The trees of London are a slow-rising tide. Walk across the centre of the city, from Temple Station on the Embankment to King's Cross on the Euston Road, and you have them with you all the way. Weedy young ginkgos line Arundel Street. In the spring, lilac reaches above the railings of Lincoln's Inn Fields. In August, the pavement which runs alongside Coram's Fields playground by the sheep enclosure is black with fruit from the overhanging mulberry. In Judd Street, there are cherries (both wild and cultivated) and more than one species of ash. Limes are not common here, as they are in some other parts of London, where, in summer, they make cars and pavements sticky with falling honey-dew. There are rowans with bright red fruit and spiny Robinias. The total number of species is great, but one dominates: the plane, the tallest, the widest spreading, the noblest of the trees common in London streets, parks and squares.

LRB 18 October 2001 | PDF Download