British Pathe

M/S of large bunches of bananas hanging from hooks and moving along a conveyor belt in a warehouse in Goodmayes, Essex. The bunches draw level with some young men with quiffs and they take them off the hooks and hang them in a special ripening room; M/S of numerous bunches hanging in this room while...

M/S of large bunches of bananas hanging from hooks and moving along a conveyor belt in a warehouse in Goodmayes, Essex. The bunches draw level with some young men with quiffs and they take them off the hooks and hang them in a special ripening room; M/S of numerous bunches hanging in this room while others are added.

M/S of two men walking along outside the rooms, checking meter readings as we hear that even in the tropics bananas are not allowed to ripen on the plant, because it is only by this artificial ripening process that the best flavour can be developed. The men open one of the ripening room doors and go in; M/S of them walking along rows of many banana clusters, or 'hands', as we are told the rooms contain gas heated ovens at controlled temperatures. The men seem to be squeezing bananas to check their progress. One man holds a temperature gauge to the fruit, and another starts squirting some liquid over them to increase the humidity.

M/S of the first man; now he's squeezing some startlingly yellow bananas - they look almost orange! C/U of a cluster as he runs his hands over them; most of these are starting to get brown spots. Commentator reminds us that bananas are not fully ripe and ready for eating until brown spots have appeared on the skin. High angle M/S of the sorting shed, where men are taking ripened bananas from clusters on hooks and putting them on a revolving tiered turntable; we pan right to show men on the other side of the turntable weighing the 'nanas.

C/U of a man cutting bananas from the hand stalk and placing them on the turntable; some are quite spotty. This is obviously before the days of home-ripening bananas.

Note: print is quite badly scratched. Notes on file reveal the banana warehouse belonged to Fyffes; there is a pamphlet on file from Fyffes called 'The Banana Story' and a news cutting from Reveille about a banana ripening warehouse - could be the one seen here.