EC1 CoffeeHouse

EC1 Coffee House has poured espresso from a single counter on Clerkenwell Road since 2014, run day to day as a family business rather than a franchise. The shop occupies a ground-floor unit in the Red House, a mansion block a few minutes from Clerkenwell Green, and depends on the weekday office trade that walks between Farringdon station and the print works and design studios nearby. It closes on Saturday and Sunday, a choice that marks it out from cafés built around tourist footfall. Seating is limited to a narrow bar and a few stools by the window, so most coffee leaves in a takeaway cup. The cortado and flat white are made to a settled house recipe, with soya and almond milk offered as standard rather than as an afterthought.