London Heritage Farm, Richmond BC

London Heritage Farm is a 4.6 acre site overlooking the south arm of the Fraser River and offers a park-like setting with lovely flower gardens, the restored Spragg family barn, old farm equipment, and chickens. The 1880's farm house has been fully restored and furnished to illustrate rural life in Richmond. Six rooms display furniture, accessories, pictures, photographs, clothing, quilts, etc. There is always something to see to bring back memories of your own childhood. On the east side of the house there are heritage style herb and flower gardens, a rose arbour, gourd house, fruit trees and the fruit garden and bee hives. In the west pasture there are 69 allotment gardens.

The house is in its original location and at the turn of the century, Richmond farmers began constructing dykes along the river to protect their farms and drain accumulated water through flood gates at low tide. In June and December each year, there was a 2-3 week period of extremely high tides when the river level was too high to utilize the flood gates. Large ponds were dug out to accumulate the water and the fill was used to make the dykes. See my black & white photo.

The lovely country style tea room seats up to 25 and serves London Farm's own blend of tea "London Lady", home made scones with jam and other sweets served on fine English bone china. We all took tea there and I was amazed to notice that at my place at the table sat a Laurentian Snowdrop teacup, saucer, and plate. When my mother became engaged to my Dad, her parents gave her a tea set of this same pattern and when I became engaged to my husband, my mother passed it on to me. I still have it to this day. Above us hung the most glorious chandelier I've ever seen!

At Christmas, the public is invited to visit the 1880's farmhouse which offers a wide variety of unique hand crafted gifts. And the house is decorated in the old fashioned tradition for the holidays. I've never been there during the Christmas season, but I think I'm going to make it a point to go this year.

I took a lot of photos of the house, both inside and out, along with the gardens and lots of macros. For now, I'd like to take you on a virtual tour of the property and I hope you enjoy it.