Survey of Kessel Street for the guild register, made by the Registrar's clerk in the spring of 1213. This is the archive copy. It has been corrected throughout in pencil, in a small, neat archival hand, and each correction is initialled O. V.
Kessel Street runs downhill from Guild Square at its head to the river stair at Kessel Bend, a little under a quarter of a mile. Odd numbers stand on the north side and even numbers on the south. Most houses are three storeys high and lean towards each other across the street, so that on the upper floors neighbours can pass a cup of tea between windows, and do.
No. 1, the Binders' Guildhall
- Trade. The guild.
- Occupants. The Master folder, Absalom Thrale, in the Master's rooms on the second floor. The Registrar's office and the archive on the first.
- Folds on the register. The Guildhall Book. Three usher folds, which show visitors to the rail.
- Notes. The tower above the hall holds the six bells known as the Signatures.
The Master keeps no folds of his own, he says. Unusual in a master folder. Not, I should add, a crime. O. V.
No. 2, Haverell & Co., paper makers (office)
- Trade. Paper. The mill itself is at the Bend, Nos. 18 to 22.
- Occupants. Miss Clemency Haverell and two clerks.
- Folds on the register. One paper boat, in a bowl of water on the counter.
The boat sails upstream round its bowl, of which it is very proud. Do not point out that a bowl has no current. O. V.
No. 3, Corvin's Inks
- Trade. Ink merchant. Iron-gall, lamp-black, vermilion and a blue nobody else in Varrow can match.
- Occupants. Mr and Mrs Corvin.
- Folds on the register. None.
Folds avoid ink shops. Ink is to a fold what a puddle is to a cat. O. V.
No. 5, Tallow & Sons, printers
- Trade. Jobbing printers: handbills, posters, broadsheets and the guild's own pamphlets.
- Occupants. Mr Amos Tallow; his sons Elias and Bram; his daughter Nell, apprentice.
- Folds on the register. One crane, a god of luck, resident in the front window since 1202.
"& Sons." The best printer in that shop is sixteen and a daughter, and the clerk should say so. O. V.
The crane is elegant, vain and entirely right about the lettering on the window glass, which is crooked. O. V.
No. 6, Merrow & Daughters, stationers and paper factors
- Trade. Writing paper, account books and wholesale paper, with a counting-house behind the shop.
- Occupants. Mrs Lavinia Merrow, proprietor. Her daughters Prue and Agnes. Her son Tobias, who keeps the front counter.
- Folds on the register. One ledger, god of the counting-house ledger, awake since 1171.
The Ledger will give you any figure in that house since 1171 and nothing else whatever. It does not do conversation. It does arithmetic, aloud, at night, and the neighbours have learned to sleep through it. O. V.
No. 7, Pask's Bindery
- Trade. Bookbinding, fine and plain.
- Occupants. Mr Lionel Pask. Rooms above let to Miss O. Varga, retired.
- Folds on the register. One index-card fox, entered as "filing aid".
He is not a filing aid. He is Quire, a god of finding things that have been filed in the wrong place, which is a different thing and a better one. Correct the register. O. V.
No. 9, the Deckle Edge, public house
- Trade. Ale, pies and argument.
- Occupants. Mrs Bridget Hale, landlady.
- Folds on the register. One paper hat, folded for a wedding in 1196.
The hat has not stopped celebrating since the bench ruled in its favour. Folds are not served at the Deckle Edge. They are also never asked to leave. O. V.
No. 10, Brisk's Envelopes
- Trade. Envelopes, sealing wax, string.
- Occupants. The Misses Brisk.
- Folds on the register. Seventeen envelopes, all sealed.
Do not ask them what they contain. They will not lie to you. They will simply stay shut, and you will feel foolish. O. V.
No. 11, Slane & Daughter, typefounders
- Trade. Metal type, cast on the premises.
- Occupants. Mrs Ada Slane and Miss Ruth Slane.
- Folds on the register. None.
Mrs Slane wraps every packet of type she sells in a folded paper, and not one of them has ever woken, because she folds them without meaning anything by it. A rare skill on this street. O. V.
No. 12, Orrin's Pastes and Glues
- Trade. Paste, glue and size.
- Occupants. The widow Orrin.
- Folds on the register. None.
The folds call it "the place". They do not say it fondly. O. V.
No. 14, Fairweather's Maps
- Trade. Maps and charts, new and old.
- Occupants. Mr Eliot Fairweather.
- Folds on the register. Four maps, gods of finding.
Ask a map for directions. Never ask it for an opinion. They remember the street as it was on the day they were folded, and they are not interested in being corrected. O. V.
No. 16, the watch box
- Trade. The city watch, built in 1174, after the Charter.
- Occupants. One constable, most days.
Most days. O. V.
Nos. 18 to 22, the Haverell mill at the Bend
- Trade. Paper. Rebuilt after the Great Unfolding on the old foundations.
- Folds on the register. Paper boats on the mill steps, numbers varying.
Above the mill door there is a small sheet of paper, flat, pinned behind glass. It is the boat Bend, unfolded on 4 November 1173. Nobody has refolded it, because nobody may. Nobody touches the glass either. O. V.
Totals
The clerk's survey counts thirty-one folds on the register for the whole street.
I count thirty-four. The other three know who they are. O. V.
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