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FLEET STREET: THE END OF A COMMUNITY
 
British newspapers called Fleet Street home for over 300 years. The press community had its own drinking haunts, restaurants and places of worship. In its heyday, hundreds of journalists frequented the many smoky pubs and bars. El Vino’s was a particular favourite with journalists as Bill Soutar recalls.

“At the end of the day Fleet Street would retire to El Vino’s for a little medicine before making our weary way home. One time the Managing Director, Bartholomew, who was a very tough character, threatened to sack anyone found in El Vino’s because he suspected a member of Mirror staff drinking there had leaked a story to a rival paper.”

Although the newspapers moved out in the 1980s, St Bride’s Church still regards itself as the journalists’ church, embracing reporters of all nationalities and faiths. Inside its hallowed walls many pressmen have uttered the journalist’s prayer:
 

source : Bill Soutar

Almighty God, strengthen and direct, we pray, the will of all whose work it is to write what many read, and to speak where many listen. May we be bold to confront evil and injustice: understanding and compassionate of human weakness; rejecting alike the half-truth which deceives, and the slanted word which corrupts. May the power which is ours, for good or ill, always be used with honesty and courage, with respect and integrity, so that when all here has been written, said and done, we may, unashamed, meet Thee face to face. Amen.
   
 
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