Can you imagine walking in, sitting next to a stranger and asking for the latest news or putting a recent novel down next to someone's coffee and asking for their opinion before giving yours?

    But more than 300 years ago, this kind of behaviour was encouraged in thousands of coffeehouses all over London. In 1712, the Starbucks site(位置) today was occupied(占据) by Button's coffeehouse Inside, poets, writers and members of the public gathered around long wooden tables drinking, thinking, writing and discussing literature into the night. On the wall, near where the Starbucks community notice board now stands, was the white marble(大理石) head of a lion with wide-open mouth. The public was invited to feed it with letters and stories. The best of the lion's digest(文摘) were published in a weekly edition of Joseph Addison's Guardian newspaper, named "the roaring of the lion". 

    Today, few people know Button's. It's just one of London's forgotten coffeehouses. 

    London's first coffeehouse was opened by a Greek named Pasque Rosee in 1652. While a servant for a British merchant in Turkey, Rosee developed a taste for the exotic(异国情调的) Turkish drink and decided to import(进口) it to London. People from all walks of life came to his business to meet, greet, drink, think, write, and joke.