Occupying a thin strip of land next to Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens you’ll find the Vauxhall City Farm.
As you’d expect the farm is replete with farmyard animals – horses, a few cows, some goats, ducks, two very cute pigs and also an extremely fierce looking turkey! Did you know that pigs are very smart animals? They’re equally as intelligent as dogs and can be taught to do tricks – the two on the farm obey the ‘sit’ command, as one of the cheerful staff demonstrated as I was looking on. They’ve also got a few rather more exotic animals in the form of a small herd of alpaca, called Tom, Jerry and Ben. To cater for the little ones they’ve also got guinea pigs, rabbits and a few other small pets.
Vauxhall City Farm also offers horseriding classes for both children and adults in the paddocks next to the farm, and its also home to the ‘spinners’ – a group of textile makers who use of the community garden which sits at one end of the farm to cultivate plants and herbs that provide them with various dyes – they run Saturday classes, which you can find out about here.
Of course it goes without saying that the farm is always on the lookout for volunteers to help with their work, and you can also sponsor an animal. My money’s on the big ginger pig…
March 10, 2012
London Sights