Maria de Freitas, who began selling ice creams from her van at Highbury Fields in 1998, says she has a ‘motherly instinct’ towards her younger customers. Pictured here are Tansie Lo and Charlie Hudson

WHAT’S the big scoop this week?

Regulars were celebrating the fact that on Sunday – or should that be sundae – Tina, their beloved ice cream seller and Highbury Fields institution, chalked up a remarkable 25 years selling ice cream.

Tina, whose real name is Maria de Freitas, first pulled the soft-scoop pumps at Tina’s Ices ice cream van on Mothering Sunday back in 1998 at her spot by the playground.

It was an emotional day: selling ice creams wasn’t her dream (at the time) and leaving her eight-month-old son Marcus was particularly hard. She says she remembers crying that day. But fast-forward a couple of decades and it’s fair to say she has found her feet – at the end of legs she stands on in her truck for eight months of the year, from March to October, come rain or shine.

“I have no plans to retire, I just can’t stop. I love it,” she says. “I love the friendship, the camaraderie, the kids – they make me come. I feel like if I’m not here, it’s not the same [for them]. I can be nice, I can be mean if I need to. I’m kind, I know I can be friendly, I have that motherly instinct with the kids.”

A key part of the Tina service is reminding children to say their pleases and thank-yous, and teaching them they can come and have a chat with her, but they shouldn’t expect their parents and carers to buy them an ice cream every time.

Gary Andrews, who brings his grandson Charlie Hudson to Tina’s van on the way back from school, said: “If they’re naughty she tells them off! She’s strict. She tells them to say their please and thank-yous. I love that! It’s good. She’s very, very nice. You get some of these guys doing it and they’re miserable as sin. They’re doing it because they have to do it. She’s doing it because she wants to do it. She’s really nice, down to earth.”

Over the years customers have shown their appreciation: there are a collection of ice cream vans in her windscreen that were gifts from loyal fans, and every year she receives postcards from children on holiday, simply sent to “Tina’s Ices, Highbury Fields”.

Estelle Broyer, one of a group of neighbours who clubbed together to buy her a hamper to mark her special day, said: “She is an institution in the neighbourhood. Many families know her and she remembers everyone and chats with all her customers. When we moved to Islington two and a half years ago, she was the first familiar face for us in the neighbourhood, and her warm welcome truly helped us feel at home here, especially as it was impossible to meet anyone because of Covid. Tina really brings the park to life and I find her familiar presence very comforting and reassuring.”

There is one mystery that has puzzled ice cream buyers and park-goers for years, however: where does she go when she needs the loo? And how does she get away from the snaking queues?

Tina clears it up: “I switch off. I stopped drinking water because you know when you drink, you need to go. That’s why I get migraines in the summer, and the last thing I do when I leave the house, and the first thing I do when I get home is go to the toilet. I drink a litre-and-a-half when I get home.”

Her favourite ice cream – in fact the only one she likes – is the lemon ice, because she grew up with it in her native Portugal. However, she concedes there is only one king of ice creams: the 99 flake.