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Thursday, Jun 16, 2005

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International

A farewell to Fleet Street

Hasan Suroor

An era passes into history as the last of the media tenants moves out

LONDON: An era in British newspaper history came to an end on Wednesday when London's Fleet Street, once home to the most famous newspapers, was abandoned by the last of its media tenants as Reuters moved out to its new glass-and-chrome offices in Canary Wharf, east London amid an outpouring of nostalgia.

It was a final act in a process that began in 1986 when Rupert Murdoch, faced with a printers' strike for higher wages, moved his newspapers — The Sun, News of the World, The Times and The Sunday Times — to Wapping, triggering an exodus from Fleet Street.

Soon, there was a scramble among the remaining newspapers to get out of what had come to be known as the "Street of Shame'' because of its smoke and "alcohol-fuelled culture,'' as one journalist recalled, leaving only Reuters clinging on to Lutyens' 85, Fleet Street.

Old fleet street no more

With the departure of Reuters on Wednesday, the Old Fleet Street is no more — though El Vino's pub, the once-famous haunt of journalists, is still there and on Wednesday some of its one-time regulars were back there to relive the old days.

Ironically — or perhaps fittingly — it fell to Mr. Murdoch to perform the "last rites'' of Fleet Street. For as a former Reuters editor, he was called upon to give a reading at a memorial service held to mark the passing away of 300 years of history.

Journalists, who had worked in Fleet Street — now dotted with banks and finance firms — spent the day swapping tales from an era when they were out and about instead of "sitting in the far corners of London, like battery hens at computer terminals'', as one columnist put it.

The action, then, was as much in the newsroom as at El Vino's, still remembered for many a famous post-drink brawls.

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