The Emporium
Hold the bean
before the cup.
Most people have only ever met coffee as something already finished. At the Emporium you meet it earlier: green, raw and in your hand, before the roast and before anyone has told you what to think of it.
Then we tell you where it grew, and what it took to get here.
Free to walk into. No need to buy anything.
Next Sunday 18 October · Beckenham Place Park · 10am to 3pmWhat happens when you walk in
It takes about two minutes,
and most people stay longer.
Someone hands you a bean.
Pale, hard, smelling of almost nothing. We ask you what you think it is.
Most people get it wrong.
That is the point. Very few of us have ever seen coffee before it is roasted.
We tell you where it grew.
The place, the people we met there, and the long road it took to reach you.
You take home what you like.
Coffee, a story, a question, or all three. Nobody is going to sell at you.
Where to find us
Coming up.
Beckenham Place Park
Beckenham Place Park, London BR3 1SY
- Sunday 18 OctoberNext 10am to 3pm
- Sunday 25 October 10am to 3pm
We post exactly where we are pitched the week before. If the weather turns, we say so here first.
Open in maps →After that
- More dates are being arrangedThey go up here when the venues confirm, not before.
On the table
What you can take home.
- Our coffee, in 250g bags
- The story behind it, from the people who told it to us
- A green bean, if you want to keep the one you held
Coming to the Emporium
- Loose coffee by weight, as much or as little as you want
- A Band of Beans tin you bring back to fill, every time we are near you
Why a stall, and not a shop
Coffee has always travelled.
It reached the rest of the world slowly, port by port and market by market, carried by traders who told you where it came from because that was half of what you were buying.
The Emporium is a small, modern stop on that very old road. It moves. It turns up in parks and markets for a few Sundays, and then it goes somewhere else.
Each Sunday is also something we are learning from. We write down what stops people, what holds them, and the first question they ask. What we learn shapes the next one, and we share it with people who follow along.
Run a market, a festival or a space?
We are looking for places to set up next, in London and beyond. If yours might suit, write to us and choose "I'd like to discuss a collaboration".
Free to follow
Follow the Adventure
Hear where the Emporium turns up next before anyone else does, along with the stories from the places the coffee comes from.
Follow the AdventureNo purchase required. Just curiosity.
Between Sundays
The Emporium, once a month,
through your letterbox.
One 250g bag a month and the stories behind it. £13.95 a month, delivered. The coffee pays for the next expedition.