Monmouth Coffee (Borough)

The Warehouse That Started It

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Monmouth is the reason many Londoners know what a single-origin coffee is. Nicholas Saunders opened it in 1978, Anita Le Roy later took it over, and the beans come from individual farms that the staff go and visit. In 2001 the company opened the Borough shop in a former fruit and vegetable warehouse. It roasts in Bermondsey, close by. The short version: patient buying, long relationships, plain execution.

People credit Monmouth with helping to regenerate both Neal's Yard and Borough Market, and with laying the ground for the third wave of specialty coffee in London after 2000. I believe it. The room has no interest in being photographed. You queue, you order, you drink standing up or perched on a bench. Visitors still grumble about the line, and the line still forms. That tells you the grumbling is not serious.

Go early, on a weekday, and give yourself time to look at the bags on the shelves. Order a filter if you want to taste what they buy, an espresso if you want to taste what they roast. Then take your cup outside and watch the market set up around you.

Order this: A filter coffee, black, A flat white or espresso, Bread or a pastry from the counter, to eat in the street
The damage: $
Go: Early on a weekday, before the market fills
Find it: 2 Park Street, London SE1 9AB