Fleet Street is the London street that is identified with the national press of the United Kingdom. At one time, most of the United Kingdom’s national news organizations had their offices in or near Fleet Street. These included the Daily Express, The Daily Telegraph, The Sun, and The Times. During the 1980’s, when new technology replaced old methods of production, most news organizations moved to new premises outside the Fleet Street area. Reuters (now Thomson Reuters), the last British news operation on Fleet Street, moved from its old headquarters in 2005. Nevertheless, a journalist working on a British national newspaper is still said to be a Fleet Street journalist.
Fleet Street itself runs between the Strand in the west and Ludgate Circus in the east. It lies in the City of London. The street is named after the Fleet, a river that flows south from Hampstead into the Thames. The river was covered over in 1765. Fleet Street has been associated with printing since the early 1500’s.
