Bonnie or Clyde, a Kune Kune pig

Dear Readers, we are very lucky to have a wide range of City Farms here in London – you might remember that I had my retirement party at Mudchute City Farm over in Docklands, and had a very fine Away Day in Spitalfields City Farm back in 2022. On Friday,  I visited Vauxhall City Farm with my friend P and her lovely son, who is eight months old, but is already fascinated by animals, and wasn’t the slightest bit scared of the goats and pigs. I won’t be posting any photos of him, but take it from me that he is the best baby in the world :-).

The entrance to the Farm (Photo By VauxhallCityFarm – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=71660625)

In my twenties I worked on a City Farm in Dundee (long since gone), but I’ve always been a fan of the movement. It teaches children (and adults) about the link between animals and the food that we eat, and can provide a whole range of other opportunities. Some farms, such as the one at Spitalfields, are helping to restore breeds of farm animal that have come perilously close to extinction, while others have community gardens and sell eggs, fresh vegetables and fruit and even wool.

Vauxhall City Farm is lucky in having some large paddocks for the goats and alpacas, and everyone is very well looked-after. There is a group of spinners who dye the wool from the alpacas and sheep using plants grown in the community garden. There’s also a very pleasant caff.

Next door is what remains of the Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens, which must have looked like a very decadent  version of Copenhagen’s Tivoli Garden in its heyday. It used to be full of restaurants, concert halls, stalls and music, but these days it’s basically a green area. However, if you visit do not miss the Tea House Theatre – it sells a wide variety of cakes, and I can recommend the rhubarb and custard Victoria sponge.

Here I am, not enjoying the cake one bit. The carrot cake also comes highly recommended.

Vauxhall has certainly changed a lot since I was last here, what with the arrival of the American Embassy and all sorts of new high-rises. However, some things stay the same, and I was delighted to see that the Royal Vauxhall Tavern is looking particularly splendid – this gay venue has featured luminaries such as Lily Savage and Hinge and Bracket, and was once visited by Princess Diana, dressed as a man and accompanied by Freddie Mercury and Kenny Everett. Apparently they attracted much more attention than Princess Diana did! The venue is now Grade II listed, because of its importance to the gay community.

The Royal Vauxhall Tavern (Photo By Ewan Munro from London, UK – Royal Vauxhall Tavern, Vauxhall, SE11Uploaded by Oxyman, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=22394484)

Anyhow, that’s two visits ‘south of the river’ in less than a week, and very nice they were too. Who knows what I’ll get up to next?