London’s best coffee is served by people who have gone home by the time you want it. Prufrock shuts at half four on a weekday. Kaffeine at five. Monmouth’s Bermondsey shop stops at three.
This is the thing nobody tells you about specialty coffee in this city: it keeps trade hours, not cafe hours. The roasters and the single origin counters exist to serve people who are already awake and working, and they close accordingly. After five you are choosing between chains.
The other rule worth knowing is Sunday. Some of the best of them do not open at all. Here is what each publishes.
The one that will not open on Sunday
Monmouth Coffee Company
Roasting single farm coffee since the 1970s, and running three shops that all take the same day off.
Monmouth Coffee Company
- Address
- 27 Monmouth Street, Covent Garden, WC2H 9EU. 2 Park Street, The Borough, SE1 9AB. 3 and 4 Dockley Road, Bermondsey, SE16 3AF
- Nearest
- Covent Garden or Leicester Square for Monmouth Street. London Bridge for Park Street. Bermondsey for Dockley Road
- Hours
- Covent Garden Monday to Saturday 8am to 7pm. The Borough Monday to Saturday 7.30am to 6pm. Bermondsey Monday to Friday 8am to 3pm and Saturday 8am to 4pm. All three closed on Sunday
- Booking
- No booking. Card payments only at all three shops
- Price
- Beans from about 3.50 pounds, rising to around 5.40 for the rarer lots
- Standing
- Sourcing and roasting from single farms, estates and cooperatives, travelling to the producers each year. Making filter coffee since 1978
How to get in
Three rules, all published and all easy to fall foul of. Every shop is closed on Sunday. Every shop takes card only and no cash. And Bermondsey, the roastery shop, shuts at three in the afternoon on a weekday, which is earlier than any other counter on this page. Covent Garden at seven in the evening is the latest thing Monmouth does all week. Their own note on filter coffee is worth reading: the upstairs at the original Monmouth Street shop was built as a tasting room so customers could try the beans before buying, which is still roughly how the place works.
The one in a Victorian lavatory
Attendant Coffee Roasters, Fitzrovia
Five London sites, and the first of them is a restored public convenience.
Attendant Coffee Roasters
- Address
- The original is in Fitzrovia, a short walk from Oxford Street. Also Leather Lane in Clerkenwell, Duke Street in Mayfair, Bank in the City, and 10 Bressenden Place at Victoria Place, SW1E 5DH
- Nearest
- Oxford Circus or Goodge Street for Fitzrovia. Farringdon for Leather Lane. Bond Street for Duke Street. Bank or Victoria for the others
- Booking
- None taken anywhere. Their own line: service is based on a first come, first served approach, no reservations needed
- Price
- Beans from 12 pounds, 13 for the decaf and 15 for the Kenyan and Ethiopian lots, priced by 250g or 500g and by grind
- Standing
- Hand roasted in small batches, with the Fitzrovia site set inside a restored Victorian public convenience
How to get in
The Fitzrovia room is the reason people come, and it is exactly what it sounds like: a Victorian underground gentlemen’s lavatory, restored and turned into a coffee bar, a few minutes from Oxford Street. The rest of the group is built for the working day rather than the story. Bank is a grab and go counter for the City, Victoria Place is built for commuters, Mayfair on Duke Street has outdoor seating and sits moments from Selfridges, and Clerkenwell puts them on Leather Lane. Two further sites are in development. Nothing anywhere takes a reservation.
The one on Leather Lane
Prufrock Coffee, Clerkenwell
On the same market street since 2011, and open seven days.
Prufrock Coffee
- Address
- 23 to 25 Leather Lane, EC1N 7TE
- Nearest
- Farringdon, five minutes. Chancery Lane, four
- Hours
- Monday to Friday 7.30am to 4.30pm. Saturday 8am to 5pm. Sunday 9am to 5pm
- Booking
- No booking
- Standing
- Serving coffee and food on Leather Lane since 2011, with food made from scratch from sustainably sourced ingredients
How to get in
Half past four is the earliest weekday close on this page and it tells you who the shop is for: Leather Lane market traders and Clerkenwell offices, both of whom are finished before five. The weekend is the opposite, running an extra half hour to five on Saturday and Sunday. Prufrock’s director Gwilym Davies won the World Barista Championship in 2009, which is a useful marker of how seriously this end of the London trade takes itself. Leather Lane is now a coffee street twice over, since Attendant have a site on it too.
The one open seven days
Kaffeine, Fitzrovia
Two rooms five minutes apart, built on Australian and New Zealand coffee culture.
