Carpenter's Coffee House

Coordinates: 51°30′43″N 0°07′22″W / 51.511970°N 0.122800°W / 51.511970; -0.122800

Carpenter's Coffee House (later known as "The Finish", "The Queen's Head" and "Jack's") was a coffee house in Covent Garden, London, established by George Carpenter some time around 1762.

George Carpenter had been a strongman and then worked as a porter in Covent Garden. By 1745, he had established himself as a fruit salesman in the market, and by hard work had made himself comparatively wealthy. Unfortunately he became ill, was unable to work for a considerable time, and, without an income, he was forced to use his savings to provide for himself during his illness. He was reduced to pawning his possessions, but eventually recovered and managed to re-establish himself as a successful stall holder, finally becoming the lessee of the market in 1762. Leasing the market for a fee of £500 from the Duke of Bedford entitled Carpenter to collect rents of around £700 a year.

Two of the shacks in the Great Piazza facing the Little Piazza (or hummums) were being used as a coffee house when he gained control of the market and Carpenter took these over, renamed them "Carpenter's Coffee House", and installed his parents as managers. Carpenter was not really interested in serving coffee to his customers. The quality of the coffee was poor, in 1766 William Hickey described it as: