I blush as I write this, but in over 40 years in London, yesterday was the first time I’ve ever bought anything in Old Compton Street’s Algerian Coffee Stores. To quote our shortest-serving and unmissed Prime Minister – That. Is. A. Disgrace.
Of course I’ve been in there before, relishing the smell of just-roasted beans that pervade every cubic cm of the space. And I’ve stared into the window at the various bits of equipment that will make the perfect cup of the black stuff on countless thousands of occasions. But now I’ve actually bought a couple of bags of (different) freshly-ground beans I feel I’ve earned another London merit badge.
(They also do what is probably London’s cheapest takeaway coffee – £1.50 for a double espresso!)
The Algerian Coffee Stores have been at the same address (52 Old Compton Street) for ever – or since 1887*, which in London retail terms is pretty much the same thing. It was originally owned by a Mr Hassan (an Algerian, unsurprisingly) and the store’s website has a wonderful photo of the staff standing in front of the shop which has painted on the glass window “the best coffee in London” in French, Italian and German, a wonderful reminder of the cosmopolitanism of 19th century Soho. (The window also has “M Siari” on it, so I’m wondering if Mr Hassan might have been “Hassan Siari”.)
Over the intervening decades the store has survived two world wars (in the Blitz the Admiral Duncan pub next door was destroyed) and has been sold twice – the first time to a Belgian called Boerman in 1928, and then again in 1946 to a Brit called Mr Jones, whose (Italian) son-in-law (Paul Crocetta) and his daughters currently run the place. (More history and photos here.)
140 years at one address and 80 years in one family’s ownership should be celebrated, but like the Bar Italia round the corner, we need to not only rejoice in the longevity of these Soho family businesses but spend our money there too: that’s the only way they will still be here next year, next decade, next century.
So don’t be like me and take 40 years to buy something, get yourself in and exult in the aroma and hand over your cash for some coffee (and tea). And if you’re not in London, they have a website.
*Bafflingly, and frustratingly, after poring over the Post Office Directories of the 1880s and 1890s I can’t find the Stores listed – in all cases there’s a gap, nothing is given for number 52.