CORNWALL AND ANDERTON'S HOTEL
Sta,—In last week's " Notebook " " Janus " mentions that Q. as a boy put up at Anderton's Hotel in Fleet Street with his father, an hotel " much frequented by the Cornish." " Janus " asks why the Cornish found a rendezvous at Anderton's ?
One explanation is that about the time of Q.'s boyhood there was an influx of budding journalists from the Launceston district, and the. Launceston Weekly News provided quite a number of them. There was Sir Edmund Robbins, who became general manager of the Press Associa- tion, after passing the editorial chair of that news agency. With offices in Wine Office Court, Fleet Street, it would be quite natural for Cornish visitors• to make their headquarters at Anderton's, a few doors away. It was Sir Edmund Robbins who sent the first press telegram from the P.A. after the Post Office had taken over the wires in 3869.
Then-there was Sir Alfred Robbins, also from Launceston, who became Parliamentary correspondent to the Birmingham Post. Later, the brothers Brimmell arrived in London from Launceston, one of whom became chief day editor of the Press Association and the other chief night editor.
In the early days of Anderton's that hotel was largely used for meetings and conferences connected with the Press, and with so many Cornishmen in Fleet Street, it is not difficult to understand why the hotel was so
well patronised by Cornish visitors.—Yours, &c., P. A. SHAW. Highfield, Sidcup.
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