Down at the FARM:Shop

Fowl is fair: Andrea feeds the chickens at FARM:Shop. Photograph: Antonio Curcetti

You gather your friends on a Friday evening. There’s a pot of hummus surrounded by carrots and celery. Question: “Hummus is made from chickpeas, right? Where do they come from?” Reply: “a can!” As urban dwellers, many of us no longer know how things are grown.

Hackney is in fact a green borough with space to grow and glean all manner of edibles. But what happens during the months when the temperature simply does not allow for outdoor cultivation?

Walk into FARM: Shop at 20 Dalston Lane and you’ll find the answer. Upon ringing the bell, callers enter into a café with produce straight from the walls and roof of this Victorian terrace: chickens, tomatoes, vertically-grown basil, lettuce and a huge fish tank facing the street.

There are also shiitake mushrooms growing on a shelf and a polytunnel at the back is used for a range of purposes.

You can get a tour of the building from volunteers and freelancers (six people work on the third floor). “We help out to run the place, it gives you a good feeling”, says Kristin, making yet another latte.

FARM: Shop is the creation of engineer Paul Smyth, graphic designer Andy Merritt and the sociologist Sam Henderson who came together to turn a derelict space into an urban farm.

The trio won £6,000 from Hackney Council to renovate the building.  “This was hardly enough, but we managed to get some extra support”, says Andy Merritt. “Now we manage to employ one and a half people; all the money that we get from the shop goes straight back into it, it is a closed circle”, says Merritt.

Merritt agrees that the space may initially seem somewhat odd to those unaccustomed to being surrounded by hydroponics. “At first you have a strange feeling but then you start to enjoy the homeliness of the space”.

The farm-in-a-shop has caught the attention of locals and global trend-spotters alike. It was featured in Young London 2011 Best Designs of the Year, and the team behind FARM: Shop has been commissioned to create a garden for the Gwangju Design Biennale in South Korea this autumn.

They also have plans to expand closer to home. “Now, that we know much more about urban agriculture we want to go bigger and turn a whole disused warehouse or a factory into a big urban farm”, says Merritt.

And despite receiving international critical acclaim, the glowing shop is mainly for those who live nearby

Merritt is particularly appreciative of the growing local interest in FARM: Shop.  “I am optimistic. If it is still running and seems to be doing OK, I think that interest in and urban farming and shop itself will only grow”.

As winter nights descend, there is plenty to get involved in. You can consider taking part one of the Grown Sunday! Activities, hire space in the shop for an event, or come along to a party in the polytunnel.

Farm: Shop
20 Dalston Lane
London
E8 3AZ