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The East End tradition of Salmon smokehouse production

Olympic fears

Can LondonÂ’s oldest Salmon Smokers survive the Olympic Games?

It is widely celebrated that London is to host the Olympic Games in 2012.

They have been staged in London twice before, the last time was in 1948.

As the torch arrived in the stadium to start the event, it passed under a scoreboard displaying the Olympic message:

"The important thing in the Olympic games is not winning but taking part. The essential thing in life is not conquering but fighting well."

Battle for businesses

Now however, on the very site where the great races will be run in 2012 thereÂ’s a real fight going on.

Some people have to fight to save their livelihoods, and those of the people they employ.

One such firm is situated right where the gold medals will be handed out.

They have won many gold medals themselves already though. They are Forman and Son and they are the purveyors of probably the finest smoked salmon that money can buy.

Sadie Nine visited the oldest smokehouse in the country that was started by great-grandfather Forman exactly 100 years ago. It is now run by Lance Forman who says:

"We are a 4th generation family business. People donÂ’t realise that smoked salmon started in the East End of London; lots of people think it started in Scotland. My great grandfather was a Jew from Eastern Europe and they came over mostly to the East End of London and carried on the tradition of smoking fish as they had at home.

"We are still smoking salmon the same way today. We burn sawdust and the smoke rises up through a chimney into a kiln where the salmon hang and they just smoke slowly."

But as the smoke rises from their salmon, the Olympic flame comes ever nearer and brings with it not hope, but dread for this old East End business.

If The Olympics are to take place they and many other businesses in the area have to be relocated.

Relocation plans?

The London Development Agency (LDA), who is in charge of getting London ready for the Olympics, has slapped a compulsory purchase order on the salmon smokers.

Manny Lewis is Chief Executive of the LDA. He says, "Our overall plan is to relocate all the businesses by the summer of 2007 and also to make sure that no business is worse off".

Fears for the future - Lance Forman

Lance Forman explains that the company has already had to move from another factory as they were flooded when the River Lea burst its banks.

"To set up a high tech factory like this one took two years so a quick decision has to be made," says Forman.

"We found a suitable property but the LDA said it would be too expensive for us to move there. They are offering us a site in Leyton which will be totally unsuitable.

"Whenever we find sites we feel are suitable, they find a reason to say it cannot work. This seems at odds with their continual statement that no business will be worse off."

The small family business supplies some of LondonÂ’s most exclusive shops restaurants and hotels with its smoked salmon.

Fortnum and Masons, Harrods, Selfridges, Claridges and the Savoy are just some of its illustrious customers.

But they still employ mainly local people, many who have been with the company for many years.

Workers' woes

Rita Law has worked at FormanÂ’s for two generations of this family business:

"When I first started it was all very different. You all mucked in. I sliced, I bagged, I labelled, and I even took the cheques. Now it is very different, it's all very high tech."

To survive in a modern world Forman and Son have had to expand. Because of the lack of apprenticeship schemes in many of the top kitchens in London, many hotels and restaurants send out for certain dishes to be served to their customers.

FormanÂ’s now have a fully working kitchen and supply top class starters to places such as the Orient Express and the Savoy Hotel.

This is where Lance Forman sees the real problem occurring between the location being offered and the needs of his company.

The London Development Agency is offering him the Leyton site which stands on the opposite side of the Olympic developments from most of his customers in LondonÂ’s West End.

Lance says, "For seven years while the stadiums etc are being built, the traffic will be appalling. We will not be able to get through it to make our deliveries and you canÂ’t keep 700 people on the Orient Express waiting for their starters".

Manny Lewis responds, "The site we are offering is only two miles away from his present location and will only add a journey time of 10 minutes to Mr FormanÂ’s deliveries".

But when asked if he had done a transport study, Mr Lewis said that a study would only take place once Forman and Son had agreed to a move to the Leyton site.

Lance Forman is convinced the site will be totally unsuitable.

The clock is ticking for the salmon smokers. If something isnÂ’t sorted out soon the fire could really go out forever in their kilns long before the Olympic flame arrives. A feeling that leaves a very bad taste in the mouths of the long serving workforce.

Rita Law says, "If my grandchildren want to go and see some of the races, I might take them but knowing how it got here I donÂ’t think ill ever forget".

Tricky balance

Nobody is suggesting that the Olympic Games shouldnÂ’t be held on this site in London, nor that businesses like this should move.

But surely it isnÂ’t that hard for the powers to be to find the right place for people like these producers of the countryÂ’s finest smoked Salmon to move too.

If celebrating the Olympics were to be at the cost of losing a little gem like Forman's for ever, then it would be a price that many Londoners would be unwilling to pay.

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