Penny University

Penny University

Penny University is a term originating from the eighteenth century coffeehouses in London, England. Instead of paying for drinks, people were charged a penny to enter a coffee house. Once inside, the patron had access to coffee, the company of others, various discussions, pamphlets, bulletins, newspapers, and the latest news and gossip. Reporters called "runners" went around to the coffee houses announcing the latest news, perhaps not too unlike what we might hear on the TV or the radio today. [Pelzer, J. and L. "The English Coffee Houses". December 1, 2003. [http://home.att.net/~waeshael/coffee.htm] ]

This environment attracted an eclectic group of people that met and mingled with each other at these coffee houses. In a society that placed such a high importance on class and economic status, the coffee houses were unique because the patrons were people from all levels of society. [Boulton, William B. "The Amusements of Old London". London: Ballantyne, Hanson & Co., 1901.] Anyone who had a penny could come inside. Students from the universities also frequented the coffee houses, sometimes even spending more time at the shops than at school. [Ellis, Aytoun. "The Penny Universities; A History of the Coffee-houses". London, Secker & Warburg, 1956.]

Since that time, various coffee shops all over the world have used the name "Penny University".

The original sense, of a coffee house, probably grew out of a common experience: that you came out of a coffeehouse feeling ten times as smart as you were when you went in (as Montesquieu observed in "The Persian Letters"). As, indeed, wide-ranging conversations ensued therein, from the commercial (leading to the founding of, in London, Lloyd's of London, and in New York, the New York Stock Exchange) to the political, and the purely intellectual; the idea that one could acquire an education for the price of a cup of coffee, that is, a penny, took hold of the poetic imagination.

References

External links

* [http://www.umich.edu/~ece/student_projects/coffee/College.html The Penny University]
* [http://home.att.net/%7Ewaeshael/coffee.htm The English Coffee Houses]
* [http://www.ico.org/coffee_story.asp International Coffee Association: The Story of Coffee]


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем решить контрольную работу

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Penny Arcade (webcomic) — Penny Arcade Author(s) Jerry Holkins Mike Krahulik Website penny arcade.com …   Wikipedia

  • Penny Dreadful — (also called penny number) was a term applied to nineteenth century British fiction publications, usually lurid serial stories appearing in parts over a number of weeks, each part costing a penny. The term, however, soon came to encompass a… …   Wikipedia

  • University of Michigan School of Art & Design — Established 1974 Type Public Dean Bryan Rogers Academic staff 40 Admin. staff 40 …   Wikipedia

  • Penny Mordaunt — MP Member of Parliament for Portsmouth North Incumbent Assumed office 6 May 2010 Preceded by Sarah McCarthy Fry Majority …   Wikipedia

  • Penny Tranter — is a former BBC Weather forecaster. She was born in Kilwinning, Ayrshire, Scotland. She first became interested in the weather as a teenager and, after attending South Wilts Grammar School in Salisbury, went on to obtain a BSc (Hons) in… …   Wikipedia

  • Penny Sparke — (born 1948) has written 15 books about Twentieth Century Design. She has also curated a number of exhibitions, including The Plastics Age at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London in 1990. Since 1999 she has also been a Professor of Design… …   Wikipedia

  • Penny press — newspapers were cheap, tabloid style papers produced in the middle of the 19th century.HistoryIn 1833, publisher Benjamin Day introduced the The New York Sun , the first penny press newspaper. Day discovered that he could broaden the readership… …   Wikipedia

  • Penny Singleton — (* 15. September 1908 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; † 12. November 2003 in Los Angeles, Kalifornien, Vereinigte Staaten; eigentlich Mariana Dorothy Agnes Letitia McNulty) war eine US amerikanische Filmschauspielerin. Leben …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Penny Lernoux — (January 6, 1940 ndash; October 9, 1989) was a U.S. journalist and book author.Lernoux was born into a comfortable Catholic family in California and excelled in school. She enrolled in the University of Southern California in the late 1950s and,… …   Wikipedia

  • Penny Templeton — is a highly sought after American acting instructor based in New York City. She believes in combining all theories of acting together into the Creating Acting Lions approach. Her mission is to train and inspire the lion within, freeing the actor… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”