ALICE MAUD MARY THRASHER - COFFEE HOUSE

[CourtenayL]

Dear British Genealogy

Our ancestor Alice Maud Mary Thrasher worked at the following coffee house as an inn assistant in the 1891 census. The coffee house was at 93 Jamaica Road in Bermondsey. Please could you tell me anything about coffee houses at this time (and about this coffee house), what the work would have entailed and the type of people who you might meet using this type of establishment and what the area was like at this time. Thank you.

Alice's father had been a messenger in the 1871 census and died in 1879. The family was still wealthy enough to send Alice's sister Louisa to a boarding school in the 1881 census, so their father Robert Thrasher may have been a Queen's Messenger, Foreign Office/Home Office Civil Service Messenger, London Stock Exchange Messenger or an Aristocrat's Messenger (this is still being researched).

Alice's sister Ruth Jezard (Ruth was born Ruth Thrasher but their mother Priscilla Thrasher remarried to John Jezard) became an actress and her husband Albert Edward Court was Chief Of Staff at the London Colesium. Alice's other sister Louisa Thrasher married Percy Atkins who was a Theatrical Business Manager.

Alice later went on to have an illegitimate baby in 1893 rumoured to be the son of an aristocrat.

Thank you for your help!

1891 CENSUS
Name: George Cornwall
Age: 33
Estimated Birth Year: abt 1858
Relation: Head
Spouse's Name: Mary Ann Cornwall
Gender: Male
Where born: Bethnal Green, London, England
Civil parish: Bermondsey
Ecclesiastical parish: St James
County/Island: London
Country: England
Registration district: St Olave Southwark
Sub-registration district: St James Bermondsey
ED, institution, or vessel: 7
Piece: 375
Folio: 39
Page Number: 1
Household Members:
Name Age
George Cornwall 33
Mary Ann Cornwall 32
Beatrice C Cornwall 8
Emily F Cornwall 4
Geo Vincent Cornwall 2
Wm John Cornwall 1
Alice Maud M Thrasher 19
Mary Ward 17
Eliza E Marin 20

[CanadianCousin]

I'm not sure about your ancestor's coffee house, but in 1891 my great-grandmother (also named Alice) was an assistant at a "Coffee Tavern" run by her older sister, in Newton Abbot, Devon. As I understand it, coffee taverns were an outgrowth of the temperance movement, designed to be an alcohol-free alternative to traditional taverns. Many were associated with "Temperance Hotels" - indeed, by 1901, my g-gm's sister was operating a temperance hotel at the same location.

I don't know to what extent the temperance movement influenced other coffee houses at the time, but it's a possibility you might want to consider.

HTH -

Tim

P.S. Just to add some confusion, I checked the Post Office Directories for London, which shows that address being occupied by Robert Morgan coffee rooms in 1882, and by George Cornwall coffee rooms in 1895 (the same name you found in the 1891 census). However, I also Googled the address "93 Jamaica Road", and found several entries in the London Gazette suggesting that it was a branch of the private banking firm Lacy, Hartland, Woodbridge & Co., at least up to 1888 (the company was taken over by the Midland Bank in 1891). Was there more than one Jamaica Road perhaps?

[CourtenayL]

Hello Tim - thank you very much for your very useful and detailed post - well that's more to think about - I'll sleep on that and investigate!
Kind regards
Lorraine