We’ve all been there. You buy a coffee and drink it as slowly as you can just so you can linger in a cafe for as long as possible. Well, no more. Ivan Mitin, an author-turned-entrepreneur from Moscow, has chosen the British capital as the location for the newest branch of Ziferblat, a chain of Russian “anti-cafes”. The concept behind Ziferblat, which means clock face in Russian, is that customers pay for their time rather than their tea. In exchange everything else, from unlimited coffee and biscuits to Wifi, is included in the price.

The innovative pricing model means that customers pay just 3p a minute to hang out at the cafe, with a maximum payment of £9, to stay as long as they like — a bargain compared to most other co-working spaces in the capital. On the lower end of the scale there’s Google Campus in Old Street, offering free Wifi and a paid-for cafe, while the cheapest membership at Impact Hub, which has branches across London, is £90 for 30 hours a month with coffee and tea paid for separately.

Ziferblat’s pay-as-you-go attitude is just one element of Mitin’s overall vision to create “free spaces” (he prefers this term to “anti-cafe”) that foster conversation and creativity among strangers — no small feat in London. The idea, says Mitin, was born out of a somewhat utopian dream. “I wanted to create a place where people could, above all, be open with each other. Without alcohol and without the commotion of a nightclub.”

“I wanted to create a place where people could, above all, be open with each other. Without alcohol and without the commotion of a nightclub”

To this end, Mitin has filled an airy first-floor space in the heart of Shoreditch in east London with eclectic furniture, an antique piano, vintage knick-knacks and a carefully curated selection of books, all aimed at creating the right atmosphere for intellectual discussions, creative tête-à-têtes and jam sessions. Or, as Mitin puts it, for relaxing and “becoming yourself”.

While this format of free-form collective entertainment is something of a novelty in London, in Russia anti-cafes have been a major feature of metropolitan life for some time now. Mitin’s nine Russian branches of Ziferblat welcome around 30,000 people through their doors each month. What’s more, Ziferblat is only one of dozens of anti-cafes that have colonised the streets of Moscow, St Petersburg and other post-Soviet cities in the last couple of years. Mitin’s concept is much more than just a new business niche: it’s the arrival of a whole new social phenomenon.