Food.

Last week the end video on the Maggot Sandwich featured the food bank based at the Queen Street Baptist Church in Erith. Shortly after publishing the Blog update, I received a number of emails from readers, including a message which reads:-"Unfortunately the Trussell Trust Food bank at Queen Street Baptist Church no longer exists, as the Church decided they were not letting the hall to Trussell Trust Food bank any more. The Food bank has found help at Belvedere Community Centre on Mitchell Close Belvedere, but only on Wednesday mornings. The centre is also having problems with management, so this arrangement may have a limited life. Something is better than nothing. There is a Trussell Trust Food bank at Trinity Baptist Church in Broadway Bexleyheath on Fridays 9.30 to 11.30 am. There is an independent food bank at St Augustine's Church Hall, Slade Green Road, Slade Green on Monday to Thursday 10-6pm Friday 10-7pm". Whilst researching the subject of food banks, I came across an astonishing amount of information. The concept of providing food aid to those in need is not new. Throughout British history, various forms of charity and poor relief existed, often spearheaded by religious institutions and local benefactors. Soup kitchens, for instance, have a long lineage, offering sustenance during periods of economic hardship. However, the modern food bank, as we understand it today, has a more recent and specific trajectory. The late 20th century witnessed the initial stirrings of the contemporary food bank movement in the UK. While isolated initiatives may have existed earlier, the establishment of the Trussell Trust in 1997 is widely considered a pivotal moment. Founded by Paddy and Carol Henderson in response to the growing need they witnessed in their local community in Salisbury, the Trussell Trust pioneered a model of providing three days' emergency food to individuals and families facing crisis. This model, reliant on donated food and a voucher referral system through local agencies, proved to be both effective and replicable. The early years of the 21st century saw a gradual expansion of food banks, largely driven by grass roots efforts and faith-based organisations. However, the landscape shifted dramatically in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis and the subsequent period of austerity measures implemented by the government. Welfare reforms, rising unemployment, and stagnant wages led to a significant increase in the number of people struggling to afford basic necessities, including food. This period witnessed an exponential growth in the number of food banks across the UK. The Trussell Trust network expanded rapidly, and numerous independent food banks also emerged to meet the escalating demand. Organisations like the Independent Food Aid Network (IFAN) were established to support and connect these independent initiatives. The reasons for this surge in food bank usage are multifaceted and deeply intertwined with socio-economic factors. Research consistently points to issues such as benefit delays and sanctions, low wages, insecure employment, rising living costs (particularly housing and energy), and debt as key drivers of food insecurity. Food banks, therefore, became not just providers of emergency food but also barometers of wider societal challenges and failures in the social safety net. The role and necessity of food banks have become a subject of considerable debate. While they provide a vital lifeline for individuals and families in crisis, concerns have been raised about their sustainability and whether they are becoming an embedded feature of the welfare system rather than a temporary solution. Critics argue that the increasing reliance on food banks reflects a failure of the state to adequately support its most vulnerable citizens. Despite these debates, food banks continue to play a crucial role in communities across the UK. They are often staffed by dedicated volunteers who not only distribute food but also offer signposting to other support services, such as debt advice and mental health resources. They represent a powerful expression of community solidarity and a response to the immediate needs of those facing hardship. Looking ahead, the future of food banks in the UK remains uncertain. While efforts are being made to address the root causes of food poverty, the ongoing cost of living crisis suggests that the demand for emergency food aid is likely to persist. Understanding the history of food banks – from their early, modest beginnings to their current widespread presence – is crucial for comprehending the complex challenges of poverty and inequality in contemporary Britain and for informing future policy responses. They serve as a stark reminder of the fragility of food security for many and the vital, albeit often strained, role of community-based support in filling the gaps. Comments, opinions, thoughts and feedback to me at hugh.neal@gmail.com. 

