The Blitz couldn’t stop the Gazette presses

Up until June 1942, the Kentish Gazette operated out of offices in St George’s Street – right next to Marks & Spencer, in fact.

And the printing works was in an adjoining building at the back. The office building was destroyed in the main blitz raid of June 1, 1942, but the printing works survived intact.

Within weeks, the Gazette was up and running again from a temporary office building on the site of the destroyed one.

The older picture dates from 1954, in the last few months of operations out of the old St George’s Street premises.

Here, an editorial secretary watches the type-setter create lines of type in hot metal, to be locked into the pages for printing on the press behind.

Later that same year, the Kentish Gazette, which celebrates its 300th anniversary this year, moved to purpose-built new premises in St George’s Place. At this time, there were a number of other local papers published in Canterbury, namely the Canterbury Kent Messenger, Kent Herald, Kentish Express and the Kentish Observer. All are now a thing of the past in the city.

By the time the second photo was taken in 1997, the paper was part of the Kent Messenger Group and published, together with their sister paper, The Extra, from its St George’s Place premises, although the newspaper was no longer printed there.

In this photo, editorial secretary Sarah Bailey, alongside chief subeditor Roger Mapstone, prepare copy to be sent to Larkfield for printing.

The Gazette in 1954 and right, the same process, as it was in 1997 where sub-editor Roger Mapstone, who still works for the paper, operates what was then cutting-edge technology