Article: Traditional sign writing. London,
Inside the Home of Traditional London Roman Type.
By the Gentle author.
22/23 Chiswell St
Chiswell St is a canyon lined with glass and steel buildings leading from Moorgate to the Barbican today, yet once this was the centre of printing in the City of London. The foundry established by William Caslon in 1737, Britain’s most celebrated type designer, stood here until 1937.
For more than two centuries, Caslon was the default typeface for printing in the English language and when the Americans wanted to make their Declaration of Independence and publish their Constitution, they imported type from the Caslon Foundry in Chiswell St to do it.
These historic photographs from St Bride Printing Library, taken in 1902 upon the occasion of the opening of the new Caslon factory in Hackney Wick, record both the final decades of the unchanged work of traditional type-founding, as well as the mechanisation of the process that would eventually lead to the industry being swept away by the end of the century.
22/23 Chiswell St with Caslon’s delivery van outside the foundry.
Below RIchard Apps Caslon lettering restored by Nick Garrett – and a gilded Caslon No 5 for Legend Glass of Sheen, London.
The Directors’ Room with portraits of William Caslon and Elizabeth Caslon
Sydney Caslon Smith in his office
Clerks’ office, 15th November 1902. A woman sits at her typewriter in the centre of the office.
You may also like to read about
William Caslon, Letter Founder
Roger Pertwee, Manufacturing Stationer
Below: Original Caslon Sans Serif being restored in Soho.
