Calico Coffee
London's design-led Waterloo roastery — clarity-first Kenyans, in-house roasting and a curator's eye for guest coffees.
Waterloo, London
Currently stocking
View full collection →The story
Calico Coffee
A young Waterloo roastery and cafe from Junchao — an architect-turned-coffee-obsessive — pursuing clarity from origin to cup through meticulously sourced coffees, precise in-house roasting and a rotating cast of guest roasters.
Calico Coffee opened at Unit C, 101 Lower Marsh in December 2024, a few minutes' walk from Waterloo station. It's the project of Junchao, whose background in architecture and design shows in every considered edge of the space — warm wood, calm light, daily flower arrangements, and a workflow laid out with the same intent as the coffees on the bar.
The coffee programme is built around clarity. Calico lean heavily into Kenyan single origins — recent lots include a traditional washed Kongocho, a natural Thunguri, a Kamavindi AA natural and a 72-hour washed Mukuyuni AB — alongside seasonal offerings from further afield. Some coffees are roasted in-house on their own machine; others come from a carefully chosen line-up of guest roasters, so the menu reads as a curator's selection rather than a house roster.
In 2026 Calico stepped further into roasting with a collaboration series alongside Harmony Coffee Roaster in Suffolk — Junchao travelling out to roast his own green selections on Harmony's Loring S15 and IRM 7 for a run of four exclusive releases. Between the shop, the guest bar takeovers and the collabs, Calico have quietly become one of the most talked-about new specialty names in London.