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Springer Series in Design and Innovation12
Nuno Martins
Daniel Brandão Editors
Advances
in Design
and Digital
Communication
Proceedings of the 4th International
Conference on Design and Digital
Communication, Digicom 2020,
November 5–7, 2020, Barcelos, Portugal
Springer Series in Design and Innovation
Volume 12
Editor-in-Chief
Francesca Tosi, University of Florence, Florence, Italy
Series Editors
Claudio Germak, Politecnico di Torino, Turin, Italy
Francesco Zurlo, Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy
Zhi Jinyi, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu, China
Marilaine Pozzatti Amadori, Universidade Federal de Santa Maria,
Santa Maria, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil
Maurizio Caon, University of Applied Sciences and Arts, Fribourg, Switzerland
Springer Series in Design and Innovation (SSDI) publishes books on innovation
and the latest developments in the fields of Product Design, Interior Design and
Communication Design, with particular emphasis on technological and formal
innovation, and on the application of digital technologies and new materials. The
series explores all aspects of design, e.g. Human-Centered Design/User Experience,
Service Design, and Design Thinking, which provide transversal and innovative
approaches oriented on the involvement of people throughout the design
development process. In addition, it covers emerging areas of research that may
represent essential opportunities for economic and social development.
In fields ranging from the humanities to engineering and architecture, design is
increasingly being recognized as a key means of bringing ideas to the market by
transforming them into user-friendly and appealing products or services. Moreover,
it provides a variety of methodologies, tools and techniques that can be used at
different stages of the innovation process to enhance the value of new products and
services.
The series’ scope includes monographs, professional books, advanced textbooks,
selected contributions from specialized conferences and workshops, and outstand-
ing Ph.D. theses.
Editors
Advances in Design
and Digital Communication
Proceedings of the 4th International
Conference on Design and Digital
Communication, Digicom 2020,
November 5–7, 2020, Barcelos, Portugal
123
Editors
Nuno Martins Daniel Brandão
ID+/School of Design CECS/Institute of Social Sciences
Polytechnic Institute of Cavado and Ave University of Minho
Barcelos, Portugal Braga, Portugal
This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
Preface
v
vi Preface
Nuno Martins
General Chair
Daniel Brandão
Co-chair
Organization
General Chair
Nuno Martins
ID+/School of Design, Polytechnic Institute of Cavado and Ave
nmartins@ipca.pt
Co-chair
Daniel Brandão
CECS/ICS, University of Minho
danielbrandao@uminho.pt
Scientific Committee
Albert Inyoung Choi College of Design, Hanyang University, Korea
Alberto Sá Universidade do Minho, Portugal
Álvaro Sousa Universidade de Aveiro, Portugal
Ana Catarina Silva Escola Superior de Design IPCA, Portugal
Ana Correia de Barros Fraunhofer, Germany
Ana Filomena Curralo Instituto Politécnico de Viana do Castelo,
Portugal
Anastasios E. Politis University of West Attica, Greece
Andreia Sousa Universidade Lusófona do Porto, Portugal
António Lacerda Universidade do Algarve, Portugal
Arafat Al-Naim Dean of College of Design, American University
in the Emirates (EAU)
Camila Soares Faculdade de Belas da Universidade do Porto,
Portugal
Catarina Lelis University of West London, UK
Catarina Moura Universidade da Beira Interior, Portugal
Catherine Prentice Griffith University, Australia
Cátia Rijo Escola Superior de Educação IPL, Portugal
vii
viii Organization
xi
xii Contents
Niki Sioki(&)
1 Introduction
In the long history of the book it is only today that we are faced with significant
changes regarding its substance and character [1]; changes in the way we use and read
books. Over the past ten years or so, we have also experienced changes in the design of
the books that are created for screen reading. The main question of this paper is what
happens to the design of ‘pages’ and the typography of texts when they are transferred
on the screen of e-readers. Typography is here addressed as a system of knowledge
transmission and information processing whose low quality appearance on screen still
presents a challenge to contemporary designers. The paper concludes with a discussion
of good design practices for reading on screen that have been developed so far and
suggests possible future directions.
