David Booth, Judith Ledeboer, John Pinckheard (1965)
Founded in 1832, the Alden Press went into administration in 2008. Located on the bank of the Thames in Osney Mead, their former print works in Oxford now lies empty.
It’s a modest building, distinguished only by scalloped concrete cladding on its side and rear elevations. This seems a strange decorative detail for the parts of the building that are not readily visible from the road; I wonder why the cladding was not incorporated in some way on the front elevation?
Anyway, further down the road is another print works that makes no apology for its concrete construction – Arup Associates’ modernist Newspaper House for the Oxford Times and Mail, completed in 1972. The Mail left the building in 2021, and it is now home to the printing company Newsquest.
RIBApix has a great selection of Newspaper House photos from 1972 here.
Finally – whilst researching the Alden Press, I discovered this type specimen book printed in 1981 by Alden in Oxford. Modernist architecture and the history of typography on the same page? I’m spoiling you…
Address: Alden Press, Osney Mead, Oxford OX2 0ES
oxford modernist 