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The list of Fleet Street newspapers and magazines that have folded is a rather sad tale. Of course with the advent of new technology and the internet, the way the press would have had to organize itself would have been a challenge. Perhaps too big for some, too costly. Then the recession would no doubt have seen a massive change in the way Fleet Street moved ahead.
Yet the real change happened a long way before new technology altered the block printing to computer input.
The history of Fleet Street is one of all night pubs long before the law changed. Of reporters with the characters that would grace any stage show, almost Charles Dickens. It was a street with the atmosphere of a historic monument, with Newspaper building shouting their names. Even Fleet Street itself is historic, beneath it still flows the feeble remains of Londons second river, The River Fleet. Its history has been captured in many movies, often the backdrop to many a drama. Now it is a haunt for open top tourist buses with digital camera's at the ready to take a shot of the old Daily Express building, its 1930's style that seems to want a preservation order slapped on it forever. Kind of sad that the real Fleet Street has gone, and the mass of delivery vans will never run again.
Perhaps it is better that it left as it did,
for its history would be less nostalgic, even tainted with the way its counter-parts have ended in court so many times.
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