The plain white cups and saucers at the Indian Coffee House are smudged with stains of coffee and the grease of history. They are chipped at the rim and bear the cracks and lines of the political and cultural landscape of independent India. And if those walls could speak we would have a veritable treasure of stories and anecdotes. Photographer Stuart Freedman has a treasure too, as a journalist in the 90s his work brought him to India, and Freedman sought refuge in these coffee houses away from the cacophony and for the cheese toast. His documentation however began only in 2010 when the Indian media were full of stories about the Delhi Coffee House closing because of a mountain of unpaid debts. He followed them one by one to the most significant and beautiful coffee houses in the chain and spent the next 2-3 years photographing thirty of them. These images have now come together in a book titled "Palaces Of Memory". Source: Stuart Freedman

In an interview with ScoopWhoop, Stuart explains, "I became curious and did some research into these places which for me were slightly run-down by ‘familiar’ cafes and discovered a whole extraordinary story intrinsically linked to pre- and post- Independence."

Source: Stuart Freedman

The grand title of the book draws from a classical idea that uses a physical location to retain specific memories, well deserved according to Freedman, "The branch in College Street in Kolkatta was the meeting point of many of India's intelligentsia. Modern icons like Satyajit Ray, Amartya Sen, and the Hungryalist Generation were regulars there. The Delhi Coffee House was closed during the Emergency because it was deemed seditious: the coffee houses as well as being cheap places to eat were enormously significant."

Source: Stuart Freedman