AFP’s departure from Fleet Street on Sunday may have weakened the links between the London thoroughfare and the media but for some it will always be the spiritual home of journalism in Britain.
With Agence France-Presse gone, only the London office of Scottish publishers DC Thomson remains on a street world-famous for being dominated by the newspaper industry.
But in the ”journalists’ church”, in the few remaining reporters and in the old hands who made the gallons of ink — and booze — flow in its heydey, the soul of Fleet Street lives on.
Saint Bride’s Church is determined to remain a home away from home for journalists.
Built on Roman ruins and previous houses of worship, Christopher Wren’s 1672 church, gutted during the Blitz in 1940, still serves as a place where journalists get married and where their lives, once spent, are mourned by their colleagues.
It is also a place of vigil for reporters kidnapped or imprisoned during the course of their work, wherever that may be in the world.
”We still keep very strong links,” said Canon David Meara, the Rector of St Bride’s.
”But there’s no use pretending it can be the same as it was when all the agencies and newspapers were just around the corner and we were their parish church.
”Fleet Street is now a virtual village scattered across London.”
While the news industry has moved on from Fleet Street, Meara is keen to find new ways to maintain the bond with journalism.
”I want to make new connections with a younger generation of journalists who don’t have the memories of actually working here,” he said.
”So that’s quite a challenge, to make them feel there is a value in having a hub that gives what is now a very disconnected industry a sense of belonging.”
At the north altar, journalists and media workers killed in the line of duty are remembered.
”Often journalists are not fully recognised or understood: it’s the story that counts, not so much the person writing it, so it’s often an anonymous profession,” Meara said.
”It’s nice to feel there’s somewhere that does recognise what they do, and celebrates and commemorates it.”
”We consider this church to be the spiritual home, and journalists do too. This is a place where we can feel our roots are.”
Former Daily Mirror editor Roy Greenslade, who started working on the street in the 1960s, said the news industry exodus from Fleet Street, which began in the 1986, was sad but unsurprising.
”Fleet Street was productive socially. It certainly was inefficient for the production of newspapers,” said the City University professor of journalism.
”There was old machinery in old conditions serviced in a very expensive way by lorries.
”The conditions in which people worked were atrocious. That went for the printers and the journalists.”
However, socially, the so-called ”Street of Shame” was ”absolutely wonderful”, a 24-hour village permanently en fete, he said.
”The history of Fleet Street is also the history of alcohol,” said Greenslade.
”Boozed-up journalists were all over the place. When I was on the Sunday Mirror, one reporter’s regular habit was to return from lunch and his head would gradually sink into his typewriter. It was fine. It was accepted because drink was part of the culture.”
He added: ”The spirit of Fleet Street lives on only in the memories of those who were here.
”For journalists who weren’t here, it is an annoying rumble of thunder in the background which annoys them for two reasons: one, because we clearly had a good time, and two, because they weren’t here for it.
”It will die with us.”
The last remaining newsroom on Fleet Street is the London office of DC Thomson, whose headquarters are in Dundee, near Scotland’s east coast.
Their 15-strong reporting team file for regional daily the Courier, Dundee daily the Evening Telegraph, widely-read national the Sunday Post and the Weekly News magazine.
In the building since the 1880s, DC Thomson’s premises have history.
The first authentic English-language versions of the Communist Manifesto were printed at number 185, while Sweeney Todd, ”the Demon Barber of Fleet Street”, reputedly slit the throats of his customers at number 186.
London editor Ron Williamson is proud that DC Thomson is still flying the flag for journalism on the street.
”Part of me’s sad that the glories of the former Fleet Street are no more but still it’s comforting that here we are in Fleet Street, which is world-famous for journalism, the last representatives,” he said.
”Certainly it gives me a personal feeling of pride that our company has come through all the trials and tribulations — World War I, the Great Depression and the Blitz — and we’re still here, still doing what we always did, supplying copy to our head office in Scotland.
”As long as DC Thomson are in Fleet Street, journalism will live on in Fleet Street — and DC Thomson have no plans to leave.” – AFP
