Place    From 1893  To 1917

Doves Bindery

Categories: Commerce, Literature

The Doves Press in Hammersmith was founded in 1900 by Thomas Cobden-Sanderson in partnership with Emery Walker and was named after the nearby pub. Sanderson had already set up The Doves Bindery in 1893 and it bound all the books that Doves printed as well as many of the Kelmscott books. The enterprise was an examplar of the Arts and Crafts movement. They used their own type, The Doves Type, based on types from the middle ages. Emery and Sanderson fell out and the partnership was dissolved in 1908. Regarding the typeface they agreed that Sanderson could continue to use it and that eventual ownership would rest with whoever outlived the other. Sanderson (the older man) was not happy with this and by 1917 he had thrown all of the type into the Thames from Hammersmith Bridge (piece by piece, at night), all but one piece which is preserved in the Emery Walker Library, housed at the Cheltenham Art Gallery & Museum. Sanderson had already ceased printing during the war but the destruction of the type saw the end of the Press. He moved into the building and died there a few years later.

2015 - amazing, someone has retrieved the type from the river!

2024: That link has died (after only 9 years - no staying power) but we thank Mike Coleman for finding Creative Review.

Comments are provided by Facebook, please ensure you are signed in here to see them

This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
Doves Bindery

Commemorated ati

Doves Bindery and Press

Initially (ha-ha) we were puzzled by the letters at the bottom of this plaque...

Read More

Thomas Cobden-Sanderson

Thomas James Cobden-Sanderson, 1840-1922, founded the Doves Bindery and Doves...

Read More

Other Subjects

Michael Tierney

Michael Tierney

Mine host of the Windsor Castle pub in 1990. Distinguished member of the Handlebar Club since 2007.

Person, Commerce, Food & Drink

1 memorial
Maggie Richardson

Maggie Richardson

Sold flowers at "Maggie's Corner" for 60 years. This lovely evocative photo (found for us by Denis Hoare) comes from Jonnie3 at Flickr where it is captioned 'Oxfam shop, Hampstead High Street, Lon...

Person, Commerce

1 memorial
Fakeblueplaques / Society for the Promotion of Historic Buildings

Fakeblueplaques / Society for the Promotion of Historic Buildings

Londonist informs that the registered address of the website, where you can order a plaque, is 118 Hillfield Avenue N8, the site of plaque no 4. We have 3 of these non-plaques still to publish, no ...

Group, Commerce

3 memorials
Henry Thornton

Henry Thornton

Anti-slavery campaigner. Born Clapham. Successful banker. Good friends with his (indirect) cousin, William Wilberforce, prior to their marriages they shared a house bought by Thornton, Battersea Ri...

Person, Commerce, Philanthropy, Politics & Administration, Race Issues, Religion

1 memorial
Dieter Bock

Dieter Bock

Hans-Dieter Bock, or Dieter Bock, was born on 3 March 1939 in Dessau, the capital of the Free State of Anhalt. (This later became the German Democratic Republic and is now Germany). Having fled wi...

Person, Commerce, Law, Germany

4 memorials