The façade’s bright polychrome tiles are set against a background of creamy-white tiles that Doulton & Co., Lambeth, called Carrara-ware owing to their resemblance to marble. The figure in the pediment holds a lamp and mirror, representing light and truth. Some way below her is the winged Spirit of Literature holding an open book. On either side of this figure are Gutenberg, who introduced moveable metal type into Europe, and William Morris, the leader of the late-Victorian renaissance in fine printing. Both are toiling at their presses, and round them are their own respective alphabets. Below the two first-floor arches is Edward Everard’s name in the typeface that he designed. ‘EE’, surrounded by a wreath of oak and mistletoe in repoussé copper, decorates the heavy wrought iron gates below.