At the very mention of stationers the names of W H Smith and\nRyman come to mind until you reflect on\nthe connection with stations and there is none. The origin of the name comes\nfrom fixed benches or stations. Newspaper makers used to be edited and printed\nin Fleet Street but by 1988 most national newspapers had moved to other parts\nof London such as The Times in Wapping abandoning hot metal type for computerised printing. The worlds most famous publishing centre has\ndisappeared along with the trade unions or chapels as they were known yet the\npubs that buzzed with the latest news and scandal are still there. You will\nfind The Punch, The Bell, built at the time of St Brides church in 1670 after\nthe Great Fire, the Cheshire Cheese and the Wig and Pen, a private club for\nlawyers and journalists. From Private Eye to the Sunday Times the printed\neditions are what most of us prefer to read.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So what did we do before print? There were scribes who wrote\non parchment and this story starts with London where in the old St Paul\u2019s\nCathedral, some 200 yards in length, in the 1300s there were scribes or\nscriveners, book binders and limners and illuminators who embellished texts\nwith extracts of lapis lazuli, all working from fixed tables or stationarius from which came \u201cStationers\u201d. In 1403 they\nformed the Stationers, a guild approved by the Mayor and Aldermen of the City\nof London, and were regulated by the wardens of the Guild. These stationers\nalso sold pens, paper and writing materials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was William Caxton, a member of the Mercers, a guild for\ncloth makers that subsequently became a livery company, who brought the first\npress to London setting up trade in Westminster in 1473 and on his demise it was his apprentice , Wynken\nde Worde who transfeerred the Caxton press to the churchyard of St Bride\u2019s and\nso to the development of Fleet Street as home of the newspaper industry . By\nthe 1500s printers replaced the\nmanuscript trade and it was no coincidence that this geographical location was near\nreligious institutions since these learned clerics were the first and most\nimportant clients. The power of print was soon to catch the eye of the monarchy\nto suppress seditious and treasonable publications and in 1557 by Royal Charter\nfrom Queen Mary Tudor and King Philip of Spain the Stationers had the right to destroy such\n\u201cnaughty\u201d books and what better way than on a bonfire, the site of which exists\nin the courtyard garden of Stationers Hall where today stands a plain tree\nplanted in the early 1800s under which todays members and their guests enjoy socialising\nin the summer with a glass of wine and canapes. Two years later the Guild\nreceived a Royal Charter of Incorporation (1559)and the right to wear a distinctive\ncostume or livery, hence the term livery company. Numbering 47 in order of\npreference at the Lord Mayor\u2019s Show, the Stationers had their own barge or \u201cfloat\n\u201cfor the procession along the river Thames, a term we still use for pageants\nand carnivals. Today there are 110 livery companies and Stationers has had to\nlook afield for new members in digital sectors as the old trades have virtually\ndisappeared.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rafael Pittman<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Read more next week on The Cakes and Ale ceremony and more\nhistory on the Stationers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rafael Pittman is a Freeman of The Stationers\u2019 Company, a Freeman of the City of London and worked\nat Reuters in Fleet Street and is a printmaler-artist. He leads guided tours of\nStationers Hall and is a member of the Institute of Tourist Guides. <\/p>\n\n\n\n RFP\/ms May2020<\/p>\n\n\n\n Copyright reserved Rafael Pittman 2020<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" At the very mention of stationers the names of W H Smith and Ryman come to mind until you reflect on the connection with stations and there is none. The origin of the name comes from fixed benches or stations. Newspaper makers used to be edited and printed in Fleet Street but by 1988 most […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":2710,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2706","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/conservatives-paris.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2706","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/conservatives-paris.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/conservatives-paris.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/conservatives-paris.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/conservatives-paris.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2706"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/conservatives-paris.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2706\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2709,"href":"https:\/\/conservatives-paris.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2706\/revisions\/2709"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/conservatives-paris.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/conservatives-paris.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}