Edward Lloyd

Edward Lloyd (1648 – 1713) came to London, it’s thought, from Canterbury, arriving with his wife Abigail in about 1680 at the age of 32. Their eldest son Edward had just died, and their third daughter Mary had just been born. The City at this time consisted of two worlds: ships and money. Both converged in a tiny area between the Tower of London and Thames Street, close to the Navy Office in Seething Lane, where Samuel Pepys had worked. Each coffee house had a specialist interest, and it was here, in now-lost Tower Street, that Lloyd opened his own coffee house, and began attracting all those concerned with shipping. The place became a favourite haunt of ship’s captains, merchants and ship owners.