Place Name
Industrial heritage. Named after the printing industry which formerly flourished in the area. Publishing started in nearby Fleet Street around 1500 when William Caxton’s apprentice, Wynkyn de Worde, set up a printing shop near Shoe Lane, while at around the same time, Richard Pynson set up as publisher and printer next to St Dunstan’s Church. Dr Matthew Green in London A Travel Guide Through Time writes: “Following the death of his master, Wynkyn set up a printing shop in one of his houses in St Bride’s Churchyard off Fleet Street, around 1500. He chose his shop sign carefully, a wiry sun, establishing what would prove a long-standing tradition equating the printed word with the enlightenment of the public… A lover of seductive title pages and loud woodcuts, not to mention the first man to use italics in the English language, Wynkyn believed in targeting a broader readership than the more conservative Caxton – hence the decision to operate from Fleet Street, a whirl of commerce, rather than the more aristocratic Westminster. It paid off.” More printers and publishers followed, mainly supplying the legal trade in the four Inns of Court around the area, but also publishing books and plays.
