London Kerning

For over 500 years, the center of financial and judicial power in England has grown and remained in and near a square mile of buildings called the City of London. And at the heart of it is arguably the art of printing.

From a modest start in a small shop founded by Wynkyn de Worde near Fleet Street and Henry VIII’s Bridewell Palace, printing’s importance in the City grew ever larger. It cemented London as the center of empire during expansion, and the center of media and money in the modern era.

Join author Glenn Fleishman’s jaunt around London, visiting The Type Archive and St Bride Printing Library, and meeting printers, designers, archivists, historians, and contemporaries—and especially examining and discussing the work of type designer Berthold Wolpe (1905–1989), who helped shape the face of lettering in London. This book looks at the charm of the present and the uncertain future of London’s printing legacy.

Update: While writing this book, I feared that The Type Archive had no plan for its future. After the death of founder Susan Shaw in 2020, the archive was shut down in 2022, and its materials were placed in storage at multiple locations. You can purchase a volume celebrating its history, Type Archived: A visual journey through typographic history from Richard Ardagh, a long-time volunteer, who is featured in London Kerning.