London tree guy and occasional Londonist contributor, Paul Wood, has a new book out and it's all about, well, trees. The trees featured in Tree Hunting: 1,000 Trees to Find in Britain and Ireland's Towns and Cities can be found in the places most of us live, so a city like Manchester features 20 trees, while London has 84 trees selected using a wide range of criteria including great age, rarity, beauty or because they have fascinating stories to tell.
We asked Wood if he could pull out 10 of the best from his London selection. Here, then, are 10 trees for you to hunt in London.
1. Osterley Golden Rain Tree
Osterley Tube station on the Piccadilly line is one of London's most admired 1930s modernist buildings, so the tree which accentuates it needs to be exceptional: with its gleaming yellow blooms in high summer, the Osterley Golden Rain Tree delivers. Despite growing in a challenging position next to the Great West Road, it is one of the very best examples of its kind in these islands.
Great West Road, Osterley, Isleworth TW7 4PU
///traded.music.reason
2. OMG Swamp Cypress, Acton
Julian Avenue is a nondescript Edwardian terrace in Acton where one of London's most astonishing trees grows: a rare veteran hemmed in on a narrow street. Like Ealing, Acton was once popular with wealthy London commuters, and, back then, the OMG Swamp Cypress likely grew in a spacious country-house garden. It now towers over the houses and irritates motorists by taking up half the road, but it thrills the tree hunter.
Julian Avenue, Acton, W3 9JF
///adults.mason.camera
3. Spiral Almond, Finsbury Park
The Spiral Almond flaunts the first blossom of the year in this corner of north London; in a mild winter, its big pink flowers can bloom spectacularly at the end of January. At other times of year, it's worth visiting for its bizarre trunk that corkscrews around on itself. How this came to pass is an intriguing mystery.
Charter Court, Stroud Green Road, Finsbury Park N4 3SG
///sunset.hint.relax
4. Fothergill's Mulberry, West Ham
West Ham Park was originally a botanic garden created by 18th-century physician and botanist John Fothergill, before becoming a public park in 1874. Several interesting trees grow here, but the most spectacular is one of the best and most extravagantly sprawling mulberries in London, perhaps an original from Fothergill's garden.
West Ham Park, Upton Lane, West Ham E7 9PU
///traps.flies.toxic
5. Platform 1 Giant Redwood, New Cross Gate
Many thousands of people passing through New Cross Gate station must have noticed the giant redwood growing precariously on a narrow strip of edgeland next to platform 1. Planted by a railway worker in the early 1980s where the engineers' tea hut once stood, the young whippersnapper has grown at a tremendous pace and already towers over everything around it.
New Cross Gate Station, New Cross Road, SE14 6AR
///puzzle.silent.slave
6. Windrush Plane, Brixton
Brixton Library, the Ritzy Cinema and the Black Cultural Archives cluster around Windrush Square, a paved piazza with the Windrush Plane at its centre. It is a Victorian London plane that has had room to grow with only light-touch human intervention. Consequently, it has formed a magnificent pyramidal crown, its spreading branches providing shade for the benches below.
Windrush Square, Effra Road, Brixton, SW2 1JQ
///camps.trucks.foster
7. Kensington Postbox Tree, Chelsea
On the corner of Drayton Gardens and Priory Walk, an Edwardian postbox is being consumed by a London plane. The tree is making good progress, but unlike the so-called Greedy Tree in Cardiff, the postbox is still in use. Planes seem to have a propensity for consuming human-made objects, or perhaps we humans just put things too close to them, not realising how fast and large they grow.
Priory Walk, Chelsea, SW10 9SP
///surely.fries.tries
8. Crème de la Crème, Highgate
A very old and luxuriant strawberry tree is a focal point of the formal gardens by Lauderdale House in Highgate's Waterlow Park. It has a broad canopy held up by multiple trunks, many worn smooth by tree-climbing children, that spread out in all directions ensuring it is far wider than it is tall. In October it will simultaneously flower and fruit — a beautiful sight.
Lauderdale House, Waterlow Park, Highgate Hill, N6 5HD
///melt.pine.itself
9. Lenin's Maple, Clerkenwell
In 1905, Vladimir Lenin, then in exile, spent time in London at 16 Percy Circus. No doubt he would have admired the circle of plane trees on his doorstep, and perhaps he would have noted the rare maple at the centre. It is a fine example of a rarely planted Montpellier maple.
Percy Circus, Clerkenwell, WC1X 9EE
///posts.moving.blitz
10. Rose Garden Zelkova, Hyde Park
In my opinion, the Rose Garden Zelkova is the most magnificent tree in any of central London’s parks. A rare specimen tree growing in a prime position towering over Hyde Park Rose Garden, it has a lovely, fluted trunk and a dense bundle of branches flying into the sky. It is one of the finest Caucasian zelkovas in England, on a par with Princess Victoria's Zelkova in Bath.
Hyde Park Rose Garden, SW1X 7NL
///waving.when.moral
Tree Hunting: 1,000 Trees to Find in Britain and Ireland's Towns and Cities by Paul Wood, published by Particular Books.
Paul Wood is also the author of London's Street Trees, Great Trees of London Map, London Tree Walks, London is a Forest. Find him on Instagram as @TheStreetTree and Substack.
We featured this book because we know it's the kind of thing our readers will enjoy. By buying it via links in this article, Londonist may earn a commission from Bookshop.org — which also helps support independent bookshops.
