoted round the chimney-pieces, and doors and windows. In one case, a study, "south towards Russell-street, the whole room was wainscoted, and the hall in part." Most of the windows had "soil-boards" attached; the room-doors had generally "stock locks," in some places "spring plate locks" and spring bolts. There is not mentioned anything approaching to a fire-grate in any of the rooms, except perhaps in the kitchen, where occurs "a travers barre for the chimney."

Bedford Coffee-House, a celebrated coffee-house, "under the Piazza in Covent Garden," frequented by Garrick, Quin, Foote, Macklin, Murphy, Churchill, Collins the poet, Fielding, Pope, Sheridan, Horace Walpole, and others.¹ It stood in the north-east corner, near the entrance to Covent Garden Theatre, and has long ceased to exist.

This coffee-house is every night crowded with men of parts. Almost every one you meet is a polite scholar and a wit. Jokes and bon-mots are echoed from box to box; every branch of literature is critically examined, and the merit of every production of the press, or performance of the theatres, weighed and determined.—The Connoisseur, No. 1, January 31, 1754.

Tiger Roach (who used to bully at the Bedford Coffee-House because his name was Roach) is set up by Wilkes's friends to burlesque Luttrel and his pretentions.—Murphy to D. Garrick, April 10, 1769 (Garrick Corr., vol. i. p. 339.) Garrick had letters addressed to him here in 1744.

In 1763 was published Memoirs of the Bedford Coffee-House. By Genius, dedicated to the Most Impudent Man Alive.

August 15, 1776.—:The Hon.——, son to Lord——[Mr. Darner, son of Lord Malton] shot himself about 3 in the morning at the Bedford Arms in Covent Garden: "after having," says Horace Walpole, "supped there with four common women."²

The Rev. Mr. Hackman spent the hours prior to murdering Miss Reay, as she was leaving Covent Garden Theatre, April 17, 1779, in the Bedford Coffee-House, and "behaved with great calmness, and drank a glass of capillaire, etc."³

I went to the Bedford Coffee-House in the evening, where I met my friends, from thence proceeded to the play.—Smollet, Roderick Random, c. 40.

The "Bedford," the "Garden," the "Town," the "Ton," the "Houses," emphatically pronounced by a well-dressed man, mark the speaker to be a gentleman of gallantry and pleasure, and probably a wit and a critic.—Captain Grose, Essays, p. 87.

A gentleman still living informs me that being once with Hogarth at the Bedford Coffee-House, he observed him to draw something with a pencil on his nail. Inquiring what had been his employment, he was shown the countenance (a whimsical one) of a person who was then at a small distance.—Nichols, Anecdotes of Hogarth, 3d. ed., 1785, p. 15.

Dr. J.T. Desaguliers, the distinguished natural philosopher, died "in his lodgings at the Bedford Coffee-House," February 29, 1774, in extreme poverty.

Here poor neglected Desaguliers fell!
He who taught two gracious kings to view
All Boyle ennobled and all Bacon knew,
Died in a cell, without a friend to save,
Without a guinea, and without a grave.—Cawthorn.

---

¹ Garrick Corr., vol. i. p. 11.
² Gentleman's Magazine, 1776, p. 383; Walpole, vol. vi. p. 369.
³ Walpole to Ossory, vol. vii. p. 191.

99. Bedford Coffee House, 'under the Piazza Covent Garden'; 'in the north-east corner, near the entrance to Covent Garden Theatre'; 'in the Great Piazza'. This house is said to have gained popularity, when after the death of Addison in 1719, Button's Coffee-house began to decline and 'the coffee drinkers resorted to the Bedford, and dinner parties to the Shakespeare.'

1730–39

Earliest mention Feb. 1730–31, see Peter Le Neve (D.N.B.). Later mention ‘London Daily Post', 24 Feb. 1736. Again in 1739 and 1740.

1740

When the house of J.T. Desaguliers 'the eminent natural philosopher' in Channel Row had to be pulled down, he removed to a lodging in the Bedford Coffee-house over the great piazza in Covent Garden, where he continued his lectures with great success until his death on 29 February 1744'. (D.N.B.)

1744

Garrick had letters addressed to himself here in 1744. In the same year, when Collins, the poet, came to London to seek his fortune, he made his way to the Bedford Coffee-house.

1749

In 1749, the impostor, William Nicholls who engaged the Theatre Royal Haymarket, for a performance which never took place, 'directed letters to be left for him at the Bedford Coffee-house Covent Garden'.

1751

The famous ‘Lion's Head' Letter-box from Button's was removed to the Bedford, where it was used to receive contributions to John Hill's short-lived paper 'The Inspector' that first appeared in March, 1751.      From the ‘Memoirs of the Bedford Coffee House' published about this time, later writers have gleaned the names of the frequenters of the house. These include Garrick, Quin, Foote, Macklin, Murphy, Churchill, Collins, Fielding, Pope, Sheridan, Horace Walpole, and others, and 'for some years the Bedford Coffee-house continued to be "the emporium of wit, the seat of criticism, and the standard of taste".'

