107. Kensington Postbox Tree
107. Kensington Postbox Tree
Humans often fail to comprehend just how big trees will grow, as an Edwardian plane tree in London demonstrates.
On the corner of Drayton Gardens and Priory Walk an Edwardian post box is being consumed by a London plane. The tree is making good progress, but despite its insatiable appetite, the postbox is still in use. Planes seem to have a propensity for consuming human made objects, or perhaps we humans put things too close to them, not realising how fast and large they grow.
Species details
London plane
Platanus × hispanica
Where to find it
Priory Walk, London SW10 9SP
///surely.fries.tries | 51.488586, -0.181198
Exciting book news!
The third edition of my book, London’s Street Trees – A Field Guide to the Urban Forest will be published imminently. In fact, some online stores are showing it in stock already, but if you’d like to buy a signed copy directly from me, I’ll be shipping them in mid-July.
The new edition features more pages, more tree species and more features about London’s urban forest. One of the species to be included for the first time is the Lemon, represented by a single tree growing on a Shoreditch street which featured on my Substack a few weeks back. There’s also a feature about the ‘Great Street Trees of London’ including this curious postbox-eating London plane among many delights throughout the city.
What a marvelous tree! Don't lose your keys at the base of it.. it looks like the postbox is putting up a stout fight of it. But it should heed the lesson of that Dublin park bench or my own wind chimes.