Just off Fleet Street, in what was the heart of the British national press is the St Bride Foundation. It was set up in 1891 as an institution to support the people and printers of Fleet Street, providing both education and recreation. It had a school of printing to educate printers in the newest technologies and an extensive library, as well as more practical facilities such as a swimming pool (the first in the City of London), a gymnasium and washrooms for laundry.

On our two-hour tour we will visit the printing workshop, the library and its other historic rooms. In the workshop we will be shown different printing techniques and the lengthy process of preparing a newspaper (before computerisation) for print. We will get a chance to view some treasures in the library’s special collection. The Foundation’s library, originally created as a resource for printers, today contains over 50,000 items, many of which are manuscripts including a substantial fragment of one of William Caxton’s earliest printed works.

The group size was limited to just 24 persons, so please book early.

Click here for the form, which should printed off and returned to the Library.