You are currently browsing the daily archive for March 19, 2024.
A number of lesser-known British news items have popped up in the past week.
Let’s have a look.
UK’s redwood trees more abundant than in the US
That headline will leave my Californian readers glowering, yet it is a fact.
When I was a child I was fortunate enough to be up close and personal with California redwoods. It was a magnificent experience and one I’ve never forgotten.
Two articles appeared recently about the abundance of redwoods — giant sequoias — in Britain, which delighted me enormously.
On March 14, 2024, The Telegraph featured ‘The rise of giant redwoods in the UK, and where to see them’ (emphases mine):
At more than 3,000 years old, they are some of the oldest living things on the planet. Giant redwood trees can reach more than 80m (262ft) tall – and they are thriving in Britain, according to a new study published by The Royal Society.
Scientists, including Dr Phil Wilkes from Kew’s West Sussex garden Wakehurst, says they are growing at a similar rate to their US counterparts. What’s astonishing is that there are an estimated 500,000 Sequoiadendron giganteum trees growing in the UK, compared to just 80,000 in California.
That said, the accompanying height illustration shows that the Americans are way ahead of us in that respect. The General Sherman makes our Giant Redwood look like an average tree.
The UK redwood trend began in the 19th century with California imports:
Redwoods, which can grow 0.5m a year, were a Victorian craze and were brought over from the US in large numbers in the 1850s, initially by planthunter William Lobb, who found them growing in their native habitat of the foothills of California’s Sierra Nevada range.
Most self-respecting UK botanic gardens and large landowners planted a specimen, and now many have grown to impressive heights, rivalling or beating the biggest of any other species that grows in the UK.
A giant redwood at Longleat in Wiltshire is claimed as the tallest in the UK, at 58 metres (190ft). Specimens at Ouzel Valley, Bedfordshire are around 50 metres tall (164ft), and are the oldest in the UK, planted in 1844 by a local Quaker, John Dollin Bassett. In comparison, the record height of a living tree in the US is the General Sherman, at around 84m (275ft).
Not only are they impressive to view and touch, but they are fire- and disease-resistant trees, therefore, an asset to any grove or forest.
The article advises on where to go — anywhere from the south coast of England to the north of Scotland — to view these magnificent trees.
There is also advice for growing them at home, something, understandably, not to do unless you have a huge, huge garden, which most of us do not have.
On March 16, The Guardian carried a feature on redwoods and told us how fascinating the Victorians found them:
The Victorians were so impressed that they brought seeds and seedlings from the US in such large numbers that there are now approximately 500,000 in Britain, according to a Forestry Commission estimate that includes coastal redwoods and dawn redwoods (a separate Chinese species) as well as the giant redwoods. Experts at Kew think most of the UK trees are giant sequoias, the official name for giant redwoods. California has about 80,000 giant redwoods, as well as also having coastal redwoods and a few ornamental dawn redwoods imported from China.
The paper interviewed the aforementioned Dr Wilkes:
“They were prized possessions,” Wilkes adds. “Quite often they were planted at a manor house and they planted a driveway with rows of redwoods. And these houses have burned down or been demolished but the redwoods still exist.”
Now there is a testament to their fireproof quality.
Greenwich’s patriotic — and contentious — fish and chip shop mural
The Telegraph has run two articles about a and chip shop owner of Cypriot origin who runs his establishment in Greenwich, south east of London.
Kris Kanizi has a patriotic cartoon mural of a British fish holding a British flag on the wall outside his shop, the Golden Chippy, which won TripAdvisor’s top-rated London restaurant award in 2016. Since then, he has had many foreign visitors, a number of whom have their photo taken alongside the mural, which is relatively new. Several years ago, he had another mural which also attracted favourable attention.
As with the first, Greenwich Council has told Kanizi he must remove the second mural, which is smaller than his original one.
On March 16, The Telegraph reported:
Painted only a month ago, at a cost of £250, the mural was providing a further boon to his business by giving social media-conscious customers a selfie opportunity. It is not the first time Mr Kanizi, who arrived in the UK in 1977 from northern Cyprus, has fallen foul of Greenwich council with his zeal for celebrating fish and chips.
In 2016, the town hall ordered him to remove a much larger sign – about 17 feet high – featuring a very similar design, from above the door.
He relented after a two-year battle and a petition of support, which attracted more than 3,000 signatures when he was faced with being taken to court.
“It’s just something to put a smile on people’s faces,” he said. “But the council said “this is a preservation area – you can’t have that and you’ve got to paint over it. They also said people had been complaining, but I don’t believe that. Everyone who has talked to me say they love it”.
Upon his arrival in England in 1977, Kanizi had hoped to become a physician:
Mr Kanizi arrived in London with the ambition of studying medicine, but says he instead became “an expert fish surgeon”.
The 65 year-old has run the Golden Chippy for 20 years and lives two doors down.
Kanizi defends his mural with photos of what his shop looked like in the 1940s:
Mr Kanizi has previously pointed to pictures of the corner property from the 1940s, when the premises was a cafe, which included numerous large trade signs.
The locals support Kanizi:
At the time of the last furore, a local residents group described the council’s definition of heritage as “narrow and out of touch”.
Greenwich Council issued a statement:
A Greenwich council spokesman said: “Following a number of complaints made to local ward councillors, an enforcement case was raised about the mural in question.
