13. New Cross Gate Giant Redwood

Noticed by thousands everyday, a giant redwood growing next to the track at New Cross Gate station in south east London is becoming increasingly talked about.

Welcome to The Street Tree! This is the thirteenth in a series of posts about great individual trees from Britain and Ireland. Look out for at least one a week over the coming months.

Many thousands of people passing through New Cross Gate station have noticed the giant redwood growing precariously next to Platform 1 on a narrow strip of edgeland. It towers over all around it and is growing at a tremendous rate having been planted by a bonsai enthusiast railway worker in the early 1980s where once the engineers’ tea hut stood.

Species details

Giant Redwood
Sequoiadendron giganteum

Where to find it

New Cross Gate Station, New Cross Road, London SE14 6AR
///puzzle.silent.slave | 51.475596, -0.040172

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Giant redwood notes

Californian giant redwood trees were first encountered by astonished Europeans in the early 1850s, and seeds arrived in Britain soon afterwards. Of course, the trees were known to indigenous peoples, but their stories of the Big Trees are little recorded. 

The oldest trees in these islands have been growing for less than two centuries then, but are already significant natural features throughout Britain and Ireland. The largest tree in America is known as ‘General Sherman’, it is 83 metres tall and about two thousand years old.