One buried fridge stores as much as a dozen family ones

A north London garden has installed the UK's first Ground Fridge, an underground larder that keeps food cool without mains electricity. Set into a flowerbed at OmVed Gardens off Highgate Hill, the fridge has a door as tall as a person and opens onto a small round room lined with shelves. A solar-powered ventilation system draws in cool night air to replace the warmer air of the day. Designed by Dutch inventor Floris Schoonderbeek, it borrows from the earth cellars people used long before artificial refrigeration. Fermentation specialist Josefine Marchandise, who runs the kitchen, says it holds between 8 and 15 degrees even during heatwaves. It costs around £12,000 plus VAT, but stores as much as a dozen family fridges and runs on almost nothing. Visiting schoolchildren tend to have one reaction. "They just ask: 'Why isn't this everywhere?'"