Fleet Street
“Fleet Street” card game published by Chad Valley Games, c.1923.
This popular card game probably sold very well when it was issued in around 1923 because there seem to still be plenty around today. I have been fascinated by the cards ever since my childhood as my parents had the game in the house when I was born. I spent many happy days laying out the cards and when I could read began to wonder what all the headlines were about. Most of the cards picture the newspapers’ billboards, but the magazines and some of the weeklies show the front covers of the publications. Chad Valley issued a second edition, I don’t know when, with just three changes to the cards and a new back design in yellow and red very similar to the back design for their Sparx card game but with a fan of Fleet Street cards and the name printed in a central circle. The reason for the change is hard to determine read full article →

Above: “Fleet Street” card game published by Chad Valley Games, c.1923.

By Rex Pitts (1940-2021)
Member since January 30, 2009
View ArticlesRex's main interest was in card games, because, he said, they were cheap and easy to get hold of in his early days of collecting. He is well known for his extensive knowledge of Pepys games and his book is on the bookshelves of many.
His other interest was non-standard playing cards. He also had collections of sheet music, music CDs, models of London buses, London Transport timetables and maps and other objects that intrigued him.
Rex had a chequered career at school. He was expelled twice, on one occasion for smoking! Despite this he trained as a radio engineer and worked for the BBC in the World Service.
Later he moved into sales and worked for a firm that made all kinds of packaging, a job he enjoyed until his retirement. He became an expert on boxes and would always investigate those that held his cards. He could always recognize a box made for Pepys, which were the same as those of Alf Cooke’s Universal Playing Card Company, who printed the card games. This interest changed into an ability to make and mend boxes, which he did with great dexterity. He loved this kind of handicraft work.
His dexterity of hand and eye soon led to his making card games of his own design. He spent hours and hours carefully cutting them out and colouring them by hand.