St Bride Library

Last updated

St Bride Library St Bride Library 20130324 095.jpg
St Bride Library

St Bride Library (formerly known as St Bride Printing Library and St Bride Typographical Library) is a library in London primarily devoted to printing, book arts, typography and graphic design. The library is housed in the St Bride Foundation Institute in Bride Lane, London EC4, a small street leading south of Fleet Street near its intersection with New Bridge Street, in the City of London. It is centrally located in the area traditionally synonymous with the British Press and once home to many of London's newspaper publishing houses. The Library is named after the nearby church, St Bride's Church, the so-called "Cathedral of Fleet Street". [1] The Bridewell Theatre is the theatre attached to the Foundation.

Contents

St Bride Library opened on 20 November 1895 as a technical library for the printing school and printing trades. The library remained, as the school relocated in 1922 to become what is now known as the London College of Communication. [2] The library's collection has grown to incorporate a vast amount of printing-related material numbering about 65,000 books and pamphlets, in addition to back issues of some 3,600 serial publications and numerous artefacts. [3] Among its extensive collection the library houses: an Eric Gill collection, a William Addison Dwiggins collection, a Beatrice Warde collection, types of the Oxford University Press, and punches of the Caslon and Figgins foundries. [3] Much of the non-book material was acquired by long-serving librarian James Mosley between 1956 and 2000.

No charge is made for access to the reading room but a fee of £1 per item is levied for titles retrieved from closed access storage. The limited Reading Room study space means that potential visitors must email the library in advance of their visit to ensure that they may be accommodated on open days.

The library is currently open each Wednesday from noon. Two research sessions are bookable each Wednesday, either between noon and 3pm or between 3.30pm and 6.30pm. The library closes between 3pm and 3.30pm for cleaning between study sessions. Those wishing to reserve a space should email library@sbf.org.uk for access.

A rolling programme of talks, events and exhibitions runs throughout the year, with the exception of high summer, with most lectures taking place in the Bridewell Hall but also via live online Zoom presentations. Funds raised through these functions are used to support the ongoing work of the library and letterpress printing workshop. Details of current events may be found at https://sbf.org.uk/whats-on

A Wayzgoose (traditional printers' fair) is held in late May each year to raise funds for the library. The 2023 event took place on Sunday 21st May between 11am and 4pm. Around 30 traders offered private press books, letterpress-printed ephemera, new and second-hand printing type, paper, card and printing bric-a-brac. Refreshments are available throughout the day at each Wayzgoose.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">River Fleet</span> Subterranean river in London, England

The River Fleet is the largest of London's subterranean rivers, all of which today contain foul water for treatment. It has been used as a sewer since the development of Joseph Bazalgette's London sewer system in the mid 19th century with the water being treated at Beckton Sewage Treatment Works. Its headwaters are two streams on Hampstead Heath, each of which was dammed into a series of ponds—the Hampstead Ponds and the Highgate Ponds—in the 18th century. At the southern edge of Hampstead Heath these descend underground as sewers and join in Camden Town. The waters flow 4 miles (6 km) from the ponds.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fleet Street</span> Street in London, England

Fleet Street is a major street mostly in the City of London, England. It runs west to east from Temple Bar at the boundary with the City of Westminster to Ludgate Circus at the site of the London Wall and the River Fleet from which the street was named.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St Bride's Church</span> Church in London, England

St Bride's Church is a church in the City of London, England. The building's most recent incarnation was designed by Sir Christopher Wren in 1672 in Fleet Street in the City of London, though Wren's original building was largely gutted by fire during the London Blitz in 1940. Due to its location in Fleet Street, it has a long association with journalists and newspapers. The church is a distinctive sight on London's skyline and is clearly visible from a number of locations. Standing 226 feet (69m) high, it is the second tallest of all Wren's churches, with only St Paul's itself having a higher pinnacle.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Letterpress printing</span> Technique of relief printing using a printing press

Letterpress printing is a technique of relief printing for producing many copies by repeated direct impression of an inked, raised surface against individual sheets of paper or a continuous roll of paper. A worker composes and locks movable type into the "bed" or "chase" of a press, inks it, and presses paper against it to transfer the ink from the type, which creates an impression on the paper.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bridewell Palace</span> Formal royal residence in the City of London

