Daily Courant - Crane Court, London, UK
N 51° 30.854 W 000° 06.554
30U E 700574 N 5710974
This marker is set into the pavement at the entrance to Crane Court. This alleyway runs north from Fleet Street in the City of London.
Waymark Code: WMK88N
Location: London, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 02/27/2014
Views: 3
The plaque is set into the pavement so suffers from being walked over on a daily basis. Luckily, it is made of metal so the damage to it is not as bad as it could be.
Across the top of the plaque in large letters is the name of the alley:
Crane Court
Below that is a facsimile of the front page of the first edition of the Daily Courant and in the bottom right of the plaque is a boxed part that reads:
Wednesday 11th March 1702
The first edition of the Daily Courant
was published in Fleet Street
Britain's first daily newspaper
Wikipedia tells us:
The Daily Courant, first published on 11 March 1702, was the first British daily newspaper. It was produced by Elizabeth Mallet at her premises next to the Kings Arms tavern at Fleet Bridge in London. The paper consisted of a single page, with advertisements on the reverse side. Mallet advertised that she intended to publish only foreign news and would not add any comments of her own, supposing her readers to have "sense enough to make reflections for themselves."
Mallet soon sold The Daily Courant to Samuel Buckley, who moved it to premises in the area of Little Britain in London, at "the sign of the Dolphin". Buckley later became the printer of The Spectator. The paper lasted until 1735, when it was merged with the Daily Gazetteer.