Abstract
This paper explores the diversity of activities that took place within London's coffee houses, focussing on a detailed study of the Grecian. It examines the origins of the Grecian and the ways in which those origins related to the arguments marshalled by those Old Whigs who frequented it. Whilst at first sight its clientele appeared to conform to the picture of coffee houses as centres of rationality, in practice it was also the base for a secret and exclusive club known as the Commonwealthmen. Far from adopting any forward-looking rationalism or empiricism, as others have argued, those involved based their arguments on an uncritical appeal to ancient authority. The paper argues more generally that the activities within coffee houses were so diverse that any attempt to categories them too strictly is bound to lead to a host of exceptions.
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