Mrs Grips is coming to London with me next week, she’s going to be doing some writing whilst I am at work. Can anyone think of a really nice coffee shop or similar for this purpose? Reasonably central.

Coffee quality important but not overly so.

Benugo in Covent Garden (corner of Long Acre) is ok. Coffee is decent and downstairs is quite nice (if you don’t mind not having any natural light!). It has wi-fi.

rabot 1745 or Monmouth in Borough Mkt
wild and wood on new oxford st is great http://wildandwoodcoffee.co.uk/

Tapped and packed, (any of them). Milk bar, foxcroft and ginger, notes (all of them) the attendant, speakeasy, Fernandez and Wells, artigano, store st espresso, Monmouth, timber yard, wild and wood, lantana, caffeine, new row coffee. to name a few.
Not Benugo as the coffee is mediocre (nice sarnies though)

Shoreditch Grind

also, durr, Look Mum No Hands would be perfik.

Starbucks

Monmouth Coffee shop near Covent Garden. Great little place with wooden pews for sipping good coffee and chatting.

Good luck getting a seat in Monmouth coffee.
Downstairs at Fernandez and wells would be my choice, they don’t seem to mind people staying a while on their laptops there.

These guys are good, although I’ve only been to the Leather Lane one, which is usually quiet enough for a free table during the day:

http://departmentofcoffee.com/locations/shops/

The CoffeeInTouch app is good for finding others: http://www.coffeeintouch.com/

This is the best London coffee app http://londonsbestcoffee.bluecrowmedia.com

Gets updated regularly and they actually go to the cafe’s (I know somebody who does some of their reviewing)

Department of Coffee and Social Affairs by hatton gardens is good

Cycling related – Look Mum No Hands and the Rapha Cycling Club are both very good.

http://www.lookmumnohands.com/ (the original place is the Old Street branch, they now have a place over Barbican way too but I’ve not been in there)

http://pages.rapha.cc/clubs/london Rapha

Non-cycling – Lantana which is tucked away round the back of Tottenham Court Road: http://lantanacafe.co.uk/about.html

By central do you mean west end or city?

Workshop farringdon or Flat White in the west end are both winners

Monmouth Coffee shop near Covent Garden.

Table sharing is de-rigeur on Monmouth Street. Pop into Coco de Mer next door for a laugh!! 😈

Don’t go in the shoe shop, you can get a decent bike frame for the cost of a pair.

Look Mum No Hands is great (unless you need your bike fixing because they will pull your pants down) but it’d be an ideal place to chill out in through the day poking at a laptop. nice food as well and she can get a beer later on too!

I really like the recently renamed TAP in central London http://www.tapcoffee.co.uk/. I’ve been to the Rathbone place one loads of times and it never feels too busy and the coffee is really good

Not central London but http://www.coffee-lab.co.uk/ has the best coffee. Part of the London Coffee network

How about your work canteen?

this one could hold it’s own in Melbourne http://www.thefleetstreetpress.com/

not a coffee shop, but the sausage and mash cafe near Liverpool St. yum yum yum…. am always torn as to whether i want a curry or a sausage.

can I almost hijack this and ask if there is somewhere nice around victoria bus station, I’m up for Bespoked on Sunday, it would be good to have somthing nice to drink on the tube getting there.

You won’t go wrong with most of the spots on this list.

http://www.thelondoncoffeemap.com/shops

For me Prufrock and Workshop are killing it at the minute.

Iris and June just opened in Victoria, been informed from a good source that it’s very good.

Theres a nice place right opposite Cannon St station. Can’t remember the name of it though but went there for breakfast last time I was in that London with work…

City really. I’m working opposite on Bankside. Monmouth coffee in the market does do nice coffee but it’s not a great place to sit and work ime – only a few tables which are tiny, and not comfy seats.

Across the footbridge to artigano in St. Paul’s or a wander up to Smithfield to workshop or LMNH. Coffee is poor in LMNH, exceptional in workshop (posted from tapped in rathbone place)

She needs to see Leadenhall Market – I was thinking of going somewhere in there for lunch.

LMNH gets full of Students, book your seat early. 😉

HOw long is she “hanging about/using free wifi”? 1-2-3hrs?
Might get booted out if longer than an hour or so max I’d say.

Raphas too small, plus I dare say she won’t be buying owt.

If I need a quiet place to work in town between meetings, I tend to head to a museum cafe – no piped musac.
Tate modern cafe would be a good shout, nearish to where you’ll be.

If you want coffee and quiet space to work royal festival hall used to be good

Raphas too small, plus I dare say she won’t be buying owt.

They have expanded into the next door shop.

Rapha and Elliot’s on Stoney Street (near Borough Market) tried to push filter on me well past the point where they were accepting of my polite no, Look Mum No Hands or Workshop Coffee on Clerkenwell are both good.

If you want a decent size coffee to take away from Victoria or a couple of the other London stations Camden Food Company is better than the usual chain muck