Pumphrey's Coffee

About Pumphrey's Coffee

Pumphrey's traces its business back to 1750, when Leigh Smith began selling tea and coffee in the Flesh Market opposite the Bigg Market. The firm passed to George Richardson in 1800 and took the Pumphrey name in 1854 through Thomas Pumphrey, a Quaker and social reformer, which makes it by some distance the oldest coffee business in the city. Roasting moved to Bridge Street in Blaydon in 1983, where the company still runs traditional open-flame drum roasters said to be more than eighty years old, and the same year it opened its retail unit inside the Grainger Market. Stuart Lee Archer has been master roaster and director since 2013.

The Grainger Market site trades as a brewing emporium rather than a conventional cafe. Beans are sold loose by weight from a long range of coffees and teas, brewing equipment fills the shelves, and there is a counter for drinks and tasting rather than a room full of tables. It is the best place in the city centre to buy coffee to take home, and the staff will talk through grind and method for whatever kit you own. The market's Grainger Street and Clayton Street entrances both lead to it, and Monument Metro is around three minutes away.

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Blog posts and guides that feature Pumphrey's Coffee.

Best Coffee Shops and Cafes in Newcastle City Centre

Newcastle roasts more of its own coffee than most cities its size. Here are the independent coffee shops and cafes worth walking to in the city centre, from a business trading since 1750 inside the Grainger Market to a railway arch behind Central Station.