Simon has now moved his extensive collection of presses and blocks - in fact “everything he owns” - into the garage block [once the old stables] at Bell House.
He fell in love with letter printing when at the age of 10 he accompanied his father - who was the then Literary Editor of The Times - to see the printing of the newspaper in Grays Inn Road. His first impression was of noise, mess and industry and yet out of this chaos appeared a clean newspaper - beautifully written and a font of knowledge and opinion. It caught his imagination.
He said he grew up believing he had a creative mind but was unable to put his ideas on paper. Years later, he was reminded again of the appeal to him of a printing press when he ‘had a go’ on the one his wife owned. He decided he must find a course.
Simon found a course to learn how to use an Adana Press - the press that could be found in most schools, police and other official offices in the 1950’s.
He remembers with pride his first attempt - he was hooked! He realised this was how he could ‘put his ideas’ on paper.
On the course he met a couple who were downsizing their studio and wanted to get rid of a large press - named ‘Gloria’. ‘Gloria’ has a wonderful history but suffice to say, in more recent years it was named after a lady called Gloria who owned a shop, ‘Unite and Type’. Simon met her and learnt she was selling up and needed to find a new home for the rest of her stock.
Simon bought it all and moved it into a garage he owned. And so the Garage Press was born.
Simon says that the craft has enabled him to interpret his ideas. Now he knows that when he has an idea, he just has to sort out his mind because everything he needs to put it on paper is in his workshop.
Letter press was classified as an endangered craft by the Heritage Craft Associations and in the last 15 years, thankfully, Simon has seen a revival of the craft. He will run courses at Bell House but he also recommends The London Centre of Book Art - which runs workshops and offers workspace. https://londonbookarts.org for anyone who’d like to have a more intensive introduction.
The Garage Press plans to integrate closely with Bell House - from printing signage (eg for the recent Dyslexia Fair), offering printing workshops (eg Xmas cards, info cards) and he is also planning to create inks from the plants in the garden.
He is currently making an ink from ‘oak gall apples’ which he has collected from the garden’s oak trees. These ‘apples’ result when a wasp stings the oak tree bark and the tree reacts and so the growth appears. He is currently drying the apples and will then grind them. He will make a ‘medieval black ink’, used in the past for manuscripts. His challenge he says will be to make it thick enough to print with, otherwise it will be a watercolour ink. As Simon said “anything that stains can work”.
Simon by day is a Literary Agent. Because of his contacts he is able to source paper and inks - often donated by his suppliers for free. One of his long term authors he represents is John Boyle. His most famous book is “The boy in the striped pyjamas.”
John has accepted an invitation to come to the Garage Press as part of the promotion of his new book - “All the broken places”, a sequel to his most famous book. This is a private affair but Bell House will be there to report. Simon has kindly offered a signed first edition of John Boyne’s new book as a raffle prize. Details of which will be announced nearer the time.
The Garage Press is a wonderful addition to Bell House. Keep an eye on the coming events to see when he’s running his tasters. He is normally around on the days when there is an Open Garden and is often there on a Thursday if you are passing and would like to say hello.
Before signing off, here are two further points of interest Simon shared.
1. The terms UPPER and lower case are derived from the type shelves. The capital letters were at the top of the drawer. A good setter didn’t look at the shelf, he knew where everything was, rather like on a keyboard.
2. The phrase - ‘You’ve come a cropper’ - when someone got their finger caught in a WH Cropper press - ouch!
You can find out more about what Simon is printing via his instagram feed @thegaragepress