Breakfast at Albins

Funeral directors and clergy see quite a lot of each other. We work together -  usually quite harmoniously -  and I've always enjoyed good relations with the firms that I worked with, but in 22 years only one funeral director has invited me to breakfast and that was this week.

The staff at Albins head office (left) meet for a light breakfast each day but they end the week on a high note with a full cooked breakfast, to which guests are often invited, as I was this week.

There must have been getting on for 30 staff members sitting down for breakfast today.

I could see it was a good team bonding exercise, valuable socially, and for dealing with practicalities at the beginning of the day as they ran through the details of each funeral that was to take place later on that day.

Barry, the boss, introduced me to the group and then introduced them to me one by one. I liked the way he had a good word to say about each of them (eg 'the best embalmer in England').

Later I had a tour of the Albin museum, an extraorinary exhibition of social history in its own right, and then, chatting with Barry,  an insight into his thinking about his work and his involvement in the local community, to which he is so clearly committed.

Great food, great hospitality, and a fascinating visit to a unique Bermondsey institution: breakfast at Albins.