The best independent coffee shops in London

Many London coffee shops are roasting and brewing good coffee, from independent shops to multinational retail chains. This is a selection of independent coffee shops that likely don’t have a multinational marketing department promoting them, including a few London-based chains selected for their specific social and environmental impact.

Copious amounts of coffee were consumed while writing this blog. No writers were harmed in the publishing process.

If you’re reading this, you probably also love baked goods, check out a selection of the best independent bakeries in London to complement that coffee.

Bad Coffee

The audacity to call themselves Bad Coffee with a URL domain that reads ‘drinkbadcoffee’ may be the epitome of hipster irony, but the Hackney Wick-based coffee roastery and espresso bar has arguably some of the best coffee in London—that’s not hyperbole, I regularly travel from North London to pick up my beans.

Bad Coffee is committed to sustainability, from the coffee bean selection to packaging and takeaway cups to using their coffee grinds in a local community project. They also offer a discount for customers who bring their own coffee containers.

The chocolatey caramel Big Man is a Brazilian roast as dark as my goth soul, and honourable mention goes to the Colombian dark roast, Big Wick Energy, with notes of spiced fruits—I recommend the pour-over method but drink your coffee how you prefer. In short, Bad Coffee understands the skill and nuance required in roasting beans and employs the popular marketing strategy of a free coffee beverage of your choice with every purchase.

Hackney Wick, E9 | drinkbadcoffee.com

Prufrock Coffee, Farringdon

A long-standing favourite for Farringdon locals, if T.S. Eliot hadn’t already written “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” I would write my own love song to Prufrock Coffee. Their top-quality espresso-based drinks and filter coffees featuring beans from the likes of Square Mile have seen me throw London-novelty under the bus in favour of my creature comforts—a filter coffee with the Prufrock Benny with cured salmon.

Prufrock Coffee support local producers and small-scale growers, and the kitchen serves seasonal, home-cooked breakfast and lunch with ingredients sourced from UK producers, like dairy products from Neal’s Yard and Northiam Dairy, fish from Ben’s Fish, and meat from Swaledale Butchers.

With a windowed façade looking into a relaxed dining area and an L-shaped espresso bar, or—from the inside—looking out onto Leather Lane, this London coffee shop is great for people-watching or reading your book with hands shaking from your second carafe of filter coffee.

Farringdon, EC1N | prufrockcoffee.com

The Coffee Jar

The Coffee Jar is tucked away on the Parkway leading to Regent’s Park, far away from Camden High Street’s throngs of tourists. As a resident of North London, I’ve journeyed to Camden with a hangover more times than I care to recount for a panacea in the form of a coffee made with Monmouth beans (more on that below) from the Coffee Jar.

You can just about swing a cat inside the small London coffee shop, meaning I usually take my coffee and croissant up the road to Regent’s Park. It is there I nurse my hangover by re-enacting the final scene of the cult film Withnail & I (filmed in Regent’s Park), reciting Withnail’s monologue whilst leaning against the wrought iron fencing, waiting for a passerby to get my reference. This is a convoluted way of saying if the Coffee Jar is good enough to travel to with a hangover, then imagine how good it is when you have full senses to appreciate it.

Camden, NW1 | instagram.com/the_coffee_jar

Intermission

I have an undeniable attraction to small, cosy coffee shops and firmly believe that small can be mighty, case in point: Intermission, the tiny London coffee shop making a big impact. Located near West Hampstead Overground and Underground stations, Intermission is on the fast track to sustainability, from the coffee supply chain to its signature cups with illustrations by artist Tomi Um.

Intermission isn’t virtue-signalling; their coffee—handpicked and processed with care and craftsmanship—is enough to recommend the coffee shop, but Intermission’s dedication to social and environmental impact turns my recommendation into something more like a call to action—plus, I really love Tomi Um’s illustrations.

If you find yourself anywhere near Hampstead, pop into Intermission for a pick-me-up, any time of the day. I’m a fan of the Departure Lounge Peruvian beans which I grind at home and brew pour-over, but if you’re just looking to pop in for a coffee, I recommend it all, from the filter options to the espresso-based drinks.

West Hampstead, NW6 | intermission.coffee

Dark Arts Coffee

Clarification: The Dark Arts roastery in Homerton has a takeaway counter only, but there are usually curbside lurkers at this cult East London coffee shop. Brad Morrison and Jamie Strachan’s speciality coffee venture has been so successful that Dark Arts Coffee launched a branch in Hayama, Japan—arguably one of the most coffee-obsessed countries in the world. I can’t yet vouch for the Hayama location, but Dark Arts Coffee have been reviving the dead of London for the past decade.

