Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
is, that, with one or two exceptions, these hotels are those sinks of vice and dissipation - the bane of
human happiness and domestic peace - Gaming Houses!
There were in excess of two-dozen gaming hells in the immediate area at the beginning of
the nineteenth century.
There were some more respectable establishments, for example the St James's Coffee-
house opposite the Palace gates, popular with army and navy officers; The Royal Coffee-
house, catering for large dinner parties; the Smyrna Coffeehouse, famous for billiards; the
York and Dover coffee houses; Parsloe's subscription rooms with its chess club; and the
Thatched House Tavern, where the Society of Dilettanti hung their portraits.
The corner of St James's Street and Pall Mall. Berry Bros and Rudd's
premises can be seen, marked 'Coffee Mill'. The sign still hangs out-
side.
Interior at Berry Bros and Rudd; the topics recording the statistics of
those who came to be weighed on the famous scales, originally designed
for sacks of coffee. Now only members of the family are allowed on the
balance. A cartoon of the Duke of Wellington inside one of the eponym-
ous boots hangs next to the registers.