In the history of modern printing (from the end of the 18th century onwards) those
who were involved in the production of books, namely compositors, correctors,
typographers, printers, binders and, later, designers, were among those who were
mostly affected by technological advances. As the methods of originating and multi-
plying words and pictures were changing, people in the printing industry had to educate
themselves about new processes and materials, explore their technical possibilities,
establish new practices, adopt new attitudes and develop new expectations. For
example, the transition from metal printing type to photocomposition and upheavals
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license
to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
N. Martins and D. Brandão (Eds.): Digicom 2020, SSDI 12, pp. 3–12, 2021.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-61671-7_1
4 N. Sioki
Over the last forty years, at least since Michael Hart initiated the idea of books in
electronic form (1971) in Project Gutenberg, a radical change has occurred in the
material characteristics of books.1 Paper pages bound in books were substituted by flat
screens where texts tend to flow in an electronic space. The introduction of ebooks in
the publishing market signaled a series of profound changes in the materiality and the
image of the written word. Printed books are concrete three-dimensional objects with
well-defined physical characteristics such as weight, size, format, scale, binding, use or
absence of colour and pictures, made of materials such as paper, ink, glue and cloth; in
books, content and the materiality of the object are inseparable. This unity between
content and materiality is lost in ebooks which are the assemblage of hardware, such as
dedicated e-readers (Kindle, Nook) or multitask devices (iPad), content, and software
(EPUB, MOBI file formats).
There is a general agreement between professionals and researchers that books in
the digital space are not physical objects [2, 3]. A year after the appearance of iPad in
2010, Kevin Kelly (founder of Wired magazine) suggested that we will become
‘readers of the screen’ and our relationship with the written word will be better
described by a series of six verbs: screening, interacting, sharing, accessing, flowing,
and generating [4]. All these action verbs define what we currently do with/on screens.
The ‘container’ and the way it is used shaped the new form of content. In transcending
the physical medium content on screen has become fluid, indeterminant and
discontinuous.
Whether ‘data objects’ [5] or a set of services, ebooks are embedded with content
which is articulated through words and pictures configured in specific ways. However,
the discussion about the graphic form and the typographic standards applied on the
presentation of content on e-readers’ screens is rather limited in academic circles. As
early as 2001 Jessica Helfand recognized the need ‘to look at screen-based typography
as a new language with its own grammar, its own syntax, and its own rules’ [6, p. 107].
More recently Johanna Drucker [7] acknowledged that it is difficult to discern which
aspects of the traditional book can similarly function on digital space. Since in printed
books textual conventions such as headings and subheadings, marginal commentaries
and footnotes, together with visual hierarchy, the use of space and colour are not formal
decorative elements but ‘coded instructions’ [7, p.172] for how to read and understand
text, we should avoid modelling ebooks on traditional printed books. A new appear-
ance of texts on screen has yet to come.
For the time being, digital content is framed by device specific material and
technological features since manufacturing companies have so far focused on the
1
Michael Hart’s Project Gutenberg, founded in 1971, initiated the idea of electronic texts for
continuous reading before the appearance of ebook readers in the market. Portable dedicated e-
readers such as Amazon’s Kindle (2007) marked the arrival of commercial ebooks in the market.
Visual Language and Textual Form in the Design of ebooks 5
ergonomics of devices. The latter entailed the stripping of texts from their traditional
formative and typographic characteristics. The present discussion offers an analysis of
the implications that digitization has on three typical aspects of the form of the book:
the format, the page and the typography. All three do not only affect and articulate the
organization of visual information but are closely related to the activity of reading. In
addition, it is suggested that current research about the role of interface and the cog-
nitive effects of reading the digital substrate may inform future directions in the design
of ebooks.
boundaries. A long-standing design element that defined a well-built book, i.e. the
spine, has been discarded. In digital space ‘all is recto’ [12, p. 45]; the spine as an axis
of symmetry which no scribe, printer and designer could ignore while arranging text
and image on a double-page spread, has disappeared. Pages turning around the spine
made the book both ‘a sequential and random-access device’ ([13, p. 2] and imbued
reading with ‘a sense of movement and development’ ([14, p. 35]. Accessing content
on ebooks now relies on visual metaphors for ‘familiar experiences rooted in the real or
digital world’.2 However, there is no need to lament the loss of the page, but rather
approach the transfer of texts on screen as another stage in the evolutionary path of the
book as an object. Towards this direction the form of texts has been modelled onto the
physical characteristics and affordances of digital reading devices and the reading
practices they entail. Thus, texts lost their print rigidity, became flowable and malleable
but still remain contained in a closed space. Reading them on screen required readers to
perform new gestures of interaction and engaged cognitively and emotionally with
texts in new ways [15].
