Partisan Coffee House
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The Partisan Coffee House was a radical venue of the New Left, at 7 Carlisle Street in the Soho district of London. It was established by historian Raphael Samuel in 1958 in the aftermath of the Suez Crisis and the Soviet invasion of Hungary. It closed in 1962, victim of a "business model" that was hospitable to the penniless intellectuals who patronised it, but wholly unrealistic.[citation needed] The building is now[when?] utilised as office space.
The group that founded the Partisan initially came together in Oxford, as editors and contributors of the Universities & Left Review magazine (ULR) before it merged with The New Reasoner to form New Left Review.[1] In addition to Raphael Samuel, the group included the late Stuart Hall and Eric Hobsbawm. Funds to buy the Carlisle Street property were raised by soliciting donations and loans from political sympathisers. The Partisan was initially intended to raise funds for the ULR, and it was partly conceived as an alternative to the Italian-style coffee bars which had mushroomed in London in the 1950s.[2]
Major investors included:[3]
- Michael Redgrave, actor
- Ken Tynan, theatre critic
- John Calder, publisher
- Lewis Casson, actor and producer
- Wolf Mankowitz, screenwriter
- Naomi Mitchison, novelist
- Doris Lessing, author
Layout
The primary coffee house, which also served food, occupied the ground floor of the building. Communal tables were situated towards the rear, while a small number of armchairs were available at the front. The venture's financial downfall was largely due to its strict policy of permitting customers to occupy tables for extended periods without making any purchases.
The basement was furnished with more tables, and chess sets were available. Talks, poetry readings, film screenings and informal concerts were a fairly frequent feature of the basement area.[4] The coffee house was open from 10:30 to midnight daily.[5]
Above the coffee house were the library, and the private offices of the ULR.