Caf? Rouge, High Street, Hitchin
Introduction
The photograph on this page of Caf? Rouge, High Street, Hitchin by John Lucas as part of the Geograph project.
The Geograph project started in 2005 with the aim of publishing, organising and preserving representative images for every square kilometre of Great Britain, Ireland and the Isle of Man.
There are currently over 7.5m images from over 14,400 individuals and you can help contribute to the project by visiting https://www.geograph.org.uk
Caf? Rouge, High Street, Hitchin
Image: © John Lucas Taken: 27 Feb 2009
Originally constructed as a draper & tailor shop by John Thompson, the building was completed in 1834. It was built on the site of an earlier shop and dwelling which was owned by the Lucas family who were brewers and maltsters (one of whose daughters John Thompson had married) and who were Quakers from the earliest days of the movement and in whose house the first Hitchin Quaker meetings were held. The Thompsons were good friends of Matthew Arnold, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Arnold poet and son of the famed Thomas Arnold, headmaster of Rugby school. Matthew Arnold is known to have visited the house on several occasions. The Thompson family sold the building in 1902 and it was later acquired by the Hepworth tailoring chain and used by them until 1986. It has been occupied by Café Rouge for some ten years. The upper floors are now occupied by a chinese restaurant.
Images are licensed for reuse under creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0
Image Location
Latitude
51.948521
Longitude
-0.27855