Celebrity chef Michel Roux Junior, one of the stars of "Masterchef: The Professionals", took a keen interest from the start and is now a director of the company. In the future, the firm plans to bring subterranean herbs, shoots, miniature vegetables, edible flowers and other delicacies to Britain’s high-end restaurants and food stores.
The subterranean farm is housed in a shelter which, at its peak in July 1944, kept more than 8,000 Londoners safe from German V1 and V2 rocket attacks.
However, instead of offering refuge to Londoners while bombs were buzzing overhead, it will soon grow crops of other exotic plants and produce, including Garlic Chives, Red Vein Sorrel, Thai Basil and Red Amaranth, for some of London’s top restaurants as well as the nearby New Covent Garden market.
However, the tube stations were not as safe as people thought. High explosive bombs dropped by the Luftwaffe could penetrate up to fifty feet through solid ground. On 17th September 1940, a bomb killed twenty people sheltering in Marble Arch station. The worst incident took place at Balham in October 1940 when 600 people were killed or injured. The following year 111 people were killed while sheltering at the Bank underground station. One night 178 people suffocated at Bethnal Green station after a panic stampede.
When the sound cut out, anyone below the bomb would be in peril. That's when it would dive and explode.
I can only imagine such horror. My childhood in Australia led me to believe the world was a safe place.
I think the new project is a good thing to come out of the bad times. New growth will erase troubling memories.