From Grose (1823): The Finish was “a small coffee-house (in great repute to see a bit of life, in 1796) in Covent Garden market, opposite Russell-street, opened very early in the morning, and therefore resorted to by debauchees shut out of every other house.”
Carpenter’s, or The Finish, is the building with four chimneys in the foreground
Established around 1762 as Carpenter’s Coffee House, the coffee was evidently so bad that one contemporary described it as “a spartan mixture difficult to ascertain the ingredients but which was served as coffee”. In other words, the place was not known for coffee but instead for being a rendevouz for prostitutes and their johns and then as “the finish” for those finishing their night’s debaucheries with a glass of punch or beer.
When George Carpenter died circa 1785, management passed into the hands of barmaid Anne Crosdell and then later to Elizabeth Butler, a former abbess who began her management around 1788. The reputation went from bad to worse, known to house thieves and murderers lying in wait for drunken victims.
Butler was still running the establishment, known both as The Finish and The Queen’s Head when it became a favored haunt of pugilists in the early 19th century. It passed into the hands of Ann Butler (relationship unknown) in 1815 until the lease was assumed by Jack Rowbottom in 1825.
Its rowdy and dangerous reputation lingered on until the building was demolished in 1866.
Here is an account of the goings on in The Finish:
The English Spy (1907)
Taken from The English Spy (1907)