Woolworths opened in Erith in 1930. It was on Pier Road, opening in an existing Victorian building which you can see in the upper of the two photos above. In 1966 Deputy Mayor, Councellor Mrs M Barron, ceremoniously smashed the window of what was the beautiful Hedley’s department store (opposite Woolworths), marking the commencement of the demolition of Erith Town Centre to make way for redevelopment. As a consequence, all the existing Victorian buildings were lost, and a hideous brutalist concrete shopping centre replaced it. In 1973 the Woolworths store was the victim of an arson attack. The store closed and did not reopen. A replacement store was constructed on the same site, which opened in the mid 1970's, which you can see in the lower of the two photos above - click on either to see a larger version. As a child I spent many a visit in the store - strangely I was not a fan of the large Bexleyheath Woolworths, but the Erith branch was a favourite of mine. Woolworths in Erith closed in January 2009 after the company went bust. Roy Howard was the last store manager there. It has been sorely missed by locals ever since. The building is now a carpet shop. Award winning local author Elaine Everest used to have a Saturday job in Erith Woolworths, and using her experiences wrote a series of best selling historical novels on the subject. In a recent press release, Bexley Library Service wrote of her:- "Elaine’s most famous books are about the Woolworths Girls and are set in the Erith branch of the store. Elaine herself had a Saturday job in Woolworths when she was younger. In her writing, she brought alive the adventures of a group of young girls working in the iconic store during the war years. Her writing is full of the period detail and nostalgia that her readers love. There are 10 books in the series: - The Woolworths Girls - Christmas at Woolworths - Wartime at Woolworths - A Gift from Woolworths - Wedding bells for Woolworths - Woolworths Saturday Girls - Woolworths Girls Promise -Celebrations for the Woolworths Girls - A Christmas Wish at Woolworths - New Horizons for the Woolworth Girls. Elaine also wrote books about the Butlins Girls and the Teashop Girls as well as several stand-alone novels. This month, why not read one of her books and get to know the Woolworths Girls? All libraries have displays of her books, so look out for those when you visit?" Elaine Everest was born and raised in Erith, a location that would become the backdrop for many of her novels, Everest's connection to the area and its history was a cornerstone of her writing. Before embarking on her successful career as a novelist, she spent over 27 years as a freelance writer, contributing numerous short stories and features to women's magazines and national newspapers. This extensive experience honed her storytelling abilities and her keen understanding of human relationships, which became hallmarks of her fiction. Everest's breakthrough into the world of historical sagas came with "The Woolworths Girls," a series that captured the hearts of readers with its depiction of friendship, love, and endurance amongst the staff of a Woolworths store during World War II. The first book in the series has been described thus:-"Against the backdrop of impending war, experience the trials, triumphs and camaraderie behind the Woolworths counter, in Elaine Everest’s historical romance The Woolworths Girls. It's 1938 and as the threat of war hangs over the country, Sarah Caselton is preparing for her new job at Woolworths. Before long, she forms a tight bond with two of her colleagues: the glamorous Maisie and shy Freda. The trio couldn't be more different, but they immediately form a close-knit friendship, sharing their hopes and dreams for the future. Sarah soon falls into the rhythm of her new position, enjoying the social events hosted by Woolies and her blossoming romance with young assistant manager, Alan. But with the threat of war clouding the horizon, the young men and women of Woolworths realize that there are bigger battles ahead. It's a dangerous time for the nation, and an even more perilous time to fall in love . . .The first volume in Elaine Everest's Woolworths series, The Woolworths Girls is followed by the festive sequel, Christmas at Woolworths". Set in towns like Erith, her novels resonated deeply with those who had lived through the era and those who were captivated by its dramatic and poignant history. The success of this series, which sold over half a million copies, cemented her place as a prominent voice in the genre. Her ability to weave engaging fictional narratives with meticulous historical detail was a key element of her appeal. Readers were drawn to the authentic atmosphere she created, a world where ordinary people faced extraordinary challenges with courage and community spirit. Beyond the "Woolworths Girls," Everest penned other popular series including "The Teashop Girls," "The Butlins Girls," and "The Patchwork Girls," all of which explored similar themes of friendship, family, and fortitude in times of adversity. Her stories often celebrated the strength of women and the importance of local communities in overcoming hardship. In addition to her fiction, Elaine Everest was also the author of several non-fiction books for dog owners, reflecting another of her passions. She was also dedicated to nurturing new writing talent, running The Write Place creative writing school in Bexley, where she shared her knowledge and experience with aspiring authors. Elaine sadly died in August 2024, aged just 70. Comments to me at hugh.neal@gmail.com. 

