St Bride Library
Encyclopedia
St Bride Library is a library in London
primarily devoted to printing
, book arts, typography
and graphic design
. The Library is housed within St Bride Foundation Institute in Bride Lane, a small street leading south of Fleet Street
near its intersection with New Bridge Street, in the City of London
. The location lies in the heart of the area traditionally synonymous with the British Press and once, but no longer, home to many of London's newspaper publishing houses. The Library is named after the nearby church, St Bride's Church
, the so-called "Cathedral of Fleet Street".
St Bride Library opened on the 20th of November, 1895 as a technical library for the printing school and printing trades. The Library remained, as the school relocated in 1922 to become what is presently known as the London College of Communication
. The Library's collection has grown to incorporate a vast amount of printing-related material numbering about 50,000 books and pamphlets, in addition to back issues of some 3500 serials and numerous artefacts. Among its extensive collection the library houses: an Eric Gill
collection; a William Addison Dwiggins
collection; a Beatrice Warde
collection; types of the Oxford University Press
; and punches of the Caslon and Figgins foundries.
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
primarily devoted to printing
Printing
Printing is a process for reproducing text and image, typically with ink on paper using a printing press. It is often carried out as a large-scale industrial process, and is an essential part of publishing and transaction printing....
, book arts, typography
Typography
Typography is the art and technique of arranging type in order to make language visible. The arrangement of type involves the selection of typefaces, point size, line length, leading , adjusting the spaces between groups of letters and adjusting the space between pairs of letters...
and graphic design
Graphic design
Graphic design is a creative process – most often involving a client and a designer and usually completed in conjunction with producers of form – undertaken in order to convey a specific message to a targeted audience...
. The Library is housed within St Bride Foundation Institute in Bride Lane, a small street leading south of Fleet Street
Fleet Street
Fleet Street is a street in central London, United Kingdom, named after the River Fleet, a stream that now flows underground. It was the home of the British press until the 1980s...
near its intersection with New Bridge Street, in the City of London
City of London
The City of London is a small area within Greater London, England. It is the historic core of London around which the modern conurbation grew and has held city status since time immemorial. The City’s boundaries have remained almost unchanged since the Middle Ages, and it is now only a tiny part of...
. The location lies in the heart of the area traditionally synonymous with the British Press and once, but no longer, home to many of London's newspaper publishing houses. The Library is named after the nearby church, St Bride's Church
St Bride's Church
St Bride's Church is a church in the City of London, England. The building's most recent incarnation was designed by Sir Christopher Wren in 1672 on Fleet Street in the City of London, though Wren's original building was largely gutted by fire during the London Blitz in 1940. Due to its location on...
, the so-called "Cathedral of Fleet Street".
St Bride Library opened on the 20th of November, 1895 as a technical library for the printing school and printing trades. The Library remained, as the school relocated in 1922 to become what is presently known as the London College of Communication
London College of Communication
The London College of Communication is a constituent college of the University of the Arts London, located in Elephant and Castle. It has about 5,000 students on 60 courses in media and design courses preparing students for careers in the creative industries...
. The Library's collection has grown to incorporate a vast amount of printing-related material numbering about 50,000 books and pamphlets, in addition to back issues of some 3500 serials and numerous artefacts. Among its extensive collection the library houses: an Eric Gill
Eric Gill
Arthur Eric Rowton Gill was a British sculptor, typeface designer, stonecutter and printmaker, who was associated with the Arts and Crafts movement...
collection; a William Addison Dwiggins
William Addison Dwiggins
William Addison Dwiggins was a U.S. type designer, calligrapher, and book designer...
collection; a Beatrice Warde
Beatrice Warde
Beatrice Warde , was a communicator on typography. She was the only daughter of May Lamberton Becker, a journalist on the staff of the New York Herald Tribune, and Gustave Becker, composer and teacher.Beatrice was educated at Barnard College at Columbia University...
collection; types of the Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press is the largest university press in the world. It is a department of the University of Oxford and is governed by a group of 15 academics appointed by the Vice-Chancellor known as the Delegates of the Press. They are headed by the Secretary to the Delegates, who serves as...
; and punches of the Caslon and Figgins foundries.