Well, this is another well hidden secret I feel ashamed not to have shared earlier.

Deen City Farm is pretty damn awesome.

I am a mum and a bit of a hippy tree hugger at heart, I know. But this place is free, open pretty much every day, and just a lovely place to have a picnic, especially if you do have a young family… But it’s sweet even if you do not.

Set completely inconspicuously in even more of a weird surrounding than Merton Abbey Mills, the city farm is very endearing. Run mostly by volunteers, they home a wide range of animals. On a day’s visit you will see peacocks, chickens, turkeys, ferrets, rabbits, ponies, horses, alpacas, cows, sheep, goats, ducks, geese, and other wildfowl. There is a basic cafe onsite, but you are welcome to bring your own picnic to the many benches in their picnic garden.

The farm is also home to many community projects, focusing on sustainability and regeneration, and contains a garden created in collaboration with local school children. This garden includes, among other things, a maze and a mud hut with beautiful mosaic flooring, all made with reclaimed materials. It is a delight to see all the little children running through the sprinklers on hot days, as it is to see many take their first pony ride for £1,00 every weekend.

The farm is placed on the edge of a segment of the Wandle river that runs through Merton Abbey Mills through to the beautiful RHS Morden Hall Park, and therefore somewhere vaguely between Colliers Wood and South Wimbledon Stations, but it has its own free car parking, family friendly toilet facilities, and a small town atmosphere that makes you forget you are in London.It also homes a  very popular riding school, but another highlight is the opportunity visitors get to help feed the animals at designated intervals during the day.

I really don’t know of any other places in London like this(which is why everyone needs to share here), but it’s just so flexible… And so cheap too. And lovely. AND educational. I can’t think how else my son would have a regular contact with so many different animals as we live in a flat! Parents, I urge you to try.

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