London has no shortage of great places to grab a coffee. But if you want to explore the city with purpose, then Transparent Traveller’s guide to the best social enterprise cafes in London is exactly where to start.
Each cafe in this guide puts its profits, its structure, and its daily operation behind a cause that matters. From supporting people out of homelessness to opening up employment for adults with learning disabilities. Make your caffeine stops count, and let these extraordinary businesses show you a side of London that most visitors never discover.
Change Please
Change Please began life as a humble coffee cart in Covent Garden. Today, it operates across numerous London locations and has expanded internationally to France, the USA and Australia. Proof that a good idea, backed by purpose, travels far.
As a registered charity, Change Please directs 100% of its profits toward helping people experiencing homelessness. But the organisation goes well beyond a charitable donation model. It trains homeless people to become baristas, and wraps that training in genuine, holistic support: accommodation advice, therapy, help opening a bank account and pathways to long-term employment. Change Please doesn’t just hand someone a skill — it hands them a future.
On top of all that, Change Please pays the London Living Wage and operates as a carbon-neutral business. So when you order your flat white, you’re not just getting a great coffee — you’re backing an employer that does right by its people and the planet.
Redemption Roasters
Redemption Roasters runs 11 coffee shops across London, and every single one of them connects back to a bold, simple idea: that quality coffee training can reduce reoffending and change lives.
The organisation operates barista academies inside HMP High Down, HMP Wandsworth, HMP Downview, and HMP Wormwood Scrubs. Here students learn to dial in a grinder, pull espresso shots to a precise recipe and pour latte art. At the end of the course, every learner sits a formal assessment — theoretical and practical — and earns a graded qualification. Meanwhile, all their coffee beans are roasted in their roastery inside HMP The Mount, so the supply chain carries the same purpose as the training programme.
Redemption Roasters then works to place graduates into roles — either in one of their own shops or through a wider network of partners. It surrounds them with ongoing support across wellbeing, finances, personal development, and legal matters. Visit any of their 11 London locations, and you’ll taste exactly what ambition and second chances look like.
Fair Shot
When Fair Shot opened its doors in Covent Garden at the end of 2021, it arrived with a striking ambition: to help fix one of the UK’s most overlooked employment crises. In Britain today, 95% of adults with learning disabilities are unemployed. Fair Shot exists to change that.
As a registered charity, Fair Shot trains adults with learning disabilities and autism, equipping them with the skills and confidence to find, and keep, meaningful work. Every sale that goes through the till feeds directly back into that training. Nothing goes to shareholders or executive bonuses. Everything goes back into the mission.
Fair Shot also pays the Living Wage, because a café that champions fair employment has to walk the walk. Head to Covent Garden, order something delicious, and put your money behind a business that treats people with the dignity and opportunity they deserve.
Old Spike
Most businesses talk about purpose. Old Spike built their entire structure around it. As a community interest company, they reinvest 65% of their profits directly into social and environmental efforts.
At the heart of their mission sits a barista training and employment programme that has supported more than 350 individuals in transitioning out of homelessness. Learners complete a three-week paid work placement — paid at the London Living Wage — across one of their eight London cafes. Old Spike then connects graduates with longer-term job opportunities through a network of employment partners.
Sustainability runs through everything Old Spike does, from sourcing ethically grown beans to running eco-friendly practices across their roastery and cafes. They take their environmental footprint seriously, and the quality of the coffee reflects the care that goes into every step of the process. Great coffee, a genuinely meaningful model, and excellent pastries.
