Sultan's Head

Names

  • Sultan's Head
  • Sultan Solyman's Head
  • the Turk's Head Coffee House
  • the Coffee House in Aldersgate Street
  • Solyman's Coffee House

Street/Area/District

  • Aldersgate Street

Maps & Views

Descriptions

from A Descriptive Catalogue of the London Traders, Tavern, and Coffee-house Tokens Current in the 17th Century, by Jacob Henry Burn (1855)

90 Sultan Solyman's head—Solyman, in the field.
     Rev. The Coffee House in Aldersgate Street, 1666.

Evidently a coffee-house keeper's token, issued on reestablishing his business here, after the fire in September. Possibly [R.] Ward, who adopted the same sign and issued a similar token, on his removal to Bread street in 1671.

Solyman the Magnificent, the fourth emperor of the Turks, began his reign in 1520, in the same year Charles the Fifth became emperor of Germany. He was the contemporary of Henry the Eighth, Edward the Sixth, Mary, and Elizabeth. Solyman died September 4th, 1566. The distinctive splendour of his rule appears to have caused his name to be adopted as the frequent subject of a sign where Turkey coffee was sold.

from Trade Tokens Issued in the Seventeenth Century in England, Wales, and Ireland, by Corporations, Merchants, Tradesmen, etc. by William Boyne, revised edition by George Williamson (1889)

  1. O. SOLYMAN = A Turk's head.
    R. The . Coffee . House . in . Aldersgate . Street . 1666 (in five lines).

Evidently a coffee-house keeper's token, issued on re-establishing his business here, after the fire in September. Possibly Ward, who adopted the same sign and issued a similar token on his removal to Bread Street in 1671.—Vide No. 407.

Solyman the Magnificent, the fourth emperor of the Turks, began his reign in 1520, in the same year Charles V. became Emperor of Germany. He was the contemporary of Henry VIII., Edward VI., Mary, and Elizabeth. Solyman died September 4. 1566. The distinctive splendour of his rule appears to have caused his name to be adopted as the frequent subject of a sign where Turkey coffee was sold.—[B.]

No doubt this is the coffee-house mentioned by Ned Ward in his "London Spy," 1718 (originally published in 1698), part ii., p. 275:

"Having heard of a fam'd Coffee-House in Aldersgate-Street, where Doctors of the Body .... Metamorphose themselves into State Politicians; and the slippery tongues of thoughtless Mechanicks, undertake to Expound the Mysteries of Scripture .... Thither accordingly we steered our Course, and entered the Ancient Fabrick, by Antiquity made Venerable."

from The Early History of Coffee Houses in England: With Some Account of the First Use of Coffee and a Bibliography of the Subject, by Edward Forbes Robinson (1893)

  • Solyman—Sultan's head. Rev. The . Coffee . House . in . Aldersgate . Street . 1666.

Edw. Ward, in his London Spy, 1709 (commenced in 1698), p. xii., p. 275, etc., mentions that this 'Ancient fabrick, by antiquity made venerable,' was frequented by doctors with a turn for politics, and by Puritans who wished to recall the days of Cromwell. Here, too, a certain talker was wont to 'illustrate the story, Sir Harry Blunt like, with some few advantages.'

The above token was probably issued by R. Ward. See under Bread Street.

Solyman II., son of Selim I., began to reign in 1520. He was one of the most fierce and renowned of Turkish conquerors. He died, at the age of 76, in 1566.

* An asterisk denotes that the description has been verified ... from the original token in the Beaufoy Cabinet, Guildhall.

from London Coffee Houses, by Bryant Lillywhite (1963)

1227. Solyman's Coffee House, Aldersgate Street.

Solyman issued a dated Token here in 1666, bearing the sign of the Turk's Head, probably says Burn 'issued on re-establishing his business here after the Fire in September'.

Token listed Burn No. 70; Boyne No. 56:

1666
O.—SOLYMAN—A Turk's Head
R.—The . Coffee . House . in . Aldersgate . Street . 1666.
Burn suggests, I consider incorrectly so, that there is a connexion with Solyman Ward's Coffee House in Bread Street, where a Token was issued in 1671.
1677–78
The parish Accounts of St. John Zachary for 1677–78 contain an entry more likely to be identified with Solyman's Aldersgate Street: 'Paid when wee went to Sr. Christo: Wrenn, 1 li. 10s. 6d.; at the ffountaine Taverne with Sr. Thomas Bludworth and other Parishioners, 10s. 6d.; at a meeting with the Deputy & Common-counsell Men at ye Woolsack & at ye Coffy-house, 2s. 5d.' (McMurray—Records of Two City Parishes, 1925, p. 395.)

See Strainge's Coffee House. No. 1276.

The Coffee House, St. Anne's Lane. No. 1337.

Turk's Head Coffee House. No. 1402.

from London Coffee Houses, by Bryant Lillywhite (1963)

1286. Sultan's Head Coffee House, in Aldersgate Street.

1698
Ellis in 'Penny Universities' mentions that 'Edward Ward, in his London Spy, which he commenced in 1698, referring to the Sultan's Head Coffee-house in Aldersgate Street, mentions that this "Ancient fabrick, by Antiquity made valuable" was frequented by doctors with a turn for politics and by Puritans who wished to recall the days of Cromwell. Here, too, a certain talker was wont to "illustrate the story, Sir Henry Blount like, with some few advantages".

from London Signs, by Bryant Lillywhite (1972)

1286 Sultan’s Head Coffee House in Aldersgate Street 1698.