Staff canteen

The fifth level of Backrooms, up the staff stairs from the car park: “Behind the door: the staff stairs, and the staff canteen. The urn is hot, the soup is on, the chairs are up on the tables.” Painted blockwork, dark green gloss up to a dado rail and cream above, vinyl tiles in a checker, a suspended ceiling with tiles missing, cold tubes and a radio left on between stations.

Canteen tables with the chairs up, and at one table a chair pushed out, a mug of tea and a bowl of soup left on a tray. A servery with three wells of soup under heat lamps, an urn with a red light that is always on, three microwaves of which one is always running (it rings when it is done; nobody comes), staff lockers, the vest hooks, pigeonholes for the post, a time clock whose cards are all in the IN rack, a noticeboard with a rota that is the same every week, and a walk-in cold room behind a strip curtain, full of soup. Nothing is for sale here, so nothing has a price.

The painted staff doors of the showroom are seen here from the other side: CUSTOMERS ONLY, SALES FLOOR. The memos on its walls are the canteen’s own: “The canteen is for staff only. If you are in the canteen, you are staff. Your vest is on the hook.” After the canteen the exit leads out onto the sales floor, and round again. The night staff are never seen in it.