3.3 Typography
Harry Carter’s assertion that ‘type is something you can pick up and hold in your hand’
[16, p. 1] described a haptic relationship between punchcutters, engravers, compositors
and type which started in the middle of the 15th century and ended in the 1960s.
Photocomposition initiated the use of optics and light for the reproduction of letters and
broke the long standing mechanical link between type and its image on paper. Within a
short period of time computer typesetting replaced forever all previous methods of text
generation and gave authors direct control over the final printed appearance of their
books; similarly, designers gained direct control over their means of production.
Currently, in the reading environment we experience on e-readers, language is stripped
of the materiality formed so far by ink on paper. The form of texts is defined by a
repertoire of prefabricated typographic specifications which should respond to various
screen sizes. Readers participate in configuring the presentation of texts. But what they
are really invited to do is to make a choice among the range of typefaces and typo-
graphic specifications provided by e-readers.
For example, on Kindle (Paper White/PW), an e-reader that focuses solely on e-
reading, we can configure texts by combining a range of preset typographic specifi-
cations (Table 1).
Readers can choose from a group of default typefaces (both serifs and sans serifs)
which include well-known traditional types significant in printing history. Two among
them, Amazon Ember and Bookerly, resonate the current time (see Fig. 1); both were
exclusively developed for Amazon in 2015 by Dalton Maag type foundry. Bookerly
was a response to Amazon’s request for a typeface that could ‘improve reading speed,
comprehension and emotional acceptance’ [17] and could afford the technical
requirements of e-ink technology and different screen resolutions. Being a serif font, it
2
Human Interface Guidelines (iOS) (2020) https://developer.apple.com/design/human-interface-
guidelines/ios/overview/themes/.
Visual Language and Textual Form in the Design of ebooks 7
seems to perpetuate the common assumption that serifs are more readable for contin-
uous text reading.
It seems that Kindle offers to readers control over a limited number of micro-
typographic units, i.e. the letter and the line, macro-typographic units, i.e. text columns
and margins, as well as few basic but crucial typographic variables (type size and
leading) which, when well-adjusted, provide readers with texts that can be read with
comfort and pleasure. However, the factors on which readability depends are still
constrained by Kindle’s technology.
8 N. Sioki
For example:
a) While a bewildering number of typefaces are available in the market, the range of
fonts that Kindle provides is purely utilitarian. Most times, a text on Kindle differs from
its printed version as the publisher’s font is probably not available on the former. In
some cases, such change undermines the rhetorical meaning that the choice of a typeface
communicates. The latter can be more than a neutral mechanical design decision, as it
may indicate certain beliefs and ideas of the publisher or the designer [18].
b) While text line length and leading are variables that depend on the design
attributes of typefaces, their sizes as well as the kind of text that is being read [19],
Kindle offers to readers three options of text line length and leading that can be chosen
arbitrarily based on their preferences.
In one upgrade (2016), Kindle introduced ‘enhanced typesetting’, a technology that
further enabled readers to customize texts. It was promoted as a new technical feature
that could provide ‘print-like’ layouts recognizing that the publisher’s aim is still to
imitate the subtleties of print typesetting in order to achieve the ultimate reading
experience offered by print.
Kindle exemplifies the fact that pre-setting typographic specifications have a very
limited application. It can only be applied to a specific genre, the novel, which is
mostly constructed of continuous text in a sequential arrangement. To develop preset
typographic specifications for more complex texts would require a whole repertoire of
graphic formats for text elements such as chapter headings, subheadings, captions,
quotations, footnotes, lists and tables [20]. This is probably the reason why on iPad
readers can just choose a from a preselected list for the main text and adjust the type
size. The line length and leading are automatically adjusted as the type size changes.
It seems that the manufacturers of e-readers have allowed readers to step in a
position that was traditionally occupied by typesetters and designers. It becomes evi-
dent that in the textual archipelagos of ebooks the forms in which texts can be artic-
ulated is dramatically undermined. The form of texts is disconnected from the meaning
they communicate and a major component of book design, the editorial approach, is
completely overlooked. Typefaces are stripped of their aesthetic value and power to
visually engage readers and function solely as linguistic codes. Choosing a typeface is
presented as a superficial decision that a layperson can make. How else can we justify
the option of Future for setting the text of a novel on Kindle?
