Neil Armstrong Discovered Up A Tree In Kennington

M@
By M@ Last edited 56 months ago
Neil Armstrong Discovered Up A Tree In Kennington

Neil Armstrong is normally associated with spaceships, but in Lambeth you can find him nailed to a plane. A London plane tree, that is.

The first man on the moon is just one in a sequence of American astronauts commemorated along the western side of Kennington Road. 15 name tags can be found up the half-mile stretch from the Imperial War Museum to Kennington Lane.

The plaques commemorate all 12 moon walkers with the exception of Pete Conrad, presumably due to a missing commemoration rather than some slight to Lambeth Council. The remaining names are also Apollo-era astronauts. Here, for example, is the only scientist to walk on the moon, and the second-most famous person of first-name Harrison:

Some mystery surrounds the placement of the nameplates. The much-lamented Smoke magazine noted that the names had been present for at least 20 years, and that was half a decade ago. Forum members on the SE1 website speculate that the trees might have been planted with seeds brought back from the moon — but these mighty specimens are far too mature for this to be possible. Ah, the mysteries of the universe.

For the record, here are the 15 names currently commemorated on Kennington Road (down from 17 at the time of the Smoke article).

Eugene A Cernan
John W Young
Neil A Armstrong
Edwin E Aldrin
Alan L Bean
Fred W Haise Jr
John L Swigert Jr
Stuart A Roosa
Alan B Shepherd
David R Scott
Edgar D Mitchell
Alfred M Worden
James B Irwin
Charles M Duke Jr
Harrison H Schmitt (update July 2019... Schmitt now seems to have vanished, but Frank Borman has been found)

Last Updated 19 July 2019

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