A documentary film, by www.digital-works.co.uk, based on oral history interviews with former printers and journalists.
“There used to be a tradition in Fleet Street newspapers called “banging out”. It involved an employee, on the day he retired after a life-time’s stalwart service to his chosen rag, being walked by his colleagues through the presses in the print room. As he wandered towards his rendezvous with a carriage clock, the printers serenaded him by whacking the metal benches with their hammers, beating out a ceremonial slow-march to mark his departure.”
Jim White
Banging out also occured when apprentices passed out and when Fleet Street presses were shut down and moved to Wapping and Westferry in the 1980s.
For more information visit www.bangingout.org.uk.
