Amelia Cutting
Sitting in a coffee shop has always been one of my favorite things to do. Day off? I’ll be there reading, exams coming up? I’ll be there revising, catching up with a friend? I’ll suggest a cafe. I find them to be such calm and comforting spaces that are perfect for whatever you want to use them for. I also love coffee which makes me drawn to them even more.
It is no secret that Brits love their coffee, and their coffee shops. A stroll down any UK high street will demonstrate just how much this is. In fact, today there are around 7,470 branded coffee shops in the UK! Costa leads these brands with around 2,422 shops, but independent cafes also stand their ground too- they appeal to customers who want something a bit different, or a uniqueness that draws in lovers of that niche. Just look at the emergence of cat cafes, dog cafes, arts and crafts cafes and you will see that independent cafes are also popular.
Speaking of niche independent cafes, I so vividly remember my final year of my undergraduate degree, before the pandemic hit, when I came across a gorgeous little artsy cafe in Headingley, Leeds, where I was living. It was a place to go and sew/eat/chat/revise/zone out for a while and it was perfect. I was gutted that having lived in Leeds for three years I only found this place in my final year which ended up being cut short anyway and studying/graduating from my kitchen at home became normal.
Why I Like To Sit In Coffee Shops
Doing BA English Literature and Music at University meant that my contact hours were ridiculously small (about 4-5 a week at most), therefore private reading and dissertation writing was the bulk of my academic timetable during the week. I got fed up with sitting in the library where you cannot talk, can only drink water, can’t have a snack, can rarely even get a seat and where you are surrounded by fellow stressed out students.
On the same page, I am not a person that can sit in the house all day either, so a coffee shop was always a happy medium for me- yes, the library or home are cheaper, but with student discounts/cards I found the positives to outweigh that one negative.
With the emergence of coffee shops, we also saw the beginnings of coffee culture: a set of traditions and rules that refer to the way cafes are used.
With the emergence of coffee shops, we also saw the beginnings of coffee culture: a set of traditions and rules that refer to the way cafes are used. It goes far beyond just drinking a cup of coffee but offers a place to meet that is acceptable at all hours of the day (unlike a pub for instance), is affordable, usually has a drink to everyone’s taste and places a huge focus on environment and aesthetic.
Coffee Shops In the UK
Coffee shops contribute a massive £17.7 billion to the UK economy every year, proving the impact that the coffee market has. It is after all the fifth largest coffee consumer market in Europe, creating more than 210,325 jobs.
According to Jonathan Morris, Professor of History at the University of Hertfordshire, we have the twenty-somethings of the 90’s decade to blame for our obsession with coffee in the UK. Between 1993 and 1997 the number of coffee shops and cafes in the UK rose dramatically, something that was further cemented when the digital age really took off.
The use of laptops and phones freed some workers from their desk and students from lecture halls – by installing wifi, cafes made themselves places that were alternatives for socialising and also working, the main ways people enjoy cafes and coffee shops for today.
I spoke to some avid cafe goers to see what cafes bring to them.
One participant told me that not being able to do so was ‘the only thing that (I) would say I’ve really struggled with during lockdown’
One participant, who said that pre-covid she went to cafes two to three times a week because of the ‘chilled environment to relax or study/write’. This is a popular use of cafe time, with another telling me that she finds them to be relaxing places when she wants to work alone, but also nice cosy places to socialise with friends too.
When asked whether she was looking forward to returning to sitting inside cafes once more, one participant told me that not being able to do so was ‘the only thing that (I) would say I’ve really struggled with during lockdown’ for the great balance of being a nice place to study but also to meet friends.
To me, what this shows is that during lockdown when sitting in a cafe was a distant memory, one of the things people most craved is coffee. Not because they don’t drink coffee at home, but for the social aspect, the environment and most of all the taste of normality that we are slowly getting back.
Featured image courtesy of grafmex via Pixabay. Image licence found here. No changes were made to this image.