The end of The Cartoonist
January 3, 2013 in General, News
The Cartoonist Pub to close @ procartoonists.org
One-time Fleet Street Institution The Cartoonist pub is to close early in 2013.
Once part of the thriving print industry culture in the area, the pub is to be demolished as a part of a redevelopment at New Street Square and Shoe Lane.
Google Map of the Cartoonist Pub @ procartoonists.org
The Cartoonist had a long association with the trade and its associated social organisations, the Cartoonists Club of Great Britain, the British Cartoonists’ Association and ourselves in the Professional Cartoonists’ Organisation.
Thanks to Mike Turner, former chair of the CCGB and Procartoonists member for his knowledge of the story. If you have memories you would like to share of the pub, see you in the comments.
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Andrew Birch said on January 3, 2013
I’d never even heard of it!
Matthew Buck said on January 4, 2013
We exist to inform :0)
Bill Stott said on January 5, 2013
Being an out of towner, I only went to The Cartoonist maybe half a dozen times; one or two immediately before a Punch dinner – Noel or Pete might remember these better than me – they were in my drinking days – and more recently as a guest of the CCGB. On all those occasions, the place was buzzing, but I can imagine that if it doesn’t get regular/casual journalistic trade any more, special occasions apart, it might well find making ends meet difficult.
Its a huge pity because like so many other interesting bits of cities all over the country, individuality is being dumped for smoked glass and faceless corporate blandness. Also, the actual building’s quite old and I wonder if its listed. Or leaning just a little bit.
gerardwhyman said on January 6, 2013
A bit of British cartooning history biting the dust, wonder if it’s in anyway a symbol for the less than healthy state of cartooning in this country in general? Pretty ambivalent about its demise; on the one hand it was a focal point for meeting other cartoonists when in the capital, on the other hand it was a less than friendly establishment which, by all accounts, didn’t really bend over backwards to the very people that gave it its moniker!
Noel Ford said on January 10, 2013
The monthly CCGB meetings at the Cartoonist, back in the seventies, were a huge factor in the successful career in cartooning that I am still enjoying today. Make no mistake, despite its decline over the last decade or so, that pub was a significant part of the UK cartoon scene.