Temperance Coffee House — Cornwall Coffee House

St John Street
Paterson St. Approximate location on Google Maps.

1839-40 John Stoneham, Temperance Coffee House, St John Street (near church)
1841 John Stoneham, Temperance Coffee House, St John Street (near wharf, formerly George Inn)
1842-45 John Stoneham, Temperance Coffee House, St John Street Paterson Street
1845 George Layton, Cornwall Coffee House1845 George Layton, Paterson St
1845-51 licensed as the White Horse
1852-54 John Thompson, Cornwall Coffee Rooms, Paterson Street

wp_20161212_16_58_01_pro
Paterson St, December 2016. The Coffee Rooms adjoined the old Examiner building (the red, white & yellow building), so on the site of the brick and glass addition.

The leftmost, white building. (71-77 Paterson Street, photo by Lloyd George Webb, 1974, from Tasmanian Archives, LPIC33/3/164

1949 National Hotel on the corner. Coffee Rooms are two doors along, the shortest bilding.
(Cropped from photo in QVMAG collection (QVM:2006:P:0065)

On the left. (Cropped from photo in QVMAG Collection, QVM:2002:P:0014.)

TEMPERANCE HOUSE.
JOHN STONEHAM. begs to inform his Friends and the Public, that he will open his House, St. John-street, Launceston, on the 23rd December, for the tale of Ten, Coffee, and other Refreshments. Good Beds for Travellers. Newspapers and Temperance Publications will be regularly and periodically provided for the visitors.
As the House will be conducted on total abstinence principles, intoxicating liquors will not be allowed to lie introduced.
Dec. 14, 1889.
Cornwall Chronicle, 14 December 1839

Temperance Coffee Shop St John Street, Launceston — Cornwall Chronicle, 21 March 1840

AN IMPROVEMENT. – A public-house near the wharf, known as the George and Dragon, has been converted into a Temperance Coffee-house, and is, we understand, conducted in a very respectable manner by Mr. Stoneham. This will be a very gratifying token of improvement to all advocates of temperance.
Launceston Advertiser, 21 January 1841

Temperance Coffee House.
J. Stoneham begs respectfully to inform the public, that he has removed the above establishment to the house in St. John-street, formerly known as the George Inn, where from the increased conveniences and accommodation of the premises he hopes to receive an increased share of their patronage.
January 30.
Launceston Courier, 1 February 1841

TEMPERANCE. — Yesterday John Stoneham, the keeper of the notorious Temperance Coffee House in St. John-street, appeared at the Police Office to answer a summons, charging him with having allowed prisoners of the crown to be gambling on his premises. The charge was satisfactorily proved, and Stone ham fined £10 and 10s. costs. A few more such penalties will likely lead to a different sort of behaviour on the part of Stoneham, and induce him to abandon the temperance inducements he holds out to the disorderly characters frequenting his house, who now keep it up all night long, much to the discomfort or his neighbours, fiddling, dancing, and doing “anything that’s innocent,”‘ on coffee, without even a “flash of lightning,” or a single drop of the “cream of the valley,” introduced into it. Stoneham may tell that to the Marines, we do not believe it.
Cornwall Chronicle, 3 September 1841

From “Quarter Sessions “:
Byron v. Stoneham.
The appellant in this case bod been convicted upon an information for allowing a transported offender to remain upon his premises, gambling, upon which occasion he was fined in the sum of ten pounds and costs. Mr. Rocher appeared for Stoneham.
The particulars as elicited during the case were briefly this:— A prisoner of the Crown was apprehended playing at skittles in the yard, belonging to the Temperance Coffee House, who admitted he was-playing for two cups of coffee, for which (had he lost) the charge would have been 6d. Before the conclusion of the game, the sport was interrupted by an intrusive constable who gave information lo Mr. Byron, which led to the above result. The conviction was confirmed.
Launceston Advertiser, 21 October 1841

Stoneham's Temperance House, Patterson Street — Launceston Advertiser, 8September 1842

Temperance Coffee House. — An information was recently laid against a man named Miller, the keeper of a disorderly house in St. John-street, which having been known formerly by the above name, continues to retain it. We feel it almost unnecessary to inform the public that the house in question has no claim to such title, unless it be part and parcel of the leasehold. We are glad to see the attention of the police directed to its proceedings, and hope they may be successful in suppressing it. Mr. Stoneham of the Temperance Coffee House, in Patterson-street, complains that the police report in the Chronicle has been misunderstood by many as applying to his house, and requests us to remove the impression. Miller was convicted under the New Act for regulating public entertainments, and fined £50, for allowing dancing, &c., without a license.
The Sydney Teetotaller says, and we think with truth, that “the Launceston Teetotallers are more active and determined in carrying out their principles than those of any other place in the Southern Hemisphere.”
Launceston Courier, 23 January 1843

Temperance Coffee House, Patterson Street — Launceston Advertiser, 27 July 1843

BY MR. J. W. BELL,
On MONDAY next, the 6th January, at one o’clock,
THE whole of the FURNITURE and effects of Mr. John Stoneham, of the Temperance Coffee House, in Patterson-street, consisting of stuffed and plain sofa beds, bedsteads tables, chairs, wash-stands and service, cooking utensils, glass, earthenware, pictures, lamps, carpets, and numerous other articles, the whole of which will be sold without the least reserve, as Mr. Stoneham is leaving the premises.
Terms, cash
Cornwall Chronicle, 4 January 1845