Some London coffee businesses exist to do something besides sell coffee. Three in our directory say so plainly: Old Spike trains and employs people who have experienced homelessness, Redemption Roasters trains prison leavers and people at risk of offending, and Kahaila is a Brick Lane café that is also a registered charity and a church. This guide sets out what each says it does, quotes its own published figures with their dates, and explains what the figures cannot show. “Social enterprise” is used loosely here: only Old Spike describes itself that way.
What “social enterprise” means here
Social enterprise describes what a business is for, rather than one fixed legal form, so we go by each business’s own words. Old Spike calls itself a “UK registered social enterprise”. Redemption Roasters describes itself as a coffee company on a mission to reduce reoffending through coffee. Kahaila says it is a café, a church and a charity, and states on its site that it is a registered charity, number 1138653.
We include a business because of what it says about itself, not because we have checked its accounts or legal structure. The label tells you about purpose. It tells you nothing about how the coffee tastes or how the service compares, and nothing here is a ranking.
Sources: Old Spike: our story; Redemption Roasters: about us; Kahaila: about us
Old Spike: coffee that funds training for people experiencing homelessness
Old Spike began in Peckham in 2015, when two childhood friends opened a small café. It roasts in south London and says it now runs seven cafés. Its Barista Training and Employment Programme is funded by coffee sales: the impact page says every cup or bag helps pay for it.
Old Spike describes the programme as a sequence: a referral from a partner organisation, a taster day, a three-day training academy, then a three-week paid work placement at the London Living Wage in its own or partners’ cafés, with mentoring, and support towards lasting work. For January to June 2026 it reports 52 individuals trained, 92% completing the paid placement, 901 hours of paid employment and £13,355 paid at London Living Wage. It names partners including St Giles, Centrepoint, Baytree, Springboard and The Connection at St Martin-in-the-Fields.
We list three of its cafés: Peckham Rye, Southwark on Great Suffolk Street and Elephant & Castle. Its story page also lists cafés at Cabot Square in Canary Wharf, Fenchurch Street and Sherwood Street, which we have not yet researched.
Sources: Old Spike: impact and figures; Old Spike: our story and cafés
- Old Spike — Peckham Rye
54 Peckham Rye, SE15 4JR - Old Spike — Southwark
47–51 Great Suffolk Street, SE1 0BS - Old Spike — Elephant & Castle
251 Southwark Bridge Road, SE1 6FJ
Redemption Roasters: training in prison, then jobs in its shops
Redemption says it began when the Ministry of Justice approached its founders about a roastery inside a prison. Its own timeline dates the business to October 2016 and its first shop, on Lamb’s Conduit Street, to July 2017. It now lists eleven London shops, and we list all eleven.
Its model, in its own words, starts with barista training inside prisons (it names HMP High Down, HMP Wandsworth, HMP Downview and HMP Wormwood Scrubs), adds community training for prison leavers and people at risk of offending at its King’s Cross base, and then places people in its shops with weekly check-ins from internal caseworkers. It calls the people it trains “Participants”.
Its live figures for August 2026 say 34% of its shop workforce are Participants, 134 Participants have been supported into employment in its shops, and 730 people have completed its in-custody programmes. It also reports that 87.5% of Participants stay in role for 90 days, against a 58% industry average it cites, and a known reoffending rate of 1.8% among Participants, against a 38% national average. These are Redemption’s numbers and comparisons. We have not checked how they are measured.
Sources: Redemption Roasters: social impact; Redemption Roasters: about us; Redemption Roasters: locations
- Redemption Roasters — Lamb’s Conduit Street
84b Lamb’s Conduit Street, WC1N 3LR - Redemption Roasters — Coal Drops Yard
Unit 109, Lower Stable Street, N1C 4DR - Redemption Roasters — Islington High Street
96–98 Islington High Street, N1 8EG
Kahaila: a café, a church and a charity
Kahaila introduced itself to Brick Lane in the summer of 2012 with red velvet cake and coffee. Its site says it is a café, a church and a charity, and that it has helped to establish four charitable projects: Essence, Luminary Bakery, Ella’s and Kahaila Brew.
The church side is stated openly: it wants an inclusive place where everyone is free to explore the Christian faith, and it says the café is for anyone who wants to belong, regardless of who they are. The café is also hired out for events, and Kahaila runs a second site, Kahaila Courtyard, in Hackney Wick, which we have not researched. Its published café hours are 8.30am–6pm every day.
Sources: Kahaila: about us; Kahaila: home
- Kahaila — Brick Lane
135 Brick Lane, E1 6SB
How to read the numbers
The three businesses measure different things over different periods. Old Spike reports six months of programme figures to June 2026. Redemption reports live figures to August 2026 and publishes a social impact report for each year back to 2020. Kahaila publishes no comparable figures on the pages we read, so there is nothing to put beside the others.
Completion and retention rates describe the people who joined a programme. A work placement is not the same as a permanent job, and none of these figures tells you how much of what you spend on one cup goes to the programme. Compare dates and definitions before comparing numbers, and read the fuller reports the businesses link to if the detail matters to you.
Choosing where to go
Treat the mission as a reason to try a place, not a substitute for checking it suits your day. Old Spike’s listed cafés sit in Peckham and Southwark, Redemption runs from Bloomsbury and King’s Cross to Hampstead, Dulwich and Victoria, and Kahaila is on Brick Lane. Menus, prices and hours belong to the businesses, so confirm them on the linked official pages.
Official story, impact and location pages checked online on 25 October 2026. Figures are the businesses’ own, for the periods stated, and have not been verified independently. No visits, purchases or interviews. A business’s absence here does not mean it has no social mission; we only cover shops in our directory. How we research the guide.
FROM THE MAKER OF THIS GUIDE
