The History of The Old Coffee Tavern, Warwick — 145 Years in the Heart of the Town Every great pub has a story. The Old Coffee Tavern's is more interesting than most.
The building at 16 The Old Square has stood in the heart of Warwick since 1880 — a piece of Victorian ambition, social history, and extraordinary craftsmanship that has shaped life in this town for more than a century. It's also, with a certain historical irony, a building that was purpose-built to keep people away from alcohol.
Today, it's one of Warwick's most popular pubs with rooms. Here's how it got here. Thomas Bellamy Dale and the Temperance Movement The story begins with Thomas Bellamy Dale — a local manufacturer, civic leader, and noted philanthropist. In the 1870s and 1880s, the temperance movement was a powerful social force across Britain. Public houses were blamed for poverty, ill health, and the moral decline of working people — and community leaders across the country were looking for alternatives.
Dale's answer was bold: he would build a Coffee Tavern. A gathering place that offered the warmth, community, and social ease of a pub — but served coffee, food, and soft drinks in place of ale and spirits. It would be a teetotal hotel and social club for the people of Warwick.
He commissioned Frederick H Moore, a Warwick architect, to design the building. The result was magnificent. A Building Worth Looking At Even before you step inside, The Old Coffee Tavern announces itself. The façade is one of the finest examples of Victorian terracotta architecture in Warwickshire. The ornate panels — produced using clay from near Nuneaton, which had a thriving tile and brick industry at the time — frame the building with extraordinary craftsmanship. The words "Coffee" and "Tavern" are worked in terracotta into the second storey, bold and proud, visible from street level across the Old Square.
Below them, a beautiful Arts and Crafts-style floral relief uses four repeating panels to create a pattern of real elegance — a signature of the period and a reminder that Dale intended this building to be a civic statement as much as a commercial venture.
Inside, the original layout reflected the building's purpose. The ground floor held a bar and coffee room with service rooms at the rear. The first floor was given over to a bagatelle room, a smoke room, and a committee and club room — spaces for recreation, community, and civic life. The second floor provided hotel rooms for guests — making this, from its very first day, a pub with rooms in all but name. A Long Life — and a Grand Restoration After years of use as a coffee tavern and hotel, the building passed into local authority ownership, serving as offices for many decades while its extraordinary Victorian bones waited patiently beneath the surface.
In 2017, Mosaic Pub and Dining Company undertook a careful and sympathetic refurbishment — restoring the building's original character while transforming it into a modern bar, restaurant, and boutique hotel for the 21st century. The original wooden floors were brought back. The tall ceilings were retained. The striking windowed internal wall — an original feature of the Victorian layout — was preserved. The ten rooms upstairs were restored and reopened to guests.
The Old Coffee Tavern was reborn: a Victorian landmark reclaimed as one of Warwick's best pubs with rooms. A Pub in Warwick Like No Other Today, The Old Coffee Tavern sits exactly where it has always sat — between St Mary's Church and the Old Square, at the beating heart of Warwick town centre. It is a trusted local pub, a restaurant with an excellent reputation for Sunday roasts and robata-grilled food, a boutique hotel with ten en-suite rooms, and an events venue used for weddings, private parties, and celebrations of all kinds.
And with a certain historical poetry, the building that Thomas Bellamy Dale constructed to offer an alternative to the pub — with its real ales, its craft beers, its warm convivial atmosphere — is now among the finest pubs in Warwick.
We think he'd see the funny side. Come and Visit Whether you're visiting to eat, to stay, or simply to stand outside and admire that extraordinary Victorian terracotta — The Old Coffee Tavern is one of Warwick's great buildings, and one of the town's most welcoming addresses.
📍 16 The Old Square, Warwick, CV34 4RA 📞 01926 679737 ✉️ hello@theoldcoffeetavern.co.uk 🌐 www.theoldcoffeetavern.co.uk