FOOD

Breakfast

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Kippers

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Queen Victoria's endorsement of Scotland (her acquisition of Balmoral) helped to promote the appreciation of kippers.

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Porridge

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Prior to the 19^thC porridge was a regional food that was eaten principally in Scotland and the North of England. When Queen Victoria encountered it she delighted in it and had it become part of her regular breakfast menu.

Bubble and Squeak

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Bubble and squeak is a dish that is composed of the reheated remains of a previous meal. The principal ingredients are cabbage and potato. Its name derives from the cooking sounds of the ingredients first boiling and then frying. The first known literary reference to it is in Thomas Bridges's (c.1710-c.1775) A Travestie of Homer (1762).

Canteens

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Canteen Culture

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Peter Middleton (1940-2014) was a Yorkshireman who trained to become a monk. However, ultimately, he concluded that he was not temperamentally-suited to the contemplative life. He wandered through sporting, academic, and diplomatic lives before entering business. His intellectual gifts led employers to overlook his basic idiosyncrasy. He was hired by Lloyds, a bank.

In 1985 Midland Bank International poached Middleton so that he could sought out Thomas Cook, which the bank owned and which was in a sorry condition. On his first day he went to the staff canteen. This was segregated into three zones that were used according to seniority. He opted to dine in the lowest of these. When he sat down, he introduced himself to the people who were already sitting at the table. They noted his casual attire and his northern accent. Therefore, they were not inclined to take him at face value. He proved the matter by providing them with post-prandial coffee in his office.

Middleton succeeded in turning Thomas Cook around. The company was sold for a large profit.

Location: 45 Berkeley Street, W1J 8EJ (orange, pink)

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Superior Fare

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The quality of the food that was served in the canteen of the B.B.C. Television s North Acton rehearsal centre was distinctly better than that which was provided in the Television Centre one. There is a theory that this was because leading actors, such as Laurence Olivier and John Gielgud, would spend more time in the former facility than the latter.

Compliments of The House

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Compliments of The House distributes commercially-made waste food to people who are in need. It was founded by Sinéad Browne after she had come across Free Store, an organisation that was operating in a like manner in Wellington, New Zealand. She was struck by the sense of community that it generated and acted as a volunteer for a couple months. During her childhood she had had periods of homelessness and had experienced food insecurity.

Location: International House, 6 Canterbury Crescent, Brixton, SW9 7QD

See Also: HOMELESSNESS

Website: www.complimentsofthehouse.org www.thefreestore.org.nz

Crisps

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Golden Wonder's Cheese & Onion overtook Smith s. The latter responded by launching Salt & Vinegar in 1967.

Dieting

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Banting

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In the 1863 William Banting (1797-1878) was a successful undertaker, whose clients included members of the royal family. In the 1860s he found himself obese and desirous of losing weight. He bought a boat and rowed frequently on the Thames. While he became more muscular, the exercise made him hungry and remained overweight. He consulted the physician William Harvey who suggested he reduced his intake of carbohydrates and raise his consumption of fats. Over a period of months the undertaker shed the stones he wished to be rid of. He wrote a pamphlet entitled A Letter On Corpulence, Addressed To The Public (1863). This sold well and came to the notice of Wilhelm Epstein, a German physician, who devised and then promoted a more honed version. The Banting-Epstein approach became the medically orthodox approach to losing weight in the Anglophone and German-speaking worlds.

Following the Second World War a quantitative calories in, calories out approach that originated in the United States became the predominant approaching to dieting.

Location: c.145 Kensington High Street (4 The Terrace), c.W8 6SU. Home. (orange, black)

27 St James's Street, SW1A 1HA. Business premises. (red, purple)

22 Pall Mall, SW1Y 5EW. Business premises. (orange, pink)

Byron

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Byron had body issues. He went on numerous diets.

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Eggs

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It was the use of electric lights that enabled egg production to become year-round. Prior to that, eggs had been cheapest during the spring. It was an element in the seasonality of food.

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The Golden Egg

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The Golden Egg chain was an egg-centred restaurant chain. It was founded in 1958 by the brothers Philip and Reginald Kaye (n Kropifko), who had run Wimpy franchises. Eggs had been rationed until 1954.

J. Lyons bought Golden Egg in 1970. Six years later the business was sold on to United Biscuits.

Extreme Obesity

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Francis Grose

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Francis Grose (1731-1791) was a noted antiquary. It was said of him that he grew to be so obese that he had to have a servant strap him into bed each night. Supposedly, this was because once his belly moved the rest of him would follow.

Location: Clement s Inn, WC2A 2AZ (blue, yellow)

Feasting

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Boar's Head Dinner

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The Cutlers' Yuletide Boar's Head Dinner involves the beast's head being born into the dining room in a sedan chair.

Location: Cutlers Hall, Warwick Lane, EC4M 7BR (blue, turquoise)

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Whitebait Feasts

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Whitebait are the small, translucent or silver-white fry of members of the herring family. In 1780 Richard Cannon of Blackwall persuaded local tavern keepers to start serving whitebait feasts. These became highly fashionable. They were held from February to August.

Fishfingers

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In 1955 fish fingers went on sale. Seven years later they were placed on the Retail Price Index.

The widespread consumption of fish fingers in the United Kingdom may have been a factor led to Britain taking to frozen convenience food in a way that the rest of Europe was slower to do.

Food Adulteraion

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Friedrich Accum

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In the 19^thC the German-born chemist Friedrich Accum exposed some of the food adulterations that food processors and retailers were engaging in such as placing red lead in Double Gloucester cheese and greening vegetables with copper. His work had little lasting impact.

