UK's UNESCO sites - which are you visiting?

We hope King's students are enjoying their global travels, and not affected by some of the climate related problems across Europe, or other hazards further afield. A lot of French travel is being disrupted by wildfires.

A new updated map has been shared from the UK National Commission for UNESCO.

It can be downloaded as a PDF leaflet with details of each location.

It shows the 65 locations in the UK which have some sort of UNESCO designation.

These include cities of literature, national landscapes and World Heritage Sites, such as the Jurassic Coast and Stonehenge.

How many of these are you visiting this summer?

Pictures welcome....

Chippy Tea?

Growing up in Yorkshire, Friday was generally "chippy tea" night.

We were lucky to have some decent chippies in the village where I grew up. My parents' house was at one stage about 2 minutes walk from the XL Chippy which was decent and did scallop fish cakes - which any northerner will tell you is NOT a fishcake. 

I checked on Street View and it's now a seafood restaurant upstairs.

Image: Alan Parkinson

I've got a reasonable collection of food-related books that reference the cultural importance of fish and chips as part of our identity, but also a meal that we owe to migrants: Portuguese and Jewish amongst others, as well as the arrival of the potato from South America and the risks taken by fishing boats in the waters around Iceland or even further north.

It's worth exploring the story of Fish and Chips.

I've produced a resource on this topic, which I've shared previously elsewhere.

It needed a little update for the 2026 situation.... and I've now completed that.

Fish and Chips - Have They Had Their Chips - 2026 by Alan Parkinson

There's an associated sheet here.

   

Fish and Chips by Alan Parkinson

A new resource which includes more details on the enquiry around this topic will be released in a few months' time as well.

Fish and chips and migration

 

My wife went to Margate last weekend and got me this postcard from Turner Contemporary, as she knew I'd been working on a resource based around Fish and Chips. She was there to see Nile Rodgers and Chic do a gig at Dreamland.

The postcard features an instantly recognisable drawing by the illustrator Olivier Kugler.

It shows the global spread of Fish and Chips.

It relates to a commission for some art to be placed in 2021.

The background:

The commission shares everyday stories of migration connected to Kent’s most celebrated high street food.

For the ‘Kent Fish & Chips’ Project Kugler and Humphreys have interviewed owners, staff and customers at Fish & Chips shops across Kent. Migration and displacement are central themes.

Fish & chips can be traced back to Huguenot and Jewish arrivals in the UK and people from all over the world continue to be central to the farming and fishing industries and the high street shops.

Featured Fish & Chip shop owners are:

Beach Buoys, Margate: Nadine and Simon Morriss
Best Fish & Chips, Tankerton, Whitstable: Elvan Bodur
Ossie’s Fish & Chips, Canterbury: Ramazan Altun
Reliance Fish Restaurant, Gravesend: Jack Kamenou
Walmer Fish & Chips: Giancarlo and Carolina

The artwork was exhibited on Turner Contemporary’s terrace (16th June- 26th September 2021) as the central part of the Kent Fish & Chips Project.

You can see the various artworks on this website here.

I've captured these while I can to think about doing something similar with my own school in the new academic year around our work on food, I can see this would have some cross-curricular interest.

Fenlandia

This project came my way via Facebook.

Fenlandia is a visionary interdisciplinary initiative, committed to celebrating, preserving, and interpreting the rich cultural and environmental heritage of the Fenland basin in the United Kingdom’s East Anglia region.

This initiative integrates diverse artistic platforms – including visual arts, music and heritage projects – in both conventional and unexpected locations. Unlike district-specific initiatives, Fenlandia seeks to draw upon the entire Fenland basin, representing its rich heritage and ecological significance in a holistic and all-encompassing manner.

Looking forward to seeing how it develops.

Windrush food stories

We are now underway on the 3rd read through of Benjamin Zephaniah's 'Windrush Child'. This year marks the 75th anniversary of the Empire Windrush's arrival at Tilbury Docks in London.

I noticed these meals in my local Tesco earlier in the week and wondered about their origins.

I was interested in whether this was cultural appropriation of the flavours of the Caribbean with the Windrush marketing. We have previously discussed the story of Jamie Oliver's Jollof Rice, as featured in Dipo Faloyin's 'Africa is not a Country'.

They were actually created by Wilfred Emmanuel-Jones for Black History Month. They are a tribute to the Windrush Generation.

They feature some traditional Caribbean flavours.

There is a very personal story here too.

Anyone tried the meals?