Forsaking espresso entirely, we set about bringing to Londoners a side of coffee that had until now been tremendously underrepresented in a commercial environment, despite its near fanatical following amongst coffee professionals and devotees alike. Through Penny University, we brought filter coffee to the forefront, and aimed to portray it as accessible, lingering, constantly evolving, and most importantly, delicious.

Since opening our doors, the positive responses from our guests has been truly overwhelming. Similarly, the number of home brewers and grinders that have made their way into people’s homes through our store is truly wonderful and very encouraging. We have learned a tremendous amount about our coffees, the brewers that we stock, and most importantly about just how receptive to new ideas and the nuance of great coffee the London public are.

But now, in mid-July, that three month period is coming to a close. Despite having the opportunity to continue Penny University for a longer period, we’ve had a tremendously difficult decision to make. After a great deal of debate, and careful, considered deliberation, it’s with slightly mixed emotions that we announce that Penny University will be closing for business at 4:00pm Friday 30 July.

We genuinely feel that Penny University has burned very brightly, and served a great purpose in the London coffee community. We also feel that there are opportunities now for us to expand upon what we have started, tested, and learned from at Penny University. When and where those opportunities are likely to arise and be deployed is still largely unknown, but we eagerly look forward to the opportunities that await us in future retail endeavours.

It would be remiss of us not to deeply and sincerely thank the following people:

Tobias Cockerill, for diligently and tirelessly working one of the most demanding and exhausting coffee bars in the world, and for representing both our company and the craft of coffee brewing in the most professional, yet approachable way possible. Alex Goforth and Gwilym Davies, for also working the bar despite their already busy schedules, and doing so with great competence and affability. Anette Moldvaer, Jessica MacDonald and John Gordon, for providing the essential, yet often thankless and overlooked support of sourcing, roasting, production and build-out. Paul Stack of Marco Systems, for unwavering technological generosity and support, and everyone at Aesop for being such wonderful hosts.

And finally our deepest thanks to each and every guest who took a seat at our bar, placing their trust in us as both baristas and hosts, accepting and embracing our limited range and policy of no condiments. We hope that we managed to show you just how easy it can be to produce simply wonderful and delicious coffee at home, and we hope that your time in our store was rewarding, informative, but most importantly, enjoyable.
In months to come we will be exploring future retail opportunities, and fully expect that our Penny University bar will be featured prominently in the next project we undertake. For now, however, we’d like to say concisely and succinctly, thank you.

Tim Williams & James Hoffmann
Square Mile Coffee Roasters

We hope to see some of you there!  (Though please bear in mind that there are only 6 seats at the bar)

The Penny University
5 Redchurch Street
London
E2 7DJ

map

info@pennyuniversity.co.uk

If you have any questions then just leave a comment!

Opening Hours:

Weekdays – 9 til 5

Weekends – 10 til 4

You can see the full Hario range here.

Expect some videocasts soon covering a few of the brewing methods, and if you’ve got any questions do please let us know!

Photo courtesy of salxhart

Huge congratulations to John Gordon on winning the UK Barista Championship this year.  (We know the competition was over a week ago, and we’re a bit behind!)

Having joined the team at Square Mile around six weeks ago we’ve seen first hand the huge amount of effort and work that John put in, with great support from his fiancee Jess.

John had already started working on his UKBC blend with Steve at HasBean before he joined us, and knowing how hard Steve works and how good he is we had no intention of getting in the way of that relationship.

We’d also like to congratulate James Phillips of Dose on placing 5th – impressive considering he wasn’t going to compete until a couple of weeks before and this was his first time at the UKBC.

We were also extremely grateful to Jon Sharp of Kilimanjaro, Carl Fleischer of Opposite and Gary Whiteley who did an incredible job with our coffee in the semi finals.

(James would like to add that Anette deserves the award as much as anyone!)

Photo from barista magazine

Yesterday saw the last of the UK regional heats take place in Lewes, featuring baristas from London and the South East plus a couple of out of region entrants.

We knew this last heat was going to be a tough one, with some very solid baristas battling it out for the coveted semi final spots. Unsurprisingly, five out of the seven competing scored high enough to move on to the next round, the highest number for any regional!

Gwilym gave a wonderful performance and served up some really tasty drinks in his 15 minutes on stage. (Or so we were told- James and I are rubbish at watching when the clock starts, so were nervously pacing the back room trying not to watch the clock ticking down!) But the hard work, late nights, endless dishes and constant nerves proved worth it, and he not only won the heat, he did so with a very, very good score and won best signature drink on top of it all!

A very deserving winner and all round top bloke, Gwilym is a fantastic barista and coffee advocate, genuinely doing what he loves best and serving delicious coffee to London’s thirsty masses from his carts on Whitecross Street and Columbia Road markets. We’ve been honoured to work with him over the last few months, and we’re very proud that he chose to use our coffee.

Of the 80-something entrants across the UK 25 have moved on to the semi finals in Glasgow, and the top 6 from there will throw down in a seriously intense finals on Wednesday. Hopefully there will be a live feed up somewhere so even if you can’t make it up there to watch, you can cheer online and along with all of us nervously waiting off stage be the first to know who will be representing the UK at the Worlds in April!

James and I, having been heavily involved in all sides of the competition for the last several years, have always been saddened by the lack of interest shown by London cafes and roasters. Support for the competition in the London scene has been disappointingly thin over the last few years, to the point where the ‘London Regional’ has been repeatedly canceled, and the one or two lone entrants moved to other regionals. This is the second year in a row where the lack of backing has lead to there not being a heat held here, but- at least now we have a few more actual London baristas signing up to compete! Finally! Next year we at SQM will do our very best to make sure the London heat will rock, no more sending our boys and girls off to compete in Birmingham, Penzance or Llandudno! With more and more great coffee places popping up all over the city we recon it’s time to get all these baristas putting their portafilters where their mouths are, and throwdown for the title of London champ! Those who do not dare do not win!

But for now, we’ll settle for Lewes, and would encourage every fellow barista, coffeegeek and competitor-in-the-making- London based or not- to head down for the day to cheer, chat, drink coffee, and steal ideas for next year…