Eric Marland's Alphabet Museum

Eric Marland's Alphabet Museum is in the rescued chapel, once earmarked for demolition by the church authorities. "They could not afford the demolition fees and so it remained until I came along and bought it" Eric tells me. The chapel is now a fully working studio. Part of the renovation works was the installation of a large woodburner. "Don't forget it was a morgue chapel!" Eric reminds me.

The name comes from the rescued stone, designed by David Kindersley, that sits outside the chapel now. It belonged to Dr. David Diringer - a reknown expert in Semitic Epigraphy at University of Cambridge - and sat outside his home in St Barnabas Rd in Cambridge.

Eric was an apprentice to David Kindersley - highly regarded for his beautiful spacing - who in turn was an apprentice to Eric Gill (Gill Sans) who in turn studied under Edward Johnston (London Transport typeface). For those in typography, that is quite a lineage of the greats of UK lettercutting and typeface design over the last 100 years.

A documentary video mixing oral recording and photographs is available in my videos, Eric Marland's Alphabet Museum.

Alphabet Museum and Seminar (David Kindersley)

The Chapel Studio

Lettercutting

Master and Apprentice

A Finished Piece

One I Made Earlier I (Eric Marland)

Comparing Headstones

One I Made Earlier II (Eric Marland)

One I Made Earlier III (Eric Marland)

One I Admire (David Kindersley)

One I Made Earlier IV (Eric Marland)

One I Made Earlier V (Eric Marland)

Ah, There You Are!