'Pillars of the Community? Housing the English Local and Regional
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‘Pillars of the community? Housing the English local and regional newspaper in the townscape, c. 1850-1980’ Dr Andrew Walker Fleet Street, looking towards St Paul’s Cathedral, c. 1890. (Photograph by James Valentine). (Source: www. commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fleet_Street._By_James_Valentine_c.1890..jpg) The London News Agency’s Fleet Street offices, 1893-1972. (Far left). Source: www.alondoninheritance.com/tag/fleet-street/ The Daily Telegraph’s Fleet Street offices, completed In 1928. Source: www.alondoninheritance.com/tag/fleet-street/ The Daily Express’s art deco Fleet Street offices (to the left), opened in 1932, and its later Manchester offices (below), were completed in 1939. A similar Daily Express building is situated in Glasgow. Designed by architects H. O. Ellis & Clarke and engineer Sir Owen Williams. (Sources: (www. alondoninheritance.com/ tag/fleet-street/); www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Daily_Express_Building,_ Manchester#) The Daily Express Building in Manchester under construction, 1937. (Source: www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/business/business-news/demolition-workers-iconic-express-building-14456761) Regional newspapers’ presence on Fleet Street. Mersey House, built between 1906 and 1908, accommodated the Liverpool Post and the Liverpool Echo. D.C. Thomson’s offices at 185 Fleet Street housed, amongst other titles, the Dundee Courier and the Dundee Evening Telegraph. Sources: www.alondoninheritance.com/tag/fleet-street/; www. memoirsofametrogirl.com/2019/01/05/186- fleet-street-history-architecture/. The Local Press Presence on Fleet Street, c. 1914 Many local newspapers have had Fleet Street addresses including the following: Bath Chronicle (174 Fleet Street) Birmingham Post (88) Dundee Courier and Dundee Evening Telegraph (185) Glasgow Herald (56-57) Halifax Courier (58) Hull Daily Mail and Hull Times (74) Isle of Wight County Press (143) Liverpool Echo and Liverpool Post (132-134) Nottingham Daily Express (75) Nottingham Evening Post and Nottingham Guardian, (66-67) Sheffield Independent (74) South Wales Daily Post (74) Stamford Mercury (146) Western Morning News (144) Number of local newspaper titles in England (outside London) 1847: 230 1877: 938 1907: 1338 Source: Mitchell’s Newspaper Press Directory The Hereford Times’ offices, 1858. The paper, founded in 1832, has recently moved (in 2020) into its sixth different offices, located four miles away from the city at Skylon Park, a digital business park at Rotherwas. (Source: https://theconversation.com/) The Swindon Advertiser’s Victoria Road headquarters from the 1870s until 2018, when it moved from the centre of Swindon’s Old Town to a new site at Richmond House, Dorcan, on the outskirts of the town. (Source:www.holdthefrontpage.co.uk/2018/news/) (Source: www.nottinghampost.com) (Source: www. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nottingham Daily_Express#/). Nottingham Daily Express Building, Upper Parliament Street, Nottingham, built in 1876. Designed by Nottingham architect Watson Fothergill. The heads of John Bright, Richard Cobden and William Gladstone above the main entrance indicate clearly the Liberal affiliation of the Nottingham Daily Express. Weston Mercury offices, Waterloo Street, Weston Super Mare, opened in 1885. Designed by local architect Hans Fowler Price. Grade II listed, the building is described as ‘in exuberant Dutch Baroque style with a dash of Spanish influence in the tower, in Bath stone.’ and in a ‘prominent position’ in the townscape. (Source: www. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Price) Former Sheffield Telegraph and Star building, High Street, Sheffield, built in 1916 in the English Renaissance style, and designed by Sheffield architecture firm Gibbs, Flockton and Teather. Source: https://britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/101270478 The prominent corner plot of Bristol’s Western Daily Press building on Baldwin Street and St Stephen Street was used to advertise the newspaper in Kelly’s Directory of Gloucestershire, 1914. (Left). A postcard image of the building from a similar date is shown below. Source: Kelly’s Directory of Gloucestershire, 1914. (Source: www. pinterest.com/pin/494762709042546213/) The Northern Echo building in Priestgate, Darlington, c. 1950. The building has now been converted into residential flats. The building was under construction in 1917. (source: www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news) The Loughborough Echo building. The newspaper was founded in 1891. This building in Swan Street, with its white faience façade, dates from 1931-2. It was designed by the local architect E. J. Allcock. Details include the Echo Press logo on top of the pediment, and colourful egyptianate column capitals. (Source: https://twitter.com/loughecho) The strikingly art deco Bournemouth Daily Echo building, Richmond Hill, Bournemouth, which opened in 1934. It is now partly used as ‘The Print Room’ bar and brasseries. (Source: www.bournemouth.com/echo) Former Rochdale Observer building, opened in 1955, just prior to the paper’s centenary. The printing press could be seen in operation from Drake Street through the large windows. The building’s foundation stone was laid in 1954 by the town’s most famous former resident, Gracie Fields. (Source: www. geograph.org.uk/photo/5987973) The Lincolnshire Echo building, St Benedict’s Square, Lincoln, home to the paper from 1897 to 1984. (Left). The Lincolnshire Echo’s headquarters on Brayford Wharf East from 1984 until 2009, when the building was bought by the University of Lincoln. The newspaper switched from daily to weekly production in 2011. (Right). (Source: www. lincolnshirelive.co.uk/news/local-news/125-years-lincolnshire-echo-halfpenny-1145427) The Hull Daily Mail’s prominent three-storey headquarters on Blundells Corner, at the junction of Beverley Road and Spring Bank, Hull. The newspaper moved into these premises in 1989, having previously been based in the city centre, in Jameson Street, from 1926. (Source: www.directory.hulldailymail.co.uk/company/438625568063489) The Hull Daily Mail print room in Jameson Street, c. 1950. (Source: www. hullcivicsoc.info/pdfs/Heritage%20Open%20Days%202017/HDM-HOD.pdf) The brutalist Yorkshire Post building on Wellington Street, Leeds, was designed by John Madin and officially opened in 1970 by Prince Charles. It closed in 2014. The landmark tower with its clock and temperature display, survived demolition. The paper’s editorial staff now occupy more modest premises in Whitehall Road. (Source: www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Yorkshire_Post#) The refurbished surviving tower – all that remains of the Yorkshire Post and Yorkshire Evening Post’s prominent 50 year-old headquarters on the approach to Leeds city centre. (Source: www. geograph.org.uk/photo/4938375) Former home of Pontypool Free Press – renovated as residential apartments. Historic advertising on the rear of the Henry Hughes Building, constructed in 1923, named the owner and publisher of the newspaper. Source: www. holdthefrontpage.co.uk/2019/news/historic-signage-retained-as-weeklys-office-transformed-into-housing/ .