Yesterday I was trudging through the snow drifts along London’s Leather Lane on the quietest of Saturdays in this December of discontent when I came across this wondrous sign above the entrance of numbers 14-16: Department of Coffee and Social Affairs.

Was I experiencing the sort of snow-blinding delirium familiar to frostbitten mountain climbers with empty coffee thermoses? With the UK’s coalition government slashing funding for education, councils and the National Health Service this would hardly be the time to open any new agency at all. But even in times of budget surpluses you would hardly expect the British to be the first to open such a ministry, as essential as its services might be towards promoting commerce, creativity, public health, social interaction, happiness and alertness at boring meetings. I could see flaky cities like Seattle, Oslo, Vienna, Auckland or Trieste having a Department of Coffee and Social Affairs, but not London.

Alas there is no UK government or Camden Council office known as the DCSA at 14-15 Leather Lane in London EC1. If there were there wouldn’t be people in there working – and appearing to enjoy their work – on a Saturday. Instead this is a private enterprise, a manifestation, perhaps, of David Cameron’s ‘big society’ vision, which, in the Prime Minister’s words, is about nothing less than “liberation, the biggest, most dramatic redistribution of power from elites in Whitehall to the man and woman on the street”. Others might describe the PM’s bold initiative more succinctly by the acronym GFY, which doesn’t necessary mean “good for you”.

Turns out the Department of Coffee and Social Affairs is what 99.9% percent of us know as a coffee shop. The two visionaries who see it as something far greater are the Antepodeans Chris McKie and Tim Ridley, who, with Stefan Allesch-Taylor, are co-founders of something called the Coffeesmiths Collective. I visited the website to learn more about it, came across a recent post titled “Dialectic: Consequences of Enlightenment” and immediately suspended my investigation.

The Department of Coffee and Social Affairs essentials are as follows:

• The beans, sourced from East London roaster Climpson & Sons, yield good espresso.
• The space, stripped down to a patchwork of brick, wood, steel and concrete, is subdivided into smaller spaces suited for inclusion or seclusion.
• It is open Monday to Friday 8am to 4:30pm, Saturday 10am to 4pm.
• Dialectic: Consequences of Enlightenment is the title of an exhibition of paintings by East London artist Ben Jamie, on view at the coffee shop now until February 19th.