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High on a hill in north London, there’s a fridge in a flowerbed.
Seen from a distance, it looks utterly incongruous – lying on its side, apparently half-buried in soil. Another case of ugly urban fly-tipping? Not a bit of it. Rather, it offers a way to keep food and produce cool without using the large quantities of electricity on which ordinary fridges depend.
Come closer and you’re struck by its size – the door as tall as a man and half as broad. Open it and you descend, step by step, into the earth and a small, round room lined with shelves, the whole space blissfully cool on the hot summer’s day when I visited. On those shelves sits an array of food, sheltered from light and heat and kept at a steady, cool temperature. A solar-powered ventilation system lets cool air in at night, replacing the warmer air of the day.
