The Curiosity Cabinet stands in what was once the heart of London’s print and book trade. At the end of the 1800s, the area was irrevocably transformed by a series of major ‘improvement’ schemes. The demolition of older streets permanently displaced existing communities and businesses. Lost Landscapes of Print invites you to retrace the steps of some of the authors, printers and publishers who lived and worked here.
Dr Brian Murray, Senior Lecturer in Nineteenth-Century Literature
10 February 2026
Exhibition launches on London's publishing history
Lost Landscapes of Print explores the history of print and publishing on the Strand from 10 February at the Curiosity Cabinet on King’s Strand campus.
Dr Brian Murray, Senior Lecturer in Nineteenth-Century Literature in the Department of English, has curated Lost Landscapes of Print to tell the story of four local sites that were central to London’s popular print culture in the nineteenth century.
The centrepiece of the exhibition in the Curiosity Cabinet is King’s own Albion printing press, made in 1862 by Hopkinson and Cope in the City of London. The Bear Yard Press was founded in 2022 as a historical printing press and research and teaching hub for Print and Book History at King’s.
I am delighted to introduce the latest brilliant Curiosity Cabinet exhibition: Lost Landscapes of Print. The show explores the relationships between communication, technology and social change, as well as the history and memory of the site on which King’s itself stands.
Professor Sacha Golob, Vice Dean, Faculty of Arts & Humanities
The exhibition also includes a map and self-guided walking tour highlighting hidden local histories, including the offices of Britain’s first illustrated newspapers and the former haunts of Charles Dickens and George Eliot.
Lost Landscapes of Print runs from 10 February 2026 until October.
About the Curiosity Cabinet
The Curiosity Cabinet offers an insight into research at King’s by bringing to life some of the narratives and ideas explored and developed by academics and students. Supported and produced by the Faculty of Arts & Humanities and King’s Culture.
In this story
Senior Lecturer in Nineteenth-Century Literature