THE END OF FLEET STREET

The last major news organization, Reuters, has now departed Fleet Street in London. It was once the hub of an entire industry, a maze of pubs and offices where drunken hacks swapped stories, flattered sources and generally had a good time. I managed to see the very last gasp. I was an intern for two summers at the grand old Daily Telegraph building (Waugh’s “Scoop” features it prominently), and two decades ago, hammered out editorials on a manual type-writer, surrounded by a bevy of sloshed but brilliant mentors. I was ushered into the recesses of ancient pubs where columnists once gathered, and witnessed the delivery vans pouring out of the bowels of the old buildings at closing time. Now I blog at home – paper- and alcohol-free. Yes, those were the days …