The wretched news that the old Daily Dispatch building at 35 Caxton Street had been gutted was distressing for me but not wholly unexpected. After all, it had served as a wool storage depot before it became the home of the newspaper, the printing presses and the staff for more than 100 years. Its ancient timber must have been thoroughly oil-soaked from the amount of pelts stored there in the heyday of the wool trade in East London.