Posted by
Martin Stabe
on 28 February 2006 at 13:54
Tags: Evening Standard, Journalism
Blogger and Guardian new media columnist Jeff Jarvis — presumably in town for a conference — notes yesterday’s Evening Standard spread by Valentine Low on the coffeebars on Fleet Street:
Yes, that is Fleet Street as in the Street of Shame, that once-grimy, ink-stained thoroughfare where journalists worked, gossiped, ate and drank (but chiefly drank).
And boy, did they drink. The long, jorunalistic lunch is a well-chronicled phenomenon but one should not overlook the pre-lunch drinks, the mid-morning “conference quickie” — when reporters would slip out for a swift one while the editor discussed the business of the day with his department heads — and of course, the long lost afternoons when careless hacks somehow forgot to make it back from luch at all.
But now? All you can get is a nice cup of coffee.
The former haunt of Lunchtime O’Booze has turned into a cappucino-lover’s dream …
…
In Fleet Street, fortunately, the old pubs and bars are still there: the King & Keys, where old Telegraph hands used to gather, El Vino, where hacks and lawyers would swap stories over the house claret, and the Cheshire Cheese, with all its history.
But the hacks have all gone. The former Express and Telegraph buildings are now the home of Goldman Sachs and the last big media organisation disappeared when Reuters moved out of No 85 last year. …
The Press Gazette world headquarters is in Old Bailey (next to the court), a stone’s throw from the Street of Shame. It’s all true. For the record, though, the Old Bell at No 95 is the favoured haunt of Press Gazette hacks, and occasionally we ensure that those Fleet Street traditions live on. We’ll probably be in there tomorrow night after the mag goes to press.
As for a club for working journalists, suggested by Andrew Marr and pointed out by one of Jarvis’s commenters — something like that that already exists, although mainly frequented by foreign correspondents and located at the other end of London. I’ll be there tonight.
But for now, I’m off for a lunchtime ciabatta and perhaps a quick ristretto for the afternoon dose of caffeine. Oh dear.
