Chloë Starr

Associate professor, Yale Divinity School

The London Stock Exchange was begotten in a coffee house in the late 17th-century; the auction houses Sotheby's and Christie's began as side-attractions in coffee shops; lending libraries circulated from Dublin coffee houses.

Nowadays, the two- and four-person tables of English tea rooms, that cozy conversational set-up of angled chairs, has ceded to Wagamama-style long trestles for more efficient solo screen interaction.

iClouds In My Coffee: The Death Of Conversation In Public

The argumentative brawl of the medieval Middle East coffee shop, writes Chloë Starr, has morphed into solo interaction with a screen. (Alex Robert/Unsplash)