Birkbeck academic presents Radio 4 documentary

Mike Berlin, lecturer in history at Birkbeck, will present a BBC Radio 4 documentary on Thursday 4 December

The Partisan Coffee House tells the story of a short-lived but influential left-wing coffee house set up in Soho in 1958, and explores what happened to the political and cultural optimism that flourished thereafter and following its closure in the early Sixties.

The coffee house was the idea of Raphael Samuel, a young radical historian who was one of the founding figures of the British New Left. With a menu that included borscht and Viennese coffee, the Partisan was an attempt to recreate a Middle European-style meeting place for young people who were adjusting their political outlooks as a result of the joint crises of Suez and Hungary.

The Partisan Coffee House tells the fascinating and sometimes hilarious story of the founding and running of this left-wing meeting place, and explores why it closed in under five years.

The programme features interviews with surviving Partisan participants. Presenter Mike Berlin had access to the unpublished written archives of the Partisan and also reveals the largely forgotten BBC Panorama archive material.

The Partisan Coffee House, BBC Radio 4, Thursday 4 December, 8.00-8.30pm