Out For A Drink:Beverages and the Creation of Public

Space in Britain 1707-1830

Allegra Harrison, April 2014

Jurgen Habermas, The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere

• The first expression of the public sphere occurred in 17th century English coffeehouses

• “Public Sphere” connoted a virtual space outside both the home and the court: the town

• Literary, then political criticism, facilitated by print media

The Habermasian Coffeehouse

• Addison and Steele’s The Spectator

• Button’s Coffee House

The Lion’s Digest

A Gap in the LiteratureFrontispiece of Vulgus Brittanius, 1710

Rowlandson, Mad Dog in a Coffee House (c. 1800)

Types of establishments

• Inns, taverns and alehouses

• A continuum? • “Bedford

Coffee-House, Tavern and Hotel”

Portrait of Rylance, 18131763 Pamphlet

Ballads

• Literacy• A verbal-audio-visual

form of print• Breaking away from

Enlightenment ideals• Collectivism