Let's build

West London Farm
A community farm bringing a taste of country life to the city, the West London farm will give people of all ages and from all walks of life the chance to experience a real working farm in action
Our TrusteesSupport the Farm
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Getting Involved

Why does West London need a farm?

“One in ten secondary school children think that tomatoes grow underground, while a third of five-to-eight-year-olds thought that bread and pasta are made from meat.”

Following a conversation with a ten-year old boy who was adamant that pigs lay eggs, I started to think about how limited the opportunities are for people living in West London in terms of interacting with animals and learning about where their food comes from.

“…almost a third of primary school pupils thought that cheese came from plants and almost one in five under 11s thought that chicken was the main ingredient in fish fingers.”

The British Nutrition Foundation, after surveying 27,500 children across the UK

The survey also found that a fifth of the children said that they had never visited a farm.
As the owner of two pet pigs, I have seen the delight and fascination that they elicit from children and adults alike when I walk them in my local parks in W12.

“For more than 30 years city farms have provided enjoyment for more than 500,000 Londoners a year. They have provided the only opportunity for inner city children to make the connections between basic facts such as milk comes from cows.”

The Mayor of London summing up the value of city farms

The Federation of City Farms and Community Gardens cites the following as a few of the reasons why having a local farm is so important. A city farm can:
  • Provide productive, creative, safe, high quality open spaces
  • Offer opportunities for people to learn new skills and abilities, either informally or on formal accredited training courses
  • Provide training places for adults with learning disabilities
  • Add to the economic wealth of the area in which they are situated
  • Employ the full-time staff and volunteers from the local area
  • Improve physical and mental health in their communities
  • Provide a valuable tool for bringing people together of different abilities, ages, cultures
  • Aid in community cohesion and community development
  • Produce fresh food
  • Allow many communities contact with real live food (both animals and plants)
What makes West London Farm different?

Our USPs

The West London Farm aims to offer visitors an educational and enjoyable day out. Whilst one well known London farm competitor had 40,000 visitors in 2012, the average length of each visit was under one hour. In order to attract visitors and encourage them to spend at least half a day at The West London Farm, there are going to be features that are different from its competitors. We’ve listed just a few below:

  • Different view points so that animals are visible to children and adults with the former being able to enjoy animals at their own eye level (removal of solid door panels and fencing at children’s eye level)
  • Tunnels being built underground so that visitors can come up in the middle of a field thereby getting closer to animals eg. having a glass dome in the middle of the pig troughs so that visitors can watch them eating
  • Keeping animals in unconventional places to create interest, eg. allowing goats to graze on the grass roofs or climb a goat tower and having sloping walkways for the geese so that they can access the roofs
  • Our very low entrance fees – £3.50 per adult & £2.00 per child. Unlike our competitors this makes us very socially inclusive and encourages repeat visits
  • A combination of roofs that are solar panels and living roofs that are planted with grass, wild flowers and sedums
  • Creating insulation throughout buildings by having strawbale walls. There will be transparent windows at intervals so that visitors can understand the construction
  • Introduction of transparent doors/perspex openings into animals’ living areas so that they are still visible to visitors even if the weather is poor or the animals are sleeping
  • Having elevated ponds that are connected by transparent aqueducts so that visitors can watch ducks and geese swimming from underneath as well as on the surface
Find out more

Our Business Plan

All of the information you’ll need, including all of our USPs & Financial information are on our complete West London Farm Business Plan, please click below to view or download.

For more information please contact:

Antonia Pugh-Thomas (Head Trustee)
A: 659 Fulham Road, London, SW6 5PY
T: 020 7731 7582
M: 07765 252 267
E: antonia@antoniapugh-thomas.co.uk
The West London Farm will operate as a charity under the law of England and Wales. It is to be established for exclusively charitable purposes for many reasons, one of these being:
Relief of those in need, by reason of youth, age, ill-health, disability, financial hardship or other disadvantage

“I felt institutionalised after spending many months in hospital. I was at rock bottom, then I started working at my local farm.
It gave me purpose, I no longer dreaded waking up and the sheer physical activity felt good. I learned to laugh again and I have hope. At the farm I was part of something not defined in mental health terms. I was a gardener.”

Some months after she started at her local farm Trish left hospital and moved into her own flat and has since found a job

The farm will offer voluntary placements and apprenticeships to people of all ages and backgrounds so that they can participate in the day-to-day running of a farm and have close contact with animals.

There will be a specific drive to offer employment opportunities to West London residents who are disabled and first time offenders who are being re-integrated into the community.

Our Crowdfunder

We’d very much appreciate if you could click below and pledge whatever you can on our crowdfunding page, hosted by justgiving.com. If you can’t donate then please share the link with others. It all helps, thank you!