Visit to St Brides: type setting, the history of printing and more

The visit to the St Bride Foundation was a huge success. The historic building was originally established as one of the City's first 'social institutions' to provide for print workers and their families in the new industry on Fleet Street. Amongst other things, it had (probably) the first indoor swimming pool (now boarded and used as a theatre), a laundry (now the bar!), a gym, a library and offered training and support.

Our viist started in the Salisbury room with a brief talk, some wine and food. We then visited the labyrinth of staricases and rooms, passing a wealth of fascinating old printing equipment stored in various places along the route.

The Foundation has a huge collection of old type, wood blocks and other printing paraphenalia, ranging from printing presses of all sizes to cutters for the lead and brass used in setting the type. Whilst they have made huge strides into cataloguing the collection, there is still a vast amount awaiting attention.

Undoubtedly one of the many highlights of the tour was seeing some of the Foundation's collection of historic books and artefacts. These included so many fascinating objects that it is hard to select any in particular, but one of the original copies of Dr Johnson's dictionaries was certainly one and, of course, one of the original Chaucers - a lavishly-decorated volume printed on velum which was admired (and even handled) with some awe by us all.

The tour (almost) finished in the print workshop. We had a chance to handle type, see how some of the machines worked and learn about the process of type setting. Sadly we didn't have time to do any actual type setting ourselves as the tour had already lasted rather a long time, but the Foundation does run courses for anyone interested - and at a very reasonable fee!

The final leg, naturally, ended in the old laundry - now the bar - where we enjoyed a couple of drinks, only escaping as the theatre emptied and people started to flood in.

The conclusion: the visit to the St Bride Foundation was a great success, well worth repeating, and full of interest, information and, of course, another great social opportunity to meet other members and their guests.