3
Major commercial drivers of the ebook market are currently Amazon (Kindle), Barnes and Noble
(Nook), and Kobo, Apple’s iTunes and Google’s Google Play services [20].
Visual Language and Textual Form in the Design of ebooks 9
‘flexible content containers’ [21] and serve to commodify texts. They tend to promote
qualities of e-readers, such as portability and immediate access to newly published
books, that mainly encourage the consumption of books.
In the field of experimentation there are initiatives that aim at a) expanding content
by using multimedia elements, such as the Faber and Faber’s interactive book app of T.
S. Eliot’s The Wasteland and b) exploring those ‘narrative qualities’ of the digital
medium that cannot be translated into print. For example, in the ‘Editions at play’ the
reading of stories becomes dynamic as it is complemented by an array of interactions
between the reader and the mobile phone screen;4 texts are presented in small chunks
providing the basic story as a skeleton upon which a reading experience is constructed.
In this type of works, audiovisual material tends to subsume textual compositions.
Besides these projects, typography and the visual quality of ‘pages’ still remain of
great importance in works that are initiated in the field of design and the arts either by
independent publishers or within the education sector (see Fig. 2).
Fig. 2. The Mutant Library and ABM landing pages showing available works.
One such example is the Art Book Magazine (ABM),5 a free app on iPad which
provides a showcase for art publications; through experimentation, ABM aims to fill in
a niche in the digital market ‘where it is increasingly difficult to find premium quality
ebooks’ [22]. In Alum, a collection of works by artists who graduated from Ecole
Nationale Superieure D’Art de Nancy, that is specifically designed to be read on a
landscape iPad screen, the notion of the ‘page’ as a limited space, where text and
4
Publisher’s website https://editionsatplay.withgoogle.com/#!/about (Anna Gerber & Brit Iversen in
collaboration with Google’s Creative Lab).
5
Publisher is based in France, https://www.artbookmagazine.com.
10 N. Sioki
6
The work is no longer available in the Apple Store. See http://www.joezeffdesign.com/jzdblog/the-
mutant-library.
Visual Language and Textual Form in the Design of ebooks 11
design of digital texts. Typographic design shapes our intellectual relationship with the
world; therefore, if we paraphrase Chartier [25], in the current digital environment the
way ‘a reader’, and not a user, will attribute meaning to a text will depend on the digital
form in which the text will be published, disseminated and consumed.
It is now time to leave behind the current transitional stage to e-reading and take the
next step in ebooks development, where the emphasis will be on ‘the work, not the
device’ (interview with Vivek Tiwar, in [21, p. 182]). Since reading on screen affects
our cognitive abilities and cultural understanding [26], the typographic design of digital
content requires further exploration and experimentation. Drucker’s claim that interface
is not a ‘thing’7 whose efficient design supports the organization of behaviors and
actions, but a ‘mediating apparatus’ [24, p. 178] that reconfigures our relationship to
the act of reading, opens new ways towards innovative imagination in the design of e-
books.
References
1. McKitterick, D.: Print, Manuscript and the Search of Order 1450–1830. Cambridge
University Press, Cambridge (2003)
2. Cope, B., Phillips, A. (eds.): The Future of the Book in the Digital Age. Chandos Publishing,
Oxford (2006)
3. Rowberry, S.P.: Ebookness. Convergence: Int. J. Res. New Media Technol. 23(3), 289–305
(2015)
4. Kelly, K.: Readers of the screen. The Technium, 2 March 2011. https://kk.org/thetechnium/
readers-of-the/, Accessed 20 Jan 2019
5. Kirschenbaum, M., Werner, S.: Digital scholarship and digital studies: the state of the
discipline. Book History 17, 407–458 (2014)
6. Helfand, J.: Screen: Essays on Graphic Design, New Media and Visual Culture. Princeton
Architectural Press, New York (2001)
7. Drucker, J.: Speclab: Digital Aesthetics and Projects in Speculative Computing. University
of Chicago Press, Chicago (2009)
8. Genette, G.: Paratexts: Thresholds of Interpretation. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
(1997)
9. Williamson, H.: Methods of Book Design. Yale University Press, New Haven (1983)
10. Tschichold, J.: The Form of the Book: Essays in the Morality of Good Design. Lund
Humphries, London (1991)
11. Drucker, J.: Humanities approaches to interface theory. Cult. Mach. 12, 1–19 (2011)
12. Piper, A.: Book was There: Reading in Electronic Times. The University of Chicago Press,
Chicago (2012)
13. Kirschenbaum, M.: Bookscapes: modeling books in electronic space. In: Human-Computer
Interaction Lab 25th Annual Symposium (2008). https://mkirschenbaum.files.wordpress.
