Store Street Espresso

Roger Hart and Jack Hesketh opened Store Street Espresso in 2010, a period when specialty coffee was still a niche pursuit in London, and this small room tucked into a Bloomsbury side street just off Tottenham Court Road was among the first to bet on it. Hart had trained as a nurse, Hesketh was finishing a biology PhD at UCL, and neither came from a hospitality background, which perhaps explains why the shop leaned so early into things that are standard now but were unusual then, pouring guest beans from outside roasters rather than sticking to one house blend.

Square Mile Coffee Roasters supplies the everyday espresso, with a rotating cast of guest roasters filling out the filter menu alongside house made cakes and lunch plates. The shop has since grown into a small four site group across London, but the original Store Street room, a short walk from UCL, keeps the same unfussy, student quarter energy it opened with.