Diana and son Paul working at the Novel Cafe (212 Pier)
My workspace is – a coffeehouse! Yes, an old-fashioned bohemian bookstore/cafe, formerly named The Novel Cafe, though recently changed to 212 Pier. For the last 20 years my husband Peter (a poet), my son Paul (a story analyst, now studying for his MLS) and I, writer and story analyst, have done an enormous amount of our reading and writing at this homely (in the English sense) cafe. Open 24 hours, with free wifi, the writer or student can set up his laptop and work as late as he chooses. And we do. The family who stays up late drinking cappuccino at adjacent coffeehouse tables, is both productive and jolly, as we can testify!
Back in the ’90s…husband Peter, film critic friend Andy Klein, and Diana at her work station at the Novel
A Coffeehouse (by Pat Nicolle)
We may be former New York bohos, transplanted to California, but our cafe denizenship actually comes from a long English tradition. For in Jane
Austen’s day, coffeehouses were an important component of London social life. Mostly for men, it is true, but the coffee, newspapers, cameraderie and gossip must still have borne some relation to the coffeehouse life today. Though people now tend to be writing screenplays instead of poetic epics.
Lloyd’s Coffee House, London
One of the most famous coffee establishments at the height of the age of coffee houses in the 17th century was Will’s in Russell Street, known as the Coffee House of the Wit’s, and frequented by John Dryden, Pope, Addison, Congreve. At this time two thousand coffee houses existed in London! I don’t know if there are as many real ones (not counting chains) even today.
A London Coffee House in the 17th century
By the mid-18th century the Bedford Coffee House was the “in” place for the literati, patronized by Fielding, Hogarth, Goldsmith and Garrick. A contemporary journal reported that the Bedford “is every night crowded with men of parts. Almost everyone you meet is a polite scholar and a wit. Jokes and bon mots are echoed from box to box; every branch of literature is critically examined, and the merit of every production of the press, or performance at the theatres, weighed and determined.”
And here is our Jane Austen connection. Although the Bedford, by Austen’s day, was a raffish theatrical coffeehouse of not the best reputation, it sheds interesting light on the lives led by both John Thorpe and General Tilney, who were both habituees of the place. In Northanger Abbey, John Thorpe tells Catherine about the General:
“Know him! There are few people much about town that I do not know. I havemet him forever at the Bedford; and I knew his face again today the moment he came into the billiard–room. One of the best players we have, by the by; and we had a little touch together, though I was almost afraid of him at first: the odds were five to four against me; and, if I had not made one of the cleanest strokes that perhaps ever was made in this world — I took his ball exactly — but I could not make you understand it without a table; however, I did beat him. A very fine fellow; as rich as a Jew.”
The Turk’s Coffee House, Cambridge
I will conclude with a few pictures of my own coffee house work place. Location: Santa Monica, California. Time: Timeless.
Of course I do a lot of my writing and reading for Warner Bros at home, too, and could show that workplace as well; but that would be another post, heavily involving cats…
Diana Birchall
Diana is the author of the Jane Austen sequels Mrs. Darcy’s Dilemma and Mrs. Elton in America, the Austen-related plays You are Passionate, Jane, and The Austen Assizes (co-written with Syrie James), and much other Austenesque writing. She has also written the biography of her grandmother, Onoto Watanna, the first Asian American novelist. Diana works as a Story Analyst at Warner Bros Studios. Originally from New York City, she now lives in Santa Monica, California with her husband, son, and three cats.
Diana Does Austen 
I love the history you share with us, Diana. The images are great, those from the past and from more current decades. I love quaint coffee shops. Starbucks is great, don’t get me wrong, but the local non-chain establishments often have a coziness to them that is so appealing.
Now, speaking of java, where is my espresso? Oh honey……