Climpson & Sons has roasted in East London since 2002. Founder Ian Burgess started it as Burgil Coffee after moving back from Australia, ran a stall on Broadway Market for the first years, then opened a café in the old butcher’s shop on the market and took its name, Climpson & Sons. The stall survives as a Saturday cart, the café has been part of the neighbourhood for over two decades, and in 2026 the company opened a second café in Deal, Kent, a day-to-night room with coffee, breakfast, lunch and evening drinks. The team is just shy of fifty people across the two cafés, roasting, training, account management and operations.

Roasting happens at the roastery in Leyton, with the headquarters and training academy in Hackney; both are open by appointment only. More than 80% of the coffees Climpson buys come from producers it has worked with before, and it roasts for clarity, balance and consistency so that each coffee performs as espresso in a café, brewed in an office or at home. It supplies more than 300 hospitality businesses across the UK and Ireland, became a certified B Corp in 2023, reports its carbon footprint annually and in real time, and works with Well Grounded on routes into coffee careers. A sister business, Midnight Oil Drinks, began with a coffee liqueur and now makes ready-to-drink espresso martinis, cold brew and coffee concentrates.

The Broadway Market café sells coffee and brewing equipment. Head barista Shion hosts the weekend home barista and brewing workshops, a monthly cupping club has run since 2014, and there are roastery tours and a home espresso course. The range is organised by role: The Baron (Bruno’s Pick) and The Estate as the house espressos, Broadway Blend as the seasonal blend, The Fields as the adventurous one, The Decaf, and single-origin filter coffees. The current retail range is listed below with the roaster’s own tasting notes.

Coffee on the shelf

Photograph: Climpson & Sons