Local Recommendation: Kentish Town City Farm

If you’re dependent on the sweltering Northern line to get to and from work, or have to travel to the top floor of your office block every morning, you will know that city life can sometimes feel claustrophobic and how, every now and again, most of us crave some fresh, farm air to clear our minds. For your next rural fix, we recommend wrapping up and taking a trip to the Kentish Town City Farm. Don’t forget to pack your flat cap as well as your oyster card.

 North West London has everything: bookshops, libraries, gyms, bars, restaurants, coffee
shops, temples, a book named after it by Zadie Smith. It also has a farm. The concept of having a farm at the centre of the London Borough of Camden may initially seem absurd, but Kentish Town has a rural history and was once home to many farms and animals.

Nestled away at 1 Cressfield Close, the Kentish Town City Farm is relatively easy to find
yet hidden away enough to preserve its enigmatic charm. It is just around the corner
from Gospel Oak station and a short walk from both Kentish Town and Kentish Town
West. It also backs onto the East Midlands line, so that every now and then you can hear
the distant roar of a train engine.

From the outside the farm looks unassuming; it has a simple green gate at the entrance
and a sign behind it confirming that you are in the right place. Even as you enter the farm,
it initially seems smaller than it actually is, with just a few stables and a classroom in
sight. It is only once you’ve put on your wellies and properly begun to explore that you
realise its full farmyard potential. The farm stretches back to reveal a profusion of
colourful allotments, community gardens, a wildlife pond and more – none of which are immediately visible upon your arrival. Not to mention the various animals dotted around, happily sniffing the air and eating the grass.

Regardless of Kentish Town’s medieval pastoral past, the farm was only founded in the early 1970s by Inter-Action, an organisation set up in 1968 by a man named Ed Berman. It was the first City Farm in Britain and was originally known as the Fun Art Farm.

Today the Farm is bursting with opportunities, including a Riding Programme designed for children and those with special needs, volunteer opportunities for all ages, evening talks, classes and clubs for children and their families and it also welcomes school visits. While not all of the sessions are free, those which do cost money are inexpensive.

Chris Heath, the farm’s Education Development Officer who has been working there for 12 years, told us about an education project they have on healthy food. The project aims to teach children how to cook and prepare wholesome dishes, and gives them the chance to sow seeds and grow their own vegetables. In terms of selling produce, the farm sometimes sells small amounts of foods such as eggs, pumpkins and squashes.

Chris sees the farm as a fantastic resource, and stresses that it is not just a place for local families with children, but for every sort of social group you can imagine, “from the elderly down to babes in arms”. “It is an incredible place. There is horticulture, there are community gardens, you can volunteer,” he says, adding that what you see now is a “gradual, organic evolution over the last 40 years”.

In order to commemorate the farm’s progression so far, there is a “Kentish Town Memories” website, serving to remind people of the farm’s fascinating past and stress the need for people to support it in the future. To find this site, there is a link to it under the “Our Story” section on the farm’s main website (www.ktcityfarm.org.uk).

As the farm itself is free to visit, it relies on funding from the London Borough of Camden, support from other trusts and foundations and donations from the public. Chris says: “There is much pressure on finances,” adding: “we are in the same position of having to struggle for funding as everyone else.” However, while having to make the inevitable cut backs, Chris maintains that the farm is still very much there for its community. If you want to help, you can send the farm money or look out for their donations box during your visit. You can also donate online.

What’s in store for 2014? Chris told us that from February onwards the lambs start being born, following that goat kids and then wildlife starts to return. “We are a site of nature conservation importance so we have over 12 species of butterfly, and we have a wide range of wildlife which is in decline, including house sparrows and things like that,” he says.

With informative, welcoming staff and a surfeit of opportunities, Kentish Town is lucky to have such a wonderful facility right on its doorstep.

Follow Kentish Town City Farm on Twitter: @KTCityFarm

Article taken from Access London Magazine: @AccessLondonMag