Mol's Coffee House, Exeter

Coffee houses like this used to be places for men to gather and discuss trade, politics and culture fuelled by coffee, tobacco and rum.

Alan Richards was teaching at Exeter College of Art and Design when he made this screen print of Mol’s Coffee House in Cathedral Close. Richards has had a long career in Exeter. After teaching from 1958 to 1989 he continued his work in illustration, printing, painting and exhibiting. Richards has used strong flat colours and a solid outline for this image, combining Tudor architecture with a 1970s art style.

Visual description: A screen print of Mol’s Coffee House in Exeter. It is a 16th century building with four stories and a timber framed façade. The top floor has a curved cable roof and three rectangular windows on a balcony. The second floor has two oriel windows framing a painted panel displaying the Royal Arms. Further oriel windows adorn the first floor. More windows make up the shop front on the ground floor as well.

The Coffee House extends to the right into a three-story building with a gable roof and similar style. The Coffee House lies between a church on the left and another shop building on the right. While the Coffee House is white with blue-tinted glass for the windows, everything else is washed in blue, even overlaying the red of the church’s brickwork.