Partisan Coffee House
The Partisan was a radical venue of the New Left, at 7 Carlisle Street in the Soho district of London, now utilised as office space. 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.
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. In addition to Raphael Samuel, the group included the late Stuart Hall and Eric Hobsbawn. Funds to buy the Carlisle Street property were raised by soliciting donations and loans from political sympathisers.
Major investors included:
The main coffee house, where food was served, was on the ground floor. Tables, mostly communal, were at the back of the building. At the front a few armchairs were provided. The business failure of the venture was largely attributable to its firm policy of allowing patrons to occupy tables indefinitely without ordering anything.
The basement was furnished with more tables, and chess sets were available free to whoever got to them first. Talks, poetry readings, film screenings and informal concerts were a fairly frequent feature of the basement area. The coffee house was open from 10:30 to midnight daily.
Above the coffee house were the library, and the private offices of the ULR.
For most of its life, the Partisan sold cappuccino and croissants for 9d each. Food served included Farmhouse soup, Borscht, Mutton stew, Liver dumplings, and Whitechapel cheesecake. The menus and some posters were designed by graphic designer Desmond Jeffery.
No alcoholic drinks were served, but they were readily available at any of several nearby pubs, notably The Highlander (now the Nellie Dean) just a few steps away on the corner of Dean St.
The Partisan attracted students, intellectuals, writers, musicians, actors and other theatrical types, all having left-wing sympathies. Among the clientele who were, or became, celebrities were:
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