Kaffeine
- Address
- 66 Great Titchfield Street, W1W 7QJ, and 15 Eastcastle Street, W1T 3AY
- Nearest
- Oxford Circus, five minutes. Tottenham Court Road, five
- Hours
- Both sites Monday to Friday 7.30am to 5pm, Saturday 8.30am to 5pm, Sunday 9am to 5pm
- Booking
- No booking. Catering with free delivery across Fitzrovia and Soho
- Standing
- Independently owned, inspired by the coffee culture of Australia and New Zealand, with two sites in Fitzrovia
How to get in
Seven days a week at both addresses, which makes this the reliable one, and the hours are identical at each so there is nothing to check. They also run barista courses, either latte art or one to one sessions working as a barista would, which is unusual for a cafe this size. Gwilym Davies of Prufrock, the 2009 World Barista Champion, is quoted on their own wall calling them the benchmark for all other cafes to follow, which is the sort of endorsement that only means something when it comes from a competitor down the road.
What to know
Five o’clock is late for good coffee in London. Prufrock stops at half four on a weekday, Kaffeine and Prufrock both at five at weekends. Monmouth’s Covent Garden shop at seven is the outlier, not the rule.
Sunday halves your options. All three Monmouth shops close. Kaffeine and Prufrock both open. Check before you build a Sunday morning around a specific counter.
Monmouth takes no cash at all. Card only at Covent Garden, the Borough and Bermondsey, which they publish against each address.
Nobody takes bookings. Attendant state it outright across all five sites. The rest simply do not offer it. A queue is the system, not a failure of it.
Two streets hold most of this. Fitzrovia has both Kaffeine rooms and the original Attendant. Leather Lane in Clerkenwell has Prufrock and a second Attendant. Either one is a morning’s worth of coffee on foot.
The roastery shop is not the flagship. Monmouth’s Bermondsey site is where the roasting happens and it keeps the shortest hours of the three, closing at three on a weekday. Go to Park Street or Monmouth Street if you want a seat and a long opening.
Everything here was taken from each roaster’s own published information and rechecked on 28 September 2026. Bean prices are their starting figures and vary by lot. Confirm before you travel.
The best bookshops in London cover where to acquire something to read first.
Where to go next
Neal’s Yard has 26 Grains, where the kitchen shuts at four while the doors stay open until seven.
Breakfast in London covers where to sit down for longer than a coffee, and brunch covers the weekend version.
The sandwiches guide covers lunch, and it has the same problem: hot food at one of them does not start until eleven.
Borough Market is two minutes from Monmouth’s Park Street shop, and Covent Garden covers the streets around Monmouth Street.
The best bakeries in London keep the same hours for the same reason, closing at four almost everywhere, with one branch inside a museum running to ten at night.
Afternoon tea is the other end of the same idea, and the wine bars pick up when the coffee counters shut at five.
Questions we get asked
What are the best coffee shops in London?
Monmouth Coffee, roasting single farm coffee since the 1970s across Covent Garden, the Borough and Bermondsey. Attendant Coffee Roasters, whose original Fitzrovia site is a restored Victorian public convenience. Prufrock on Leather Lane, running since 2011 under a World Barista Champion. Kaffeine, two Fitzrovia rooms built on Australian and New Zealand coffee culture and open seven days.
What time do London coffee shops close?
Earlier than most people expect. Prufrock on Leather Lane closes at 4.30pm Monday to Friday. Kaffeine closes at 5pm every day. Monmouth’s Bermondsey roastery shop shuts at 3pm on weekdays. The latest of them is Monmouth in Covent Garden at 7pm. Specialty coffee in London keeps trade hours rather than cafe hours.
Which London coffee shops are open on Sunday?
Kaffeine opens both Fitzrovia sites from 9am to 5pm on a Sunday, and Prufrock on Leather Lane runs 9am to 5pm. All three Monmouth Coffee shops are closed on Sundays, including Covent Garden, the Borough and Bermondsey. Attendant operate first come first served across their five sites with no reservations at any of them.
Is there a coffee shop in a Victorian toilet in London?
Yes. The original Attendant site in Fitzrovia is set inside a restored Victorian public convenience, a short walk from Oxford Street, and it is the room that made the company’s name. Attendant now have five London sites, including Leather Lane in Clerkenwell, Duke Street in Mayfair, Bank and Victoria Place.
Does Monmouth Coffee take cash?
No. All three Monmouth shops, at Monmouth Street in Covent Garden, Park Street in the Borough and Dockley Road in Bermondsey, are card payments only, and they publish that against each address alongside the opening hours. All three are also closed on Sundays.
Where is the best coffee street in London?
Two make the case. Leather Lane in Clerkenwell has Prufrock at numbers 23 to 25 and an Attendant site on the same street, alongside the market. Fitzrovia has both Kaffeine rooms, on Great Titchfield Street and Eastcastle Street, plus the original Attendant in its Victorian convenience. Either is walkable in a morning.
Written by Robert J Wills, no. 123 in the guide.
Last checked 28 September 2026 against the venues' own published information. Nobody pays to appear here and we take no bookings.
