A place in the community

Easter Monday, and it was raining on the parade at Freightliners City Farm in Islington. But it didn’t matter. The cafe was replete with mums, dads and kids polishing off organic pasta. The yard was a -flutter with small beings transformed into butterflies by an invisible face-painter. And the place positively buzzed as the Easter egg hunt got underway: kids raced about collecting cards and searching madly for the picture that would win them the golden egg. Finally, we heard a small girl shriek, “Look! I’ve got the silver hen!!”

Two of us from IWFC ran a stall selling and signing our books. But we both have other, different memories of this place. They involve many visits with toddlers to favorite animals, well before the posh coffee machine was installed. I came with an entire class the day my son left nursery school. And years later, to visit him as a teenage volunteer on dung-digging duty.

Freightliners is currently under threat having lost its grant in the recent cuts. As the Easter bonnets appeared and a new generation of parents beamed in the rain, I found it hard to quantify how much would be lost if this place were to fold.

Marion Rose