com/2013/01/bookscapes.pdf, Accessed 15 Feb 2020
14. Hochuli, J., Kinross, R.: Designing Books: Practice and Theory. Hyphen Press, London
(1996)
7
A mechanistic approach embraced by the HCI community (Drucker 10).
12 N. Sioki
15. Mangen, A.: Textual reading on paper and screen. In: Black, A., Luna, P., Lund, O., Walker,
S. (eds.) Information Design: Research and Practice, pp. 275–291. Routledge, Oxon (2017)
16. Carter, H.: A View of Early Typography: Up to About 1600. Hyphen Press, London (2002)
17. Maag, B.: Designing typefaces for screens (2015). http://ampersand.adtrak.co.uk/2015/
designing-typefaces-for-screens, Accessed 27 Jan 2020
18. Kinross, R.: The rhetoric of neutrality. Des. Issues 2(2), 18–30 (1985)
19. Hochuli, J.: Detail in Typography. Compugraphic Corporation, Wilmington (MA) (1987)
20. Stiff, P.: Spaces and difference in typography. Typography Pap. 4, 124–130 (2000)
21. Grover, A.P.: E-books as non-interactive textual compositions: an argument for simplicity
over complexity in future e-book formats. Publishing Res. Q. 32(3), 178–186 (2016)
22. https://www.artbookmagazine.com/en/qui-sommes-nous, Accessed 15 Aug 2020
23. Drucker, J.: Reading interface. PMLA 128(1), 213–220 (2013)
24. Drucker, J.: Graphesis: Visual Forms of Knowledge Production. Harvard University Press,
Cambridge, MA (2014)
25. Chartier, R.: Writing on the computer screen: electronic writing and the order of discourse.
In: Hoeks, H., Lentjes, E. (eds.) The Triumph of Typography: Culture, Communication,
New Media, pp. 202–209. ArtEZ Press, Arnhem (2015)
26. Kovač, M., Van des Weel, A.: Reading in a post-textual era, First Monday, vol. 23 (10)
(2018). https://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/download/9416/7592, Accessed 5
Aug 2020
Mobile Application Oriented to Packaging
Sustainability
Abstract. This paper has the purpose of gathering information about packaging
materials and their characteristics related to sustainability in order to be applied
in a future mobile application. Methodology and applied User Experience
Design (UX) techniques are described as well, as those are fundamental to the
application development process. An overview of people’s behaviour is also
approached, as well as the creation of a simple system to classify different types
of packages according to how sustainable they are. The purpose of this project is
to simplify the theme and categorize it, to be used as the main content in a future
platform. A series of UX techniques and its results are available in this docu-
ment in order to support the application development. Results are discussed as
this paper represent the initial steps of a whole development process. The
conclusion shows significant potential for positive environmental impacts
through the proposed application’s purpose.
1 Introduction
The subject that is being approached in this article is the impact of packaging materials
over the environment as well as descriptions of applied user experience design
(UX) research techniques. That research works as a support for the development of a
future mobile application prototype. UX is a field that focuses on the user and its
interaction context with a determined system or service, considering its experience and
emotions (Hassenzahl 2013). It has the objective of creating products that could help
people, delivering experiences that are able to improve the way they work, interact and
communicate (Preece et al. 2002, Norman & Nielsen 2016). Considering those con-
ceptions, this article’s main purpose is to show the application of User Centred Design
(UCD) and UX methods and techniques that were applied in the first phase of project
development.
The problem (theme) is approached in the initial section of the paper and then the
following ones are dedicated to the methodology steps taken and its analysis.
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license
to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
N. Martins and D. Brandão (Eds.): Digicom 2020, SSDI 12, pp. 13–22, 2021.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-61671-7_2
14 S. Marques and R. Rodrigues
The proposed interface has the aim of helping users to decrease the negative impact of
general packaging over the environment. The main idea where the platform is based on
is the functionality of a bar-code reader which allows the user to recognize a product.
