It wasn't only the KM Stone that I discovered in Budapest. Thanks to Roy Williams I also discovered the Central Cafe and had a coffee there as you can see. This is what they say about the cafe on its website:
The Central Café opened its doors in 1887. The café had a central location, in the vicinity of cultural institutions, editorial offices, printing offices but it also had a central location in the heart of the people coming by. It was predestined to become the centre of intellectual life in Budapest.I also gather from Roy that at one time they supplied you with paper and pencils; there were copious books and magazines and for the price of a coffee you could stay there all day.
One of the most important traditions of the old Central Café, apart from the widely celebrated hospitality, was the intellectual character of the café, the bustling, intellectual coffee-house life, since it used to be open and visited 24 hours a day by painters, architects, sculptors, journalists, theatre people, photographers, musicians, art historians, doctors and university teachers, because this was their second home, their regular haunt. To use a present-day expression, we could say the Central was the knowledge and information centre of its time.
Does anyone know of any cafes like this today? I would love to find one in London and such a cafe would be a great place for convening one of my own knowledge cafes!
