Lost Landscapes of Print
Lost Landscapes of Print, a new exhibition exploring the history of printing on the Strand, is on display in The Curiosity Cabinet until Summer 2026.
Presented by Dr Brian Murray and produced by King's Culture, the display tells the story of four local sites that were central to London’s print culture in the nineteenth century.
King’s Strand Campus stands in what was once the heart of London’s print and book trade. Around 1900, the area was transformed by a series of major ‘improvement’ schemes, permanently displacing communities and businesses. Lost Landscapes of Print invites you to retrace the steps of some of the authors, printers and publishers who once lived and worked here.
Take a self-guided tour of the sites featured in the exhibition, including immersive visual spectacles, the first illustrated newspapers and the former haunts of Charles Dickens and George Eliot.
The Bear Yard Press
Alongside this local history, visitors will see a recreated Victorian printshop, including an 1862 Albion printing press. The press and our unique collection of historical print paraphernalia are now part of the Bear Yard Press, a research and teaching hub for Print and Book History at King’s.
@bearyardpress
@bearyardpress.bsky.social
A series of guided tours and drop-in activities will take place across the late spring and summer, more details to follow soon.
Further Reading
- Richard Altick, The Shows of London (Harvard, 1978)
- Rosemary Ashton, 142 Strand: A Radical Address in Victorian London (Vintage, 2008)
- Geoff Browell and Eileen Chanin, The Strand: A Biography (Manchester University Press, 2025)
- Lee Jackson, Walking Dickens' London (Shire, 2012)
- Rohan McWilliam, London's West End: Creating the Pleasure District, 1800–1914 (Oxford University Press, 2020)
- Lynda Nead, Victorian Babylon: People, Streets and Images in Nineteenth-Century London (Yale University Press, 2000)
- Mary L. Shannon, Dickens, Reynolds, and Mayhew on Wellington Street: The Print Culture of a Victorian Street (Routledge, 2015)
- Strandlines.london
- layersoflondon.org
Project Credits
The Curiosity Cabinet is brought to you by the Faculty of Arts & Humanities, produced by King’s Culture. It tells the story of some extraordinary research being done by King's staff and students using the physical and digital objects that have inspired or emerged from it.
Presented by: Brian Murray
Assistant curator: Julian T.S. Neuhauser
Design: Robin Stannard
Thanks to: King’s College London Archives, Foyle Special Collections, Laura L’Aimable, Sacha Golob, Richard Kirkland, Daniel Orrells, Katie Sambrook, Kate O’Brien, Hannah Gibson, Mark Turner, Helen McIlroy, Rosanna Da Costa and James Grande.