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Arthur Hassall

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Arthur Hassall studied food under a microscope. In 1850 he published a paper that caused a sensation. He associated himself with Thomas Wakley, the founding Editor of The Lancet. Wakley backed Hassall, enabling the latter to publish a series of articles that vendors of adulterated foods. These prompted the establishment of a Parliamentary committee. It confirmed his findings.

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The Food Adulteration Act of 1860

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In 1858 twenty people died as a result of poisonous lozenges having been sold in Bradford. The incident led to the passage of the Food Adulteration Act of 1860.

The Food & Drink Federation

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The Food & Drink Federation represents the global food brands and the U.K. s big food manufacturers. The organisation was founded in 1913.

Location: 10 Bloomsbury Way, WC1A 2SL

Website: www.fdf.org.uk

Food Processing

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Women who worked in food processing factories would let their hair down on a Saturday night, it having been confined within hairnets during their workdays.

Health Food

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The Ryder Cup

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Golf s Ryder Cup derives its name from Samuel Ryder, a pious Lancashire businessman. His business activities included setting up in 1922 a company called Heath & Heather, which sold seeds and herbs. This developed into Britain's principal health food retailer. In 1970 the business was renamed Holland & Barrett.

Website: www.hollandandbarrett.com www.rydercup.com

The Impact of Industrialisation

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During the Napoleonic Wars the British Army required that recruits should be at least 5ft., 6in.-tall. A century later, during the Boer Wars, the requirement had to be lowered to 5ft. in order to secure enough men. Of those who were over that height, 40% were rejected because their diets had rendered incapable of meeting the physical demands that might be made of them.

The London Food Studies Centre

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S.O.A.S., The London Food Studies Centre is an interdisciplinary centre that studies food and its context.

Location: The School of Oriental & African Studies, Thornhaugh Street, WC1H 0XG

Website: www.soas.ac.uk/foodstudies

Lunch

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S.G. Warburg

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The merchant bank S.G. Warburg was famed for having two lunches every weekday. This was so that its employees could double the number of clients they stayed in close contact with.

Market Gardening

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Battersea

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Battersea bundles - the name for asparagus that had been grown in Battersea's market gardens.

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Greenhouse

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During the 19^thC the increasing air pollution from burning coal made it harder to grow plants in many cities. However, greenhouses, which were themselves a highly industrialised product, made it possible to cultivate more sensitive plants. London's market gardeners became dependent upon them.

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The Lea Valley

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The Lea Valley used to contain the largest acreage of glass in the world.

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Neat House Gardens

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Neat Houses was a 200-acre series of market gardens that covered much

Location: Neathouse Place, SW1V 1EJ (orange, purple)

Nutrition

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Sir Jack Drummond

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At the age of 31, (Sir) Jack Drummond (1891-1952) was appointed to be a Professor of Biochemistry at University College London. During the Second World War he worked closely with Lord Woolton in the Ministry of Food. His work helped to mass starvation in The Netherlands and he created a gruel that was fed to the concentration camp survivors that enabled them to start returning to a normal diet. After the war he worked for Boots, a pharmacies and medicines company.

In 1952 he, his second wife, and their ten-year-old daughter were murdered while on holiday in France. Gaston Dominici, a local peasant farmer, was convicted of the murders. Seven years later President de Gaulle ordered Dominici's release on humanitarian grounds.

Location: Gower Street, WC1E 6BT (purple, red)

See Also: WEST GERMANY's MIDWIFE

Nuts

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Tax

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In 2024 it was the case that 20 %V.A.T. was charged on roasted and shelled nuts. All other nuts were zero-rated unless sold as bird food.

See Also: BIRDS Bird Food, Tax

Organic Food

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The Soil Association

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The Soil Association certified organic standards in Britain. It was founded by Balfour in 1946.

Pancakes

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A difference between the British and the Americans is that the former tend to only eat pancakes on Pancake Day, whereas for the latter they are an everyday breakfast food. This is thought to derive in part from the fact that the Brits tend to weigh ingredients, whereas the Yanks tend to measure them.

Sandwich

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The Earl of Sandwich's invention of the Sandwich while gambling.

See Also: GAMBLING

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Mama Cass

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In 1974 the American singer Mama Cass died in a flat at No. 9 Curzon Place. According to urban legend she choked on a ham sandwich. This was not the case. She had had a fatal heart attack. The story is supposed to have derived from the coroner noting that there was a half-eaten ham sandwich on the night table next to her bed.¹

Location: 9 Curzon Place, W1J 5HQ (blue, red)

¹. Four years later Keith Moon, The Who s drummer, also died in the flat.

The Second World War

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Puberty In Girls

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In 1948, at the request of the Ministry of Health, James Tanner (1920-2010), a physiology lecturer at St Thomas's Hospital, began a longitudinal study childhood growth. He was assisted by Regimental Sergeant-Major R.H. Whitehouse. They studied children who lived in the National Children's Home orphanage in Harpenden. He set down the average age at which puberty started in girls. However, his study was flawed by the fact that the children had lived through the Second World War and were experiencing the post-war food shortages. However, his findings went unchallenged for decades. In 1956 he moved to the Institute of Child Health. The project ended in 1971.

Location: The Institute of Child Health, 30 Guildford Street, WC1N 1EH (purple, yellow)

Website: www.ucl.ac.uk/child-health/great-ormond-street-institute-child-health-0

Soup Kitchens

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In the 1790s Count Rumford developed soup kitchens. Both William Cobbett and Karl Marx had a profound dislike of them.

David Backhouse 2024