Industry Food Founded 1905 | Founder Harry (Aaron) Forman Website www.formans.co.uk | |
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Products London Cure Smoked Salmon, smoked fish, cured fish | ||
H. Forman & Son is an artisan salmon smokehouse, located in London's East End on Fish Island, Hackney Wick. It is Britain’s oldest original salmon curer and one of the world’s oldest existing producers of smoked salmon.
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Early years
Harry (Aaron) Forman arrived in east London from Odessa at the beginning of the 20th century. He pursued his trade of curing fish by importing salmon in barrels of brine from the Baltic. On discovering fresh Scottish salmon arriving in London at Billingsgate Fish Market, he developed the London Cure.
Harry Forman started the business in Stepney, London. Harry’s son Louis Forman took over the business and continued to run it into the 1960s after his father’s death. He relocated the business to Ridley Road and Marcel Forman superseded him.
Recent history
Fourth-generation Forman owner Lance Forman joined the business in 1994. He oversaw the company doubling in size in 1996, when it expanded into a neighboring property in Queen's Yard. The new and expanded factory suffered 60% damage from a fire in 1998 and the company continued to operate while rebuilding the premises. In October 2000, the newly refurbished factory was flooded under 3 ft of water when the nearby river River Lea overflowed. The company relocated the factory to Marshgate Lane, Stratford, completing the move in 2002.
2012 London Olympics compulsory purchase order
In 2003, H. Forman & Son learned of London’s bid to host the 2012 Summer Olympics. The company would have to relocate following a Compulsory Purchase Order. Forman’s newly refurbished factory was located on land that was proposed to become the running track of the Olympic Stadium. This relocation was confirmed in July 2005 when London won the bid to host the 2012 Summer games.
Lance Forman founded the Marshgate Lane Business Group, which worked to ensure that 284 businesses facing relocation were fairly treated during the compulsory purchase process. H. Forman & Son was given two years to relocate the business by the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA). A deal was struck with the authorities in 2006 when Lance Forman was asked by the ODA to withdraw from cross-examining the LOCOG chairman Sebastian Coe at a Land Tribunal court hearing.
In the same year, the business identified a new site on Fish Island, Hackney Wick. New premises were designed by Jones East 8 architects to resemble the shape of a darne of salmon, in pink.
The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, officially opened the finished smokehouse in 2009. The company's headquarters is the closest building (100m distant) to the stadium outside of the Olympic Park.
The premises includes the H. Forman & Son smokehouse and head office, Forman’s London restaurant, Forman’s Smokehouse Gallery and the Forman’s Fish Island venue.
The London Cure
The London Cure is H. Forman & Son’s trademark smoking process; it is a dry-curing process using only salt, no sugar, followed by a cold-smoking procedure using limited and controlled quantities of smoke, now produced by friction-burning oak logs. The fish is cured, carved, filleted and packaged by hand, following methods introduced by Harry Forman since 1905.
The Forman businesses
H. Forman & Son is also a parent company for four businesses which share its headquarters: Forman & Field, Forman's Fish Island and Forman's London restaurant and Forman's Smokehouse Gallery.
Ahead of the 2012 London Olympics, Lance Forman purchased land adjacent to the headquarters to make way for the temporary Fish Island Riviera venue, which saw corporate parties and the public visiting the Olympics visiting during the course of the games.
In 2013, the brand expanded into the US market through Formans USA.