Growing underground, Roux’s secret garden
CROPS of herbs, salad leaves, minivegetables and even tomatoes are to be grown in tunnels that were built as wartime air raid shelters beneath the streets of London.
Michelin star chef Michel Roux Jr has joined a pair of entrepreneurs to create the urban farm.
A test area of 100sq m is already producing micro herbs for sale to restaurants, however there are plans to have 2.5 acres under cultivation, supplying stores and markets with the ‘Growing Underground’ brand.
The crops are grown using the hydroponic system, which circulates water enriched with nutrients through trays of plants, which sit on a bed of hemp. Sunshine is replaced by banks of LED lights, which are powered by green energy.
The Clapham North tunnels opened in July 1944 and were equipped with bunks, medical posts, kitchens and sanitation and had capacity to accommodate up to 8,000 people.
They are some 12 storeys below ground level, even lower than the Northern Line tube line, however they have remained unused since the end of the Second World War.
The depth means the temperature remains at a steady 16C (61F), which allows crops to be grown all year without any need to worry about seasons, frost or drought. The scheme was hatched two years ago by Richard Ballard and Steven Dring, from Bristol.
Roux, a judge on the BBC’s MasterChef and presenter of Food & Drink, has joined the company as a director and will be advising on crop selection, product design and partnerships.
‘I thought they were absolutely crazy, but when I visited the tunnels and sampled the delicious produce they are growing down there I was blown away,’ he said. ‘The market for this produce is huge.’
Mr Dring said: ‘When we showed Michel our farm, he thought the rumble he could hear was my stomach. It was actually a Northern Line train about to go overhead.’