The Association
Coffee House Social Service Association is a non-political, non-profitable organization working for the benefit of the people and the society. On the 1st December 2000 at the forefront of the new millennium, some of the young regular consumers of Indian Coffee House, College Street had set up erstwhile Coffee House Voluntary Blood Donors Association which gradually involved in various social welfare programmes. Along with organizing the blood donation camps, we started organizing an awareness programme against HIV-AIDS, teaching the street children, campaigning about Thalassaemia Prevention etc. Therefore, the organization in the middle of the year 2001 has been rechristened as Coffee House Social Service Association due to its multifaceted activities.
Albert Hall had once been one of the greatest attraction to the academics, scholars, eminent social reformers and freedom fighters like Sir Surendranath Bandyopadhyay,Rabindranath Tagore, Mahatma Gandhi, Sister Nibedita and Netaji Subhas Ch. Bose in the pre-independence era. In the post-independence era it has been glorified with regular visitors such as by the former Hon'ble Governor of West Bengal Shri Gopal Krishna Gandhi, Nobel Laureate Shri Amartya Sen, Bharat Ratna Late Satyajit Ray, Padmabhusan Late Manna Dey, Padmabhusan Late Mrinal Sen, Padmabhusan Late Soumitra Chattopadhyay, Padmashri Smt. Aparna Sen, Sahitya Akademi winner Late Sunil Gangopadhyay, Padmashri Late Sailen Manna, Padmashri Late Chuni Goswami, Padmashri Late P. K. Banerjee and many other eminent personalities of various field of activities.
The Coffee House is of historical significance for being the rendezvous of innumerable versatile people, from its inception to date. Scholars, editors, artists and writers like Ritwik Ghatak, Narayan Gangopadhyay, Sanjeev Chattopadhyay, Samaresh Majumdar, Subhas Mukhopadhyay, Shakti Chattopadhyay, Craig Jamieson, Sukhamoy Chakraborty, Tapan Raychaudhuri, Barun De and Sumit Sarkar have been just a few among the patrons of the restaurant. In the early sixties of 20th century the coffee house became the intellectual battleground of the famous Hungry generation literary and cultural movement; the iconic poets Malay Roy Choudhury, Samir Roy Choudhury brother duo who pioneered the movement were arrested and prosecuted. Several literary magazines owe their origin to the inspiration from the adda sessions at this coffee house. Though popularly known as College Street Coffee house, this branch is actually on Bankim Chatterjee Street. The coffee house is famous for its adda sessions, and as the breeding place of several political and cultural personalities and movements. Many people come here just for the sake of adda and just being a part of the long talking sessions. Several talented and illustrious persons from different streams have been thronging this renowned adda for a long time.
In Memorabilia
The Coffee House has been memorialized in a famous song sung by Manna Dey titled Coffee House'ersheiadda'taaajaarnei (That Coffee House adda is long gone now). It has preserved the heritage of the famous Coffee House through the ages.