1754

'The Connoisseur' No. 1, Jan. 31, 1754: 'This coffee-house is every night crowded with men of parts. Almost every one you meet is a polite scholar and a wit ... every branch of literature is critically examined, and the merit of every production of the press or performance of the theatre, weighed and determined.'

1754–65

The house is mentioned in the press in 1754, 1755, 1765.

1767–80

William Hickey and his friends frequented the Bedford Coffee House, 1767 to 1780. (Memoirs of William Hickey, I, 71; II, 90, 270.)

1779

Knapp & Baldwin's Newgate Calendar fully reports the case of the Rev. James Hackman, executed for the murder of Miss Reay, to whom Hackman had offered his assistance to hand her to her coach on leaving the playhouse, Covent Garden on 7 April 1779. The murder took place directly opposite the Bedford Coffee-house, and the prisoner was secured in the Shakspeare Tavern. In the evidence it transpired Miss Reay had been 'the mistress of Lord Sandwich near twenty years, was the mother of nine children, and nearly double the age of Mr. Hackman'. Hackman was executed at Tyburn, 19 April, 1779.

1788–94

In 1788, and again in 1794, masonic lodge meetings were held here.

1793

The Diary of Joseph Farington, landscape-painter, supplies the following: 10 Dec. 1793—The Meeting at the Academy did not break up till past 12 o'clock, when Hamilton, Smirke, and myself went to the Bedford Coffee House where we found Tyler, Zoffany, Rooker, Boswell, Dance, Lawrence, Westall, we staid till four in morning.

1797

The ‘Morning Chronicle’ 28 Jan. 1797, advertises ‘Dressed Turtle' at the Bedford Coffee House.

1808

After the destruction of the Covent Garden Theatre, the first meeting of the Sublime Society of Beef Steaks at the Bedford Coffee-house, is notified in the 'Morning Chronicle' 7 Nov. 1808. The Society remained here until the building of the ‘Old Lyceum' in 1809.

1809–11

In 1809–11 the house is described as the Bedford Coffee House and Hotel, Covent Garden. Proprietor—Robt. Joy. In 1811, 'The Times' issue of 28 May, advertises Tunbridge Castle, Kent, 'to be Let ... for particulars of Mr. Joy, Bedford Coffee House, Covent Garden'.

1813–38

In 1813 the Proprietor is Wm. White. In 1814–19 the house is described as Bedford Coffee House under the Piazza; in 1822–27 directories Bedford Coffee House is Wm. White; also listed is Bedford Hotel—Robert Joy. In 1833 as Bedford Coffee House, and in 1838 Bedford Hotel, Proprietor—E. Ruddell. The entries in the directories indicate two houses of similar name and address.

1872

Timbs writing in 1872, refers to 'two houses at the southern end of the Piazza, adjoining Great Russell Street, and now occupied as the Bedford Coffee House and Hotel. They are either the same premises, or they immediately adjoin the premises occupied as the Bedford Coffee House.'

4. (M.) Samuel Dust, was indicted for stealing a silk handkerchief value 3 s. the property of Lockhart Gordon, privately from his person, October 26 . ++

Lockhart Gordon. On the 25th or 26th of October, about eleven at night, I came out of the Bedford-Head coffee-house, Covent Garden, and walking under the piazzas by myself I felt something pull my handkerchief out of my pocket, so I immediately turned about and saw my pocket handkerchief in the prisoner's left hand; I seized him by the breast, but he turned his body to prevent my seeing the handkerchief, and dropped it on the ground; I saw it fall; upon which I told him he had picked my pocket of my handkerchief, and he should go before justice Fielding; he said he had not, and refused to go. He pointed at another man, saying it was him that picked my pocket and flung the handkerchief under his arm. I saw a parcel of ugly fellows about me: I seized him by the collar, drew my sword, saying I was more than a match for him, took him into the Bedford coffee-house, and sent for the playhouse guards who were not then gone.

Q. How far was this from the Bedford coffee-house ?

Gordon. It was about thirty or forty yards.

—Proceedings of the Old Bailey, 6th December 1752

244. John Marlbone was indicted for stealing, on the 7th of February, one guinea, the money of Abraham D'Aubant, Esq.

... I thought the best way was to take him to the Magistrate's; the carriage was at the door; it was his turn to go behind it; and we went to Covent Garden piazza; and I got out opposite the Bedford Head coffee-house, and I desired the servants to wait there, and I went with Captain Demerick to Bow-street; ...

—Proceedings of the Old Bailey, 21st February 1787