After recognition, the system will display specific information about a product package,
informing specifications about its level of sustainability. The data collection happens
through a collaborative database where users can add information in case they cannot
find it.
UX design techniques are fundamental to achieve a high level of quality in the final
product, as its results can interfere positively over decisions that are made through
development.
2 Theoretical Framework
According to the results, most of European society is concerned about the envi-
ronment and it is willing to adjust their behaviour to achieve an “eco-friendlier” way of
living.
At the time of the survey of 1650 Newton Street (i.e., the old
Newton Street, north of the stream which crossed it where Macklin
Street now joins, and separated it from Cross Lane), was fully built,
and the remaining frontage of Purse Field to Holborn, between
Newton Street and the site of the Holborn Public Library, was
apparently occupied by nine houses, held by Thomas Farmer and
Henry Alsopp, to whom Francis Cornwallis had assigned his lease so
far as concerned that part of the field.
The yard, formerly Green Dragon Yard, at the side of the
Holborn Public Library, marks the site of the ancient stream which
formed the western boundary of Purse Field. The stream seems to
have remained open in this part of its course until about 1650, as a
deed dated 7th November in that year,[79] in view of the fact that
Thomas Vaughan and his wife Elinor “are to be att greate cost and
charges in the arching or otherwise covering over the sewer or
wydraught under mencioned, by meanes whereof the inhabitants
there adjacent shall not be annoyed as formerly they were thereby, as
for divers other good considerations them hereunto moving,”
provides that the said sewer “as the same is now severed, sett out and
fenced, scituate ... on the backside of a messuage of the said Thomas
Vaughan commonly called ... by the name or signe of The Greene
Dragon” shall be demised to the Vaughans.
The land immediately to the west of the yard in question
originally formed part of Rose Field, and was probably developed at
the same time as the rest of that estate. In 1650, William Short, the
owner of Rose Field, in conjunction with John De La Chambre, sold
to Thomas Grover 4 messuages, 12 cottages, 12 gardens and one rood
of land with appurtenances, in St. Giles.[80] The precise position of
this property is not mentioned, but there does not seem to be much
doubt that the premises are identical with, or a portion of, those
which Grover sold to Edmond Medlicott in 1666,[81] and which
consisted of 16 houses in Holborn, including the “messuage
commonly known by the name or signe of The Harrow,” and also the
“lane or alley called Wild boare Alley alias Harrow Alley, with all the
severall messuages, tenements, edifices and void peice or plot of
ground in the said alley.” The property is said to front upon Holborn
on the north, and to have for its eastern boundary a way or passage
leading from Holborn to the house and garden of Mr. Braithwait. The
dimensions are given as: “In depth from north to south at the west
end, one hundred fourscore and ten foote, and throughout the whole
range and pile of buildings besides from north to south fower score
and seven foote, and in breadth from east to west sixty and three
foote.” The last figure is certainly wrong, for even if half of the
sixteen houses in Holborn were lying behind the rest (as indeed was
probably the case) this would only admit of an average frontage of 8
feet to a house. A probable emendation is “six score and three” which
gives a 15 feet frontage to each house.
The land behind these premises, reached by the path along,
and afterwards over, the stream, was leased by William Short in 1632
to Jeremiah Turpin for the remainder (20 years) of a term of 36
years,[82] and then consisted of garden ground upon which Turpin
had recently built a house. It seems most probable that this[83] is the
place referred to in the petition,[84] dated 17th June, 1630, of the
inhabitants of High Holborn, calling attention to the fact that there
was a dangerous and noisome passage between High Holborn and
St. Giles Fields, by reason of a dead mud wall and certain old
“housing,” which lately stood close to the same, where divers people
had been murdered and robbed, and praying for leave for building to
be erected thereon. In their report[85] on this petition, the Earls of
Dorset and Carlisle refer to it as “concerning the building of Jeremy
Turpin,” and recommend the granting of leave to build.
It may therefore be concluded that the house was built
between 1630 and 1632. A full description[86] of the property as it was
in 1640 is extant, and is interesting as giving an idea of the private
gardens of that time. Reference is made, among other things, to the
arbour formed of eight pine trees, the “sessamore” tree under the
parlour window, 13 cherry trees against the brick wall on the east of
the garden, 14 more round the grass plot, rows of gooseberry bushes,
rose trees and “curran trees,” another arbour “set round about with
sweete brier,” more cherry trees, pear, quince, plum and apple trees,
a box plot planted with French and English flowers, six rosemary
trees, one “apricock” tree and a mulberry tree.