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wedding invitation</span>

A wedding invitation is a letter asking the recipient to attend a wedding. It is typically written in the formal, third-person language and mailed five to eight weeks before the wedding date.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St Dunstan-in-the-West</span> Church in City of London, England

The Guild Church of St Dunstan-in-the-West is in Fleet Street in the City of London. It is dedicated to Dunstan, Bishop of London and Archbishop of Canterbury. The church is of medieval origin, although the present building, with an octagonal nave, was constructed in the 1830s to the designs of John Shaw.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Type foundry</span> Company that designs typefaces (fonts)

A type foundry is a company that designs or distributes typefaces. Before digital typography, type foundries manufactured and sold metal and wood typefaces for hand typesetting, and matrices for line-casting machines like the Linotype and Monotype, for letterpress printers. Today's digital type foundries accumulate and distribute typefaces created by type designers, who may either be freelancers operating their own independent foundry, or employed by a foundry. Type foundries may also provide custom type design services.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amersham Museum</span> Independent local history museum in Buckinghamshire , England

Amersham Museum at 49 and 51 High Street is a small local museum based in Amersham, Buckinghamshire, England. It is located on the High Street in Old Amersham.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chained library</span> Library where the books are attached to their bookcase by a chain

A chained library is a library where the books are attached to their bookcase by a chain, which is sufficiently long enough to allow the books to be taken from their shelves and read, but not removed from the library itself. The practice was usual for reference libraries from the Middle Ages to around the 18th century. This would prevent theft of the library's materials. Since the chaining process was also expensive, it was not used on all books, only the more valuable books such as reference works or large books in a collection were chained. Librarians in the Middle Ages often invoked curses as well to keep books from being stolen. Once such curse written into the books was,

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Church of St Peter, St Albans</span> Church in Hertfordshire, England

St Peter's Church is a Church of England parish church. It is located in St Albans, England, at the northern end of the town centre.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St Mirin's Cathedral</span> Church in Renfrewshire, Scotland

The Cathedral Church of Saint Mirin in Paisley, dedicated to Saint Mirin the patron saint of Paisley, is the mother church of the Catholic Diocese of Paisley and is the seat of the Bishop of Paisley.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Holy Trinity Gough Square</span> Building in City of London, England

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St Peter le Poer</span> Former church-site in London

St Peter le Poer was a parish church on the west side of Broad Street in the City of London. Of medieval origin, it was rebuilt in 1540, and again in 1792 to a design by Jesse Gibson with a circular nave. It was demolished in 1907.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fleet Market</span>

The Fleet Market was a London market erected in 1736 on the newly culverted River Fleet. The market was located approximately where the modern Farringdon Street stands today, to the west of the Smithfield livestock market.

David Gwynne Meara, FSA is a British Anglican priest. From 2009 to 2014, he was Archdeacon of London in the Church of England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Streatham Library</span>

Streatham Library is located at 63 Streatham High Road, Streatham, in the London Borough of Lambeth, England. The Library opened in 1890, and is one of several historical libraries in the vicinity which were built by Henry Tate. It is a public library.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St Thomas Cathedral, Acton</span> Church in London, England

St Thomas Syriac Orthodox Cathedral Acton is a Syriac Orthodox Cathedral in Acton, London, England, formerly known as St Saviour's Centre for the Deaf Anglican church, which was a social centre for deaf people, and the first and only purpose-built church for deaf people as such. St Saviour's was the central location for the London Diocesan Chaplaincy among Deaf and Deafblind people. The church and social centre closed in 2014 following a loss of funding, and insufficient financial reserves to maintain the premises. The final church service was held on Wednesday 24 September 2014, at which the Bishop of Willesden officiated.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">King's Bench Walk, London</span>

King's Bench Walk is a street in Temple, in the City of London. It is mainly made up of barristers' chambers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bridewell Theatre</span>

Bridewell Theatre is a small theatre based in Blackfriars in London. It is operated as part of the St Bride Foundation Institute, named after nearby St Bride's Church on Fleet Street.

References

  1. ↑ The Cathedral of Fleet Street Archived 2012-02-28 at the Wayback Machine (St Bride's Church) accessed 5 June 2008
  2. ↑ History (St Bride Library) accessed 5 June 2008
  3. 1 2 Collections (St Bride Library) accessed 5 June 2008

51°30′48.5″N0°6′18″W / 51.513472°N 0.10500°W / 51.513472; -0.10500

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.