Vauxhall City Farm is home to over 100 animals in the heart of the London. We welcome around 45,000 people to the farm each year, free of charge, giving them a chance to escape city life and enjoy the sights and sounds of the countryside right on their doorstep. As a charity we help around 6000 children, young people and families from disadvantaged backgrounds annually via our education and support programmes.
The aviary at Vauxhall City Farm has been a firm favourite with our visitors for many years; particularly younger children who love the colours and constant activity of our budgies, cockatiels, canaries and finches. Originally built by volunteers, the aviary has stood the test of time well, albeit with a number of running repairs and patches over the years. The number of repairs needed has grown over the past year so we were planning to raise the money to build a new one later on this year.
Sadly, as the images below show, the recent bad weather has caused substantial damage to the roof, which is cracked, letting in water, in danger of collapsing and is definitely beyond further repair. To make things worse, where the roof has soaked up water, fungus is starting to grow in the cracks in the timber.
We've done all we can to make sure the birds are safe for now but these repairs won't last for long.
Our birds, including a new clutch of baby Zebra finches which hatched in February, now urgently need a safe, new home and we'd love your help to build them one as soon as possible. They give so much pleasure to our visitors and we want that to continue for many more years to come but, right now, we simply can't afford to do it without you.
We want to site our new aviary next door to our cafe terrace where more people, including those just passing by, can enjoy seeing the birds and hearing them sing.
We're aiming to keep costs down by doing most of the construction work ourselves with the help of our amazing volunteers. We have raised some money towards the total cost but the amount we're trying to raise here will give us the remainder that we need to create a solid floor and build the aviary itself.
Any additional money we raise over the target amount will be used to pay for enriching the aviary to make it an even better and more interesting space for the birds to live in and enjoy.
Every bit of support you can give, however small or large, will make a difference and we, our little feathered friends on the farm and not least regular visitors who enjoy spending time with them, will be eternally grateful.