The ground on which Smart’s Buildings and Goldsmith Street
were erected at one time formed part of Bear Croft or Bear Close, so
called, no doubt, because it was used as pasture land in connection
with The Bear inn, on the south side of Broad Street, St. Giles.[87]
At about 1570 there were, immediately to the south of the
White Hart property at the corner of Drury Lane, eight houses. The
three most northerly abutted on the east upon “a close of grounde
called the Bere Close, late belonging to Robert Wise, gentilman”[88];
while the five others, with the close itself (of 2½ acres) are described
as “adjoynynge to the Quenes highe waye ... leadinge from Strande ...
to thest end of the said towne of Saint Giles on the west parte, and
abuttinge upon the close nowe our said soveraigne ladye the Quenes
Majesties, called the Rose feilde, on thest and south partes, and
abuttinge upon the messuage or tenemente nowe or late in the
tenure of one William Braynsgrave,[89] and the tenement called The
White Harte, late in the tenure ... of one Matthewe Bucke, and nowe
in that of one Richarde Cockshoote, and the Quenes highe waye
leadinge from Holborne towardes the est end of the said towne of
Saint Gyles on the north part.”[90]
The boundary line between Bear Close and Rose Field is
nowhere described. It is known, however,[91] that Rose Field reached
as far north as the line bounding the rear of the buildings in Macklin
Street, and there is reason to believe that this line marks the actual
division between the two fields. As regards the eastern boundary a
line starting from High Holborn between No. 191 and No. 192[92] and
running along the western side of the southerly spur of Goldsmith
Street, seems to fulfil all the conditions. It is not known what was the
depth of the eight houses and gardens fringing Bear Close on the
west, but allowing 60 feet, the area of Bear Close, defined as above,
amounts to two acres. It is hardly possible, therefore, to limit its
boundaries any further. It seems probable that the quadrangle
shown in Agas’s map (Plate 1) at the north-east corner of Drury Lane
was Bear Close, and it will be observed that, according to the map,
the houses south of The White Hart stretched along the whole of the
Drury Lane frontage of the close.
Bear Close formed a part of that portion of the property of the
Hospital of St. Giles which, after the dissolution, came into the hands
of Katherine Legh, afterwards Lady Mountjoy. With the five
southernmost of the houses separating Bear Close from Drury Lane,
and other property, it was purchased of the Mountjoys by George
Harrison, from whom by various stages it came into the possession
of James Mascall.[90] The latter died on 11th May, 1585,[93] leaving the
whole of his property to his wife, Anne, who subsequently married
John Vavasour. From her the whole of the property above
mentioned[94] seems to have come into the hands of Olive Godman,
younger daughter of James and Anne. A portion of this, including
“all the ground or land lying on the backside of [certain] messuages
towards the east, contayning two acres, now or late in the occupation
of ... Thomas Burrage” was settled on her daughter, Frances, on the
marriage of the latter with Francis Gerard in 1634.[95] There seems
little doubt that the land in question was Bear Close.
It was apparently soon after this that the close was laid out for
building, the planning taking the form of a cross, the long and cross
beams being represented respectively by the present Goldsmith
Street and Smart’s Buildings. The former street was, up to 1883,
known as The Coal Yard, in consequence it is said, “of the place being
used for the storage of fuel.”[96] The tale has a somewhat suspicious
look. The fact, too, that “Mr. Francis Gerard,” the owner of Bear
Close, and “Bassitt Cole, Esq.,” are found living in two adjoining
houses in Drury Lane close by in 1646 rather suggests that “Cole
Yard” is so called because of the name of its builder.[97]
The date at which Bear Close seems to have been built upon
favours the above suggestion. The Hearth Tax Roll for 1666 gives 41
names which are apparently to be referred to Coal Yard, while
Hollar’s Plan of 1658 shows the area by no means covered. The
Subsidy Roll for 1646 gives only five names definitely in respect of
“Cole Yard,” but there are 15 more which probably must be assigned
thereto.
At some time before 1666 the eight houses fronting Drury
Lane had given way to the present number of twelve. In the case of
the four northernmost, this happened shortly after 1636, when a
building lease of the sites of the houses was granted to Richard Brett.
[98]