91³Ô¹ÏÍø

spotted this charming relief on the second floor balcony of this flatiron building. We've identified the activity as bookbinding but need to understand why here. Printing (and so, we imagine, bookbinding) in London was centred at different times in the St Paul's area and the Fleet Street area but never in Covent Garden, as far as we know. The building, disappointingly, is not listed. Can anyone help?

December 2022: John Cottrell answered our plea, first by correcting the address (we had it in Earlham Street) and then directing us to published by the Seven Dials Trust: "Nos. 144-146 Shaftesbury Avenue was designed by Richard M. Roe and G. Richards Julian of 62-3 Basinghall Street. The plans are dated 1 August 1889. The premises are first described as Cambridge House (POD 1891) and were occupied from then on by Zaehnsdorfs, bookbinders, for whom it seems to have been built. The carved plaque on the corner over the entrance shows a bookbinder at work."