Midtown’s central perks

The hens are laying, the organic veg is growing and, yes, there are even fields — but this is city living not country life
28 October 2014

We’re advised to love thy neighbour, but in London your neighbour is usually a faceless, nameless enemy, someone towards whom you feel little loyalty and certainly no kinship. It’s the condition of the big city — strict boundaries keep us moving but sometimes forward momentum feels less like progress and more like being adrift. But look closer and you’ll find unexpected pockets of community — from the microcosmic (shared wi-fi) to the macrocosmic — as part of extensive municipal initiatives from inmidtown. There’s the Lunchtime Farming Initiative, a pseudo-utopian programme that invites businesses in the area to support their local community and learn skills that don’t involve keyboards, screens or tablets. Businesses can sponsor chickens in the Midtown Chicken Coop: after a £500 donation to cover the chicken’s care, food bills and veterinary costs, the chicken becomes yours to name and look after. Employees can take an hour a week to feed their chicken and collect its eggs; top law firm Mishcon de Reya is an early adopter — it’s named its chick Meghen de Laya.

“We are proud to sponsor our chicken Meghen de Laya at Coram Fields City Farm,” says Lisa Tremble, external affairs director. “It’s one of several projects we’re involved with as part of our new Mishcon Green Fund, which supports local environmental and social projects. Tending to the chickens is a great way for Mishcon volunteers to take time out of their work schedule to give something back.”

Other farmyard fun includes looking after vegetable gardens on roofs in the area and harvesting beehives — both supply local businesses. There are four green roofs in Midtown, growing organic fruit and veg; Mishcon and the TUC are growing wildflowers.

“Inmidtown has created a unique programme of initiatives that enables businesses in the area to broaden their social responsibility programmes across community support and sustainability,” confirms Julie Rogers, of the Holborn-based Mitsubishi Corporation. “It’s these that really make Midtown stand out from the crowd as a leading destination for commercial business.”

The Cycle Vault — an 1,800ft structure — will house 100 bike racks, lockers, showers and a bike repair shop, and plans to run cycle-safety awareness events onsite. Midtown walks offers lunchtime and evening walks to employees and visitors — the Hoxton Holborn team are just some of the 3,000 people a year who have been on a stroll — and the Green Taxi Scheme, currently still in development, is a partnership between inmidtown and an electric taxi company; promises include providing stats on cost and carbon savings, so businesses can assess the real impact on the environment, and working with Midtown businesses to identify and convert unused parking spots into speedy electric charging points so there is always a green taxi at hand.

There’s also an inimitable recycling scheme: all white paper collected by inmidtown is turned back into copier paper and sticky notes for local businesses; pens are created from recycled plastic. Businesses including Pendragon Health Clinic, Queen Mary University’s Law Centre and the London Mathematical Society have signed up. Love thy neighbour and they’ll pay it back.

For more information on Midtown: http://inmidtown.org

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