“Our Planning Enforcement team is investigating this as it is effectively an unauthorised advert for the chip shop. The owner has agreed to paint over it.
“We will always try to negotiate with the owner before proceeding to a formal planning enforcement notice.”
However, on Monday, March 18, it was less clear that Kanizi agreed to paint over the mural.
That day, The Telegraph reported that he is buoyed by public support:
A fish and chip shop owner at the centre of row over a Union flag mural says he will no longer back down to the council because he has received so much support since his story was published in The Telegraph.
Chris Kanizi had initially agreed to paint over the design outside the Golden Chippy, in Greenwich, south-east London, after council officials allegedly told him it was inappropriate for the area.
But the 65-year-old has since changed his mind because of the support he has received since The Telegraph broke the story.
“I’m so encouraged with the support I’m getting,” he told The Telegraph. “There have been people ringing up, saying ‘start a petition’ and ‘have a protest’.”
Painted a month ago, at a cost of £250, the mural shows the flag held by a humanoid fish and a slogan saying “A Great British Meal”.
Kanizi is taking expert advice:
Mr Kanizi said he is now liaising with lawyers and retired planning officers as he prepares to contest the council’s decision.
“I’m going to fight it,” he said. “I’ve got retired planning officers giving me advice and solicitors saying they will take on my case for free.
“We’ll fight them to the end.”
Locals are delighted:
Local residents told The Telegraph they wanted the latest artwork to stay.
“It’s a bit different and adds a bit of spice,” said Miranda Stinton, 27. “You can’t go wrong with a bit of street art.”
Danny Cahill, 41, added: “It’s not offensive and everyone else is always flying those Palestinian flags.”
An excellent point, well made.
Some years ago, a cabbie got into trouble in the West Country for displaying the Union Flag on his vehicle. He fought the law and won:
A similar planning battle was recently fought in Shropshire when taxi driver John Brockhurst was banned from flying the English and British flags on his cab.
Mr Brockhurst had the ruling overturned after contacting his MP, and he said Mr Kanizi should do the same.
“He should fight it,” he told The Telegraph.
The only issue there is that John Brockhurst’s MP was Conservative whereas Kris Kanizi’s is Labour: Matthew Pennycook.
Hot chocolate sales set to boom
And, finally, The Times tells us that Britain could see a rival to coffee and tea: hot chocolate.
A chain of shops, Knoops, is set to appear on our high streets.
Knoops isn’t exactly what Al Murray‘s Pub Landlord would call ‘a beautiful British name’, but here’s the chain’s story:
With its eye on becoming hot chocolate’s equivalent of Starbucks, the British brand Knoops, currently with 17 shops in the UK, has plans for 40 … and then 300. Having secured partners in the Middle East and pending discussions in America and China, the chain aims to hit its target of 3,000 shops globally by 2030. “We’re a category killer,” says William Gordon-Harris, the Knoops chief executive, who discovered the brand in Rye, East Sussex, four years ago when it was run by its German founder, Jens Knoop. “We have no competitors in the world that do what we do and I think that with the right ambition, combined with the right systems and people, I don’t believe there’s any way we can’t build a billion-dollar brand here.” (Knoop, by the way, is the German for “Button” — chocolate button!)
My mother made the best hot chocolate ever, something I have never been able to replicate. For me, it evokes strong childhood memories.
For The Times, it’s a new adult experience:
Always “to go”, coffee lasts for just one or two hot minutes, costs more per mouthful than a half-decent off-licence wine and makes you jittery and nervy.
Hot chocolate is a more indulgent beverage. You sit with it. Cup your hands around it. Wallow in its heat and sweetness. Hot chocolate’s cocoa content has benefits too — it contains theobromine, a mild stimulant that releases serotonin and endorphins, encouraging happiness and pleasure, instantly lifting mood and spirit. It won’t have you jonesing like coffee does. Its colour and texture make a nice Instagram picture, its soporific milkiness will tempt you with an afternoon nap. It is the choice of the decadent unemployable and the free-posting influencer.
The Knoops customer will be able to order a bewildering range of hot chocolate. This is far beyond my ken:
Go to Knoops on Kensington High Street or Chelsea and you’ll find a carefully curated menu of hot and cold chocolate drinks with more than 20 strengths and styles of cacao. Choices range from 70 per cent single-origin Congo variety with notes of cherries and black tea and a subtle earthiness to 49 per cent single-origin Venezuelan with notes of molasses, pecan and coffee. Expect fruit and nuts prices too — £6.95 for a regular cup — and big queues. This overgrown Milky Bar kid is already a Knoops convert, having made regular lockdown trips to my local branch with my two daughters in 2021. During those cold evenings, quiet lines formed to get a hot hit of dark pleasure during an even darker time. On pretty much every visit I was the only man in the (socially distanced) shop. I was easily the oldest person too …
Gordon-Harris is convinced we can make this shift: “I compare it to when Starbucks first expanded out of London,” he says. “Suddenly people who had previously just asked for a ‘white coffee’ were now thinking about coffee in terms of lattes or cappuccinos. Coffee was being repositioned as sophisticated, and that is what we are doing with chocolate. We are reawakening the category.”
Oh, dear. Frankly, I prefer my innocent childhood memories, after school on cold winter days.
Still, there is nothing more hygge, to borrow the Danish word, than a soothing mug of hot chocolate.
Churchmouse Campanologist 