Finds in the walkwalkwalk collection
1.Chip Fork

This item was found on September 8th 2005, on the pavement of Vallance Road by the entrance to Weavers Fields. It is a flat wooden implement, about eight centimetres in length, narrower at the middle, rounded at one end and forked into two spears at the other. It would have been used for spearing and eating chips and is given away free at Chip Shops. This particular example is well worn, with grained in grey coloured dirt and must therefore have spent some time on the pavement being trampled underfoot. It is, however, preserved intact and is a good example. As a commonly used and discarded item, mass produced, of a standard design, and found in an area rich in chip shops, it was initially unclear from which particular chip shop it originated. In order to establish its origin I conducted the following experiment.

I identified the chip shops located in the vicinity of where the find was discovered. I visited the first, Quality Fish Bar, at 293 Bethnal Green Road and purchased a portion* of chips, served open (price £1.10). I then set off walking from the shop at a moderate pace, compatible with eating the chips, which I began eating, using the chip fork supplied with the chips. I walked along Bethnal Green Road toward Vallance Road, and the site of the find. When I arrived at that point there still remained about half the portion of chips – unless I had consumed at a voracious pace this would not be a point to discard my chip fork.

Having had so many chips left over in the first experiment, I then decided to visit a chip shop at a greater distance from Vallance Road – I would be more likely to get through the chips in the distance walked. So I continued my search at Mr Cod, on Cambridge Heath Road. Here the chips were available in one size only (price £1.49) and were the fries type. Appearances had been deceptive – the exterior of Mr Cod had implied a traditional thick-chip and wooden fork type chip shop – but was actually more focussed on chicken and non-fish things. Dismayingly the chips were served with a plastic fork, which scuppered this part of the experiment. I was advised by the man in Mr Cod ‘if you want proper fish and chips I suggest you go out of here, to Bethnal Green Road, turn left, thirty metres, to Regal. They have been there for thirty years; they are buying fresh potatoes and making thick chips’. Out of interest I ate the Mr Cod chips as I walked toward the next chip shop – being less substantial I had eaten nearly half by the time I arrived at Regal. Even if I had used a chip fork these chips would have been finished way before the Vallance Road site.

From the outside Regal Fish Bar, at 474 Bethnal Green Road (at the end near the tube), appeared not to be a traditional Chip Shop - also specialising in fried chicken and with stacks of the boxes for serving fries type chips in the window. (It is worth noting that this shop has a particularly good illuminated sign, featuring a large piece of fried fish.) Crucially, they were distributing chip forks –the box of forks was visible on the counter. Wanting to avoid fries again, which wouldn’t last the distance, I asked cautiously what kind of chips they made: ‘Very thick, fresh one’. I bought a portion (price £1.20) and again, I set off at the moderate ‘walk and eat’ pace toward the Vallance Road site. I continued eating the chips, which were substantial and still hot as I walked down Bethnal Green Road and turned left into Weavers Fields. I ate more as I cut across the park toward the Vallance Road exit. As I left the park I ate the last proper chip, leaving only the small crispy scraps, unsuitable for spearing. At this point I no longer had need of my chip fork so I cast it on the pavement, just beyond the park exit on the pavement of Vallance Road – approximately the point at which the archived fork was found. I believe this experiment provides good evidence that the chip fork in our collection originates from Regal Fish Bar.

* Note on portion sizes
I attempted to make a fair comparison between chip shops by purchasing what I believed would be the portion size suitable for one person. As menus describe portions differently (small/large, regular/large etc) I assumed the cheaper portion to be the standard one-person portion, and always purchased that.