Last Hot Metal London Evening Standard

Roy Brachet, a Linotype operator on the paper for 25 years, took these pictures on the day of the last hot metal edition of the London Evening Standard.

Frank Matthews
Frank Matthews, main display ad setter
Evening Standard
Peter Knight, Peter Merchant and Frank Matthews again
New Technology
Says Roy: “what the rest of us who stayed post-hot metal got lumbered with: Notice the Lino keyboards specially made for us dumb-clucks who had never typed on a querty one.”
The Press
The last hot metal headlines, typical of the period (1980)
Bagpipes
About that bagpiper: Eric Neller, one of our younger operators. I think he was booted out of the Dagenham Girl Pipers and was glad of this gig
Journalists at the stone
Journalists at the stone
Last-minute corrections
Last-minute corrections – “I’m sure there’s a journalist touching the type on this pic, it was always very much frowned upon.” – D.H.
Off the stone
Off the stone
Final pages
Final pages
Sending it off
Sending it off
Decorated comp room
Decorated comp room
Gathering under the clock
Gathering under the clock

 

7 thoughts on “Last Hot Metal London Evening Standard”

  1. Yeah, I worked on a “provincial” morning paper in the North East of Eng. These pictures evoke memories of when we put the last hot metal paper to bed before those horrible “tellies with querty keyboards” took over. You are right – Subs weren’t allowed to touch hot metal, we would have walked out over that. Happy days!!!

    1. Also…. If I remember correctly, film make-up and hot metal were run along side each other for a while. Small ads, lineage, home page and feature pages were photo-typeset and plates made of them ready for strapping to the presses. It seems so long ago (1986!!) me memory’s fading!!!

  2. Very interesting. Thanks. BTW – What was the date of the hot to cold type conversion at the London Evening Standard?

  3. I was a compositor working ‘on the stone’ at the Daily Expess in Manchester, and these photos brought back some wonderful memories. Not just The ‘old technology’ but also the true companionship that existed within chapels at that time. That was something else that died along with hot metal production.

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