I first came across Dark Arts Coffee being sold within The Great Frog’s Shoreditch shop, this inevitably led to me purchasing the Devil Looks After His Own Ethiopian beans and subsequently checking every goth haunt in London for a Dark Arts espresso bar. I’m also very partial to the fruity dark chocolatey Memory Screen Costa Rican beans.

Beyond their excellent branding, I find all I need to know about my coffee beans on their website and through their knowledgeable baristas. There’s no point in selling merch if your coffee can’t hold up to its gloriously metal names, but I’m pleased to report that Dark Arts Coffee beans generate the closest thing to contentment my dark soul will allow.

Homerton, E9 | darkartscoffee.co.uk

Monmouth Coffee Company

The Monmouth Coffee Company has been serving artisan coffee to London since 1978 and you can find Monmouth beans in many London cafés and coffee shops for good reason. I’m fond of the hazelnutty Brazilian dark roast Fazenda Irmãs Pereira and the medium to dark roast Finca La Joya from Guatemala, the apricot jam and butterscotch notes reminding me of my favourite single malt whiskies.

Like any independent purveyor of artisanal coffee worth its weight in gold, I appreciate Monmouth’s attention to detail—the varietal, region, process, and farm the beans are sourced from, often complete with farm and family histories.

The white and red-brick Borough Market location is ever-popular, and the original Seven Dials location is a coffee haven when I’m caught out in chain-heavy Central London. There’s a third location housed in one of Bermondsey’s many railway arches, open on Fridays and Saturdays.

Seven Dials, WC2H | monmouthcoffee.co.uk

Alchemy Café

A clever name for a London coffee shop and roastery, Alchemy is a master of the transformation process—the skill, science, and technology of extracting (arguably) the elixir of life from the humble coffee bean.

Alchemy Café began in the noughties when founders Anne and Joe O’Hara identified a gap in the events market—nobody was supplying quality coffee to London-based events. Alchemy was so successful that they started supplying coffee at Glasto and have done every since 2005.

The first brick-and-mortar London coffee shop opened in 2013 in the City, since then Alchemy has opened cafés in Shoreditch and Spitalfields, with their roastery based in South London. I frequent their Shoreditch location, where I’m always served a top-notch oat flat white and filter brews so good no milk is required.

The City, EC4 | alchemycoffee.co.uk

Not your usual death-by-retail-chain

I’m rather chain-averse for the simple reason that (usually) quality is sacrificed in favour of quantity, and chains (usually) have marketing departments and don’t need the recommendation of a writer such as myself. However, there are always exceptions and Old Spike Roastery and Kiss the Hippo are those exceptions.

Kiss the Hippo

Beginning in Richmond, Kiss the Hippo has since opened multiple locations across London without sacrificing their commitment to environmental and social impact such as supporting charities like Rainforest Trust UK, clean water foundation, Just a Drop, and the National Literacy Trust. Their beans are sourced directly from farmers, and their in-house roastery produces blends and single-origin coffee certified organic by the Soil Association. The packaging is biodegradable, and the Kiss the Hippo food menu comprises locally sourced ingredients. When visiting Kiss the Hippo Fitzrovia, I enjoy a flat white, but I would also recommend the Brazilian Fazenda Dutra or the Honduran Marcala Lenca as filter coffees if available, the former is toasty and marzipany, and the latter is chocolatey caramel with a hint of fruitiness.

Richmond, TW9 | kissthehippo.com

Old Spike Roastery

Beginning in 2014 with a roastery and café in Peckham Rye, Old Spike has gone on to successfully open multiple branches across London, and is included in this list for their social impact conducted in partnership with their sister organisation, Change Please.

Old Spike Roastery and Change Please created an 8-week barista course that offers job skills, training, and support as well as employment opportunities to those affected by homelessness, with 65% of their profits supporting this social mission. Old Spike Roastery has also committed to environmental impact by planting a tree for every bag of coffee sold, this is done in partnership with Eden Reforestation Project.

The roastery is quite transparent about its commitment to speciality-grade green coffee, focusing on direct trading, seasonality, and sustainability. I first encountered Old Spike Roastery when an espresso bar opened in a Shoreditch Fora building. My favourite location is the original Peckham Rye coffee shop, and the dark roast Benedict house blend, made from Brazilian and Nicaraguan beans is my go-to—drink it black as a filter coffee in the shop if available or grind the beans at home and brew pour over style.

Peckham Rye, SE15 | oldspikeroastery.com

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