Back in 1999 the BBC commissioned a groundbreaking TV series called Walking with Dinosaurs which was designed to give viewers some idea of how prehistoric dinosaurs behaved and gave some background into their origins. The series was extremely successful and won a number of awards and has been subsequently been sold to a number of other countries as a result. Recently the BBC have commissioned a new version of Walking with Dinosaurs which is currently being shown both on BBC One and on BBC iPlayer. It is composed of a mixture of puppets, animatronics and a large component of computer aided graphics. The BBC as a limited experience with CGI and subsequently has outsourced the computer graphics to the same company it hired for the original 1999 series. The company is based in London and is called Framestore. I encountered them back in the mid '80s when I was working just around the corner from their headquarters building in the West End. Some readers who have been following the Maggot Sandwich for a long time may recall my account of back when I worked for Sidcup based computer retailer Silica Shop in their outlet in Lion House in Tottenham Court Road, London. One day, I was chatting to two blokes in the store when they invited me to come and visit them in their studio a couple of roads away; during my lunch break I visited the basement in a large and quite impressive stone building. The guys welcomed me into a darkened room filled with cigar smoke and all sorts of high end electronics that I could not identify. They then showed me a few clips – probably not more than thirty seconds of computer animated footage and asked my opinion. I was blown away – it was better than anything I had ever seen (to be truthful, at that point I don’t think I had seen much CGI – it was a very new field back then). After a few minutes chat and a horrid cup of gritty instant coffee I was shown out. I was impressed, but did not know what the footage was for. A few months later I was watching a music programme on TV (It may have been The Tube – I cannot recall) when I mentally stopped in my tracks – the CGI footage was being shown. It was the video for Dire Straits – Money for Nothing. I was gobsmacked – I had seen the making of one of the most famous music videos ever, from a band that were at the time pretty much the biggest on the planet. The video company was - and is called Framestore. They are still one of the market leaders in computer generated imagery for TV and film. The system I had seen being used to make the "Money for Nothing" video was called the Quantel Paintbox; the Quantel Paintbox and its pressure-sensitive stylus were groundbreaking pieces of technology when they were released in 1981, but they had their limitations. The huge 14-inch platter hard drive could store 160MB of data, enough for just over six seconds of video at 25 Frames Per Second. Longer pieces required playing out each frame to tape before wiping the hard drive, a risky process that resulted in staff working eight-hour shifts around the clock to minimise cock ups. The Quantel Paintbox and its multi-frame follow up Harry—which could store up to 30 seconds of footage and manipulate multiple frames of animation at once—would come to dominate the TV industry throughout the 1980s and early '90s. Framestore, the company a chap called Mike McGee co-founded with Sir William Sargent in 1986, is the visual effects house behind Walking with Dinosaurs, Guardians of the Galaxy, and Gravity, to name but a few. Framestore's sizeable reputation has seen it expand to New York, Los Angeles, and Montreal, but its home in London remains surprisingly understated. In the 1990's Walking with Dinosaurs was commissioned by the BBC just three years after the 1993 release of Steven Spielberg's groundbreaking Jurassic Park, as part of an ambitious remit to raise the bar in science programming. Jurassic Park cost $63 million to make, and it featured just six minutes of CGI for its two-hour running time. The BBC needed three hours of back-to-back CGI at a fraction of the cost. After looking to the west coast of America to realise its vision, the BBC turned to Framestore and its head of computer graphics Mike Milne. Milne generated three shots showing how, with simple models and natural history filming techniques, the cost of the CGI per second could be brought down. At a total cost £6 million, Walking with Dinosaurs wasn't cheap—it remains the most expensive TV documentary ever produced at a cost of £37,654 per minute—but this was still more cost-effective than anything the US visual effects companies could offer.  Following the release of Walking with Dinosaurs in 1999, the series won two BAFTA Awards, three Emmy Awards, and a Peabody Award. It also made Framestore one of the most sought-after visual effects companies in the world. Its work on the TV adaptation of Gulliver's Travels, in which actor Ted Danson was filmed against a blue screen to create a dramatic sense of scale, netted the company a Primetime Emmy award, the first awarded to a company outside of the US. Framestore went on to win an Emmy every year for the next six years for its work on shows like The 10th Kingdom, Walking with Beasts, and The Ballad of Big Al. Numerous BAFTA awards and, finally, an Oscar for "Achievement in Visual Effects" for The Golden Compass followed. Today there are over 18 different departments in a typical visual effects studio. Concept artists and sketchers create the drawings from which 3D artists and animators create digital renderings. A physics team works entirely on simulations that try to replicate the intricate movements of cloth, water, and hair—elements that are extremely time-consuming for animators to recreate. Others work on the fire, smoke, and mists of a digital explosion. A rigging team creates the skeletons for 3D models, giving them the digital muscles they need to move realistically. At the end of it all, sat in pitch-black rooms, are the lighting and digital compositing teams, which take green screen footage of actors and layer it on top of computer-generated backdrops, while lighting artists make sure that every pixel is precisely lit to the director's specifications. When I look back at the handful of scruffy blokes chain smoking, and drinking dreadful gritty instant coffee that I encountered when I visited Framestore, I would never have guessed that they would become one of the most important and respected visual effects houses in the world.

The end video this week is a historical piece from back in 1986; it covers a TV news report of a leak of Chlorine gas from the then May & Baker chemical factory located in Lower Belvedere. Comments and feedback to me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.