Coffeehouses and the Rise of Science

Coffeehouses emerged as a key social institution in early modern England. In 1962, Jürgen Habermas famously argued that they transformed the public sphere by fostering rational debate, enabling Enlightenment ideas to flourish. This paper tests that claim in the context of Enlightenment science in seventeenth-century London. Combining comprehensive location data on coffeehouses, applied scientists, and scientific-instrument shops, we find that scientific activity rose markedly after the first coffeehouse opened in an area. We argue that coffeehouses fostered this growth by lowering the cost of accessing scientific knowledge, increasing interactions between applied scientists and instrument makers, and making experimental science more public. Consistent with this mechanism, coffeehouses especially benefited individuals with weaker ties to elite intellectual circles, strengthened links between theory-oriented scientists and practical instrument makers, and increased the number of experimental instrument shops.