Marvel at our Giant Coffee Scales
Berry Bros. & Rudd has been at 3 St James’s Street for over 310
years and has a fascinating history. The company’s fortunes are
inextricably linked to St James’s Palace. Prior to the building of the
palace by Henry VIII, the area now known as St James’s was little more
than meadow and an area of woodland. There was a tiny settlement here, outside
the walls of the city, consisting of the Hospital of St James from whence the
palace and surrounding area takes its name. The hospital was for victims of
leprosy, originally home to ‘fourteen sisters, maidens that were
leprouse, living chastely and honestly in divine service’.
Henry VIII was known to enjoy the area and would ride here with Anne Boleyn or
to hunt deer. In 1532 he acquired the land and all that was upon it and
demolished the convent-hospital, replacing it with a hunting lodge that was to
serve as a retreat from the gossip of the Palace of Westminster, as well as a
love nest for him and Anne Boleyn.
The building of the palace laid the foundations for the development of the
entire area and by 1662 Henry Jermyn had begun his ambitious building
programme, starting with St James’s Square. A small row of houses had
been built along the eastern side of what is now St James’s Street and it
was in number three that a lady we know as ‘the Widow Bourne’
lived.
At this time, a major part of fashionable London life was an outing to a
‘coffee house’ to meet with friends and political allies to plot,
scheme and gossip, and this is where the Widow Bourne spotted her business
opportunity. In 1698 she set up business at number three, buying our now
famous coffee scales and the mill – that are still in the
shop today complete with records of customers’ weights spanning three
centuries – and began supplying coffee to Boodles, The Carlton Club and
the like. These were the beginnings of what is now Berry Bros & Rudd.
Opening Hours
Monday to Friday: 10am to 6pm
Saturdays: 10am to 5pm
Sundays: Closed
Contact Adam Holden:
3 St. James's Street
London SW1A 1EG
Tel: +44 (0)800 280 2440
Urgent enquiries (Saturdays only):
Tel: 020 7396 9620
Visit our virtual cellar tour to see pictures of the shop and cellars.
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