Camley Street, King’s Cross – A Sustainable Vision

Alex Smith is the founder and MD of Alara Wholefoods – one of the UK’s biggest organic muesli manufacturers who are based in the heart of the capital at King’s Cross.

I love gardening, but more than that I love to grow food, and in this day and age when we spend so much money on food in the UK and yet there are people starving across the world I believe that we must move towards a society where we all grow our own.

It is all linked to the matter of fuel and moving from a non sustainable fossil fuel reliant society to a sustainable one who ‘welcomes the sun’ and harnesses alternative energy sources.

My food manufacturing company Alara Wholefoods is based right in the centre of London, the King’s Cross hub where historically there have been a huge amount of important social and economic developments throughout history. For example St Pancreas Old Church, which is based just down the road from me, is one of the earliest above ground Christian Churches in Europe, and near here at Battlebridge Queen Boadicea was finally defeated by the Romans, or so it is said…

Most importantly, I feel, for the development of London into one of the world’s greatest capital cities, was the completion of the Grand Union Canal in 1780 which allowed grain to be brought into the heart of the city via the River Fleet. Just down from Alara is Granary Street where the grain that was brought in along this water way would have been used to make bread and feed the growing population.

I feel this was one of the most important historical events for London as the growth in population to over 1 million people in 1785 (the second city to get to this size after Ancient Rome) led to an overall change in the structure of society. Governmental infrastructure was put in place and subsequently the Industrial Revolution, and from that the British Empire grew – all based on the ability to provide food for the fast expanding population.

Looking around this historical area nowadays I find myself becoming disheartened as to what has become left from the ‘green and pleasant land’ of the past that Blake wrote about in his famous poem. He lamented that the post industrial revolutions ‘dark Satanic mills’ were now covering the landscape, but amongst all the development and business I can see areas that could be green and pleasant once more….

My point is that here at the Kings’ Cross hub, which in my opinion was where London entered into the unsustainable industrial age, it is a perfect place to start to move to ‘Welcome the Sun’ and towards a more sustainable society. And it all comes full circle back again to food. Where once grain barges came to Granary Street to feed the population who worked to make industry great, now it is food that once more needs to be at the forefront of the change the way our society works.

All my business life has been about food, but more importantly organic food. I make muesli and at Alara we produce over 70 tonnes a week. I find it so crazy these days that so many people have no real concept of growing food, good nutrition, healthy eating – we live such a consumer way of life where the supermarkets supposedly have all we need and we don’t think twice about growing our own.

At Alara I decided to make my own Permaculture Forest Garden – Permaculture being the theory of using the space you have to produce the highest yield of crops. It took the removal of 50 tonnes of rubbish (the finest King’s Cross had to offer!) and the dreaded Japanese knotweed! I love my garden and found this year that I didn’t have to buy any fruit for me and my family – I always sit out there and eat my muesli in the morning looking at what we have achieved, whist hearing the roar of the express trains rushing by – my very own piece of green and pleasant land..

But it hasn’t stopped there; looking around the edges of the factory I kept noticing bits of land and thinking what we could do with them. Now we have London’s biggest inner city organic vineyard, and also a Community food garden with Camden Black and Minority Ethnic groups that is really thriving.

There are so many places that are wasted, so much potential for food growing for local communities, and all it takes is a bit of hard work and passion. There really is nothing better than eating something you have grown yourself….

A few weeks ago (Sunday October 18th) we held the Camley Street Apple Day which attracted over 250 people. The day was a fantastic celebration of that most English of fruits – the apple and much fun was had by all. It was also a way to bring people from the local area, community groups and organisations together to show them of the projects we have been undertaking already, to start a new project with our neighbours Booker Cash and Carry, and to look to the future of the Camley Street area.
Firstly the BME garden was opened by the Mayor of Camden who praised the hard work of the community groups who now are able to use the raised beds to grow produce for their community canteens. Many of the people in these groups used to grow their own produce before they came to London but are now without the space to do so, and so it is fantastic to see their growing knowledge and expertise coming to life once more.

Next we planted an Orchard in conjunction with our neighbours Booker Cash and Carry on land that up to now has been a grassy strip. Now it has a new, much more fruitful purpose.

Lastly I was able to introduce my Sustainable Vision for Camley Street and the surrounding area. As I mentioned there is so much land up and down Camley Street that is going to waste; it’s nasty, overgrown, dirty, dumping ground. So much could be done that would not only improve the look and feel of the place, but would also give rise to huge areas of food producing land for local businesses, communities and social enterprise. I think the people really got it, they saw what can be achieved with a bit of planning and some hard work but as always the more the merrier and when you have a group of you involved in planting an digging it is always easier to achieve your goal.

I have big plans for this area. We are currently moving forward with planning permission and funding for a small community scale Anaerobic Digester (the first of its kind in Europe) which would produce tonnes of digestate for these areas that I see in the area, and really help these small projects to get off the ground.

In summery there’s a huge amount of potential here, and I know this is the same all across the capital. Food is the most important commodity and we often really take it for granted, but I hope that we can all start to grow our own and reap the benefits of doing so.

For more information about the Camley Street vision and Alara please visit Alara's website.