This week's outing was to Fleet Street, ending at St. Brides Church. I had gone to both with another class, but hadn't fully understood their significance, so I was looking forward to going back and learning more about the history and relevance of both places.
Fleet Street used to be the home of many London newspapers, and although the buildings are no longer used in the same way, they are still there and are still as architecturally impressive. After having discussed so much about the influence of newspapers in the public sphere, seeing where they used to be housed was very interesting. Seeing that they no longer are located there also spoke volumes about how the world of newspapers has changed and evolved over time. No longer are huge buildings as necessary, as staffs are smaller and more is done online than in person.
Fleet Street had many other interesting places to see as well- the Royal Courts of Justice where much of the Leveson Inquiry is taking place, a Twinings tea shop located in the original home of Toms Coffee House (a famous coffeehouse bought in the 1700s to become the Twinings shop- extremely relevant to all of our discussions about London's coffeehouses as places of debate and discussion and where newspapers were birthed), and a Lutyens restaurant in the building where Reuters (a global news giant similar to the Associated Press) used to be located.
There is so much more to Fleet Street than I had realized before, and seeing it in the perspective of the changes that have occurred in the public sphere was so interesting and exciting.
We ended at St. Brides Church- a church that has been evolving for many centuries, with many changes coming to it architecturally as a result of time and damages from war. From the outside, it isn't as dramatic and impressive as it's neighbor St. Paul's Cathedral, but it has so much historical significance in terms of journalism throughout the centuries. It is known as "the journalist's church" and has memorials and plaques for numerous journalists throughout the body of the church. Many have died in reporting for wars, and it was humbling to see their names presented in the church. It's easy to lose sight of the risks that journalists take when reporting overseas or during wartime, and seeing their names presented was a simple and moving way to remind visitors of the weight and significance that comes with the stories we take for granted.
The downstairs of the church was a museum and a crypt that was uncovered during the war when bombs fell and exposed it. It was a creepy area, but very cool to see the headstones and uncovered stones from centuries ago. The museum area went in chronological order and had artifacts from all the centuries accompanied by maps that showed the floor plan of the church as it was in its original state up to the present.
It was incredible to me to realize that this building has been standing in some form or another since the days of the Romans. Nothing in America has that sort of significance and history attached to it, and I absolutely love visiting places that come with so much more of a story. I am one of hundreds of thousands of people to stand in that church, and it is so awesome to consider all the other people that walked the same steps I did and paid homage to the journalists recognized there as well as worshipped in the same church.
The connection of St. Brides to Fleet Street was explained thoroughly in the museum as well, as the printing press was housed in the church in the 1500s.
I found it extremely interesting to see another church that is so strongly associated with a particular group of people in society- this being the journalists church, and St. Paul's Church in Covent Garden being the actors church, etc. In America, churches are always associated with a religious denomination, and never with a people group based on career or trade, and I have found it to be an interesting difference.
It made me consider the church as a whole, and wonder if the focus is as much on God as the center of worship of the attendees of the church, or if the focus is more on the journalists and their memorials. The purpose of our outing was focused on the journalists, and not on worship, and I wonder if that is true of most people who step through the doors into St. Brides Church. Regardless of one's intention when visiting the church, it was a beautiful place of history and relevance to the public sphere as a home to journalism and the press, and it was a wonderful outing to a place I had yet to fully discover on my own.
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