You may have noticed a lot of new trees appearing on the slopes of Herne Hill this month - not just on the Southwark side but over the road in Lambeth too. Most of them are London planes, which are by far the best trees for tackling the climate emergency but much too big for our smaller residential streets.
Planes are tall, drought-tolerant and fast growing, with an enormous leaf canopy. As well as providing shade and removing pollutants from the air, they capture and store more CO2 than any other street tree. And the young planes just planted are all 'heavy standards', meaning the trunk is a healthy 14-16 cm in circumference. That will give them a solid start on the streets.
We're pleased to say that Tree Watch kick-started the planting process in late September/early October when we met separately with arborists from Lambeth and Southwark to talk about the prospects for Herne Hill. The scheme that emerged from these discussions was a collaborative venture between the two councils.
Here's the tally of new plantings along Herne Hill. They were all put in the ground on or around November 3.
New trees: Herne Hill and Denmark Hill (Southwark side)
First, the odd-numbered side (Southwark). Starting from the bottom of the hill, the pavements are pretty narrow and we don't encounter any new trees until we get almost to Casino Avenue. Between here and Red Post Hill the council has planted at:
No. 31 - London plane (Platanus x hispanica)
No. 25 - London plane
No. 21 - London plane
No. 9 - London plane.
After Red Post Hill, Herne Hill becomes Denmark Hill and the postcode changes from SE24 to SE5. But since we already look after trees on both Red Post Hill and Sunray Avenue we're happy to take care of this little stretch of Denmark Hill between the two side streets as well. Here we've got another three new trees:
No. 175 - London plane
No. 169 - two London planes (both outside the short terrace of houses).
New trees: Herne Hill and Denmark Hill (Lambeth side)
On the Lambeth (even-numbered) side of Herne Hill, which has been noticeably barren up to now, there's more space on the pavements, which means more new trees and more variety. So, again starting at the bottom of the hill, we find:
No. 132a (Sainsbury's Local) - common Lime (Tilia europaea Pallida)
No. 128 (between Tesco Express and Herne Hill Mansions) - ginkgo (Ginkgo biloba)
No. 106 - ginkgo
No. 104 - ginkgo
No. 100 - ginkgo
No. 96/98 - ginkgo
No. 94 - London plane
No. 76 - London plane
No. 68 - London plane
No. 56 - London plane.
The ginkgos have gone in where there’s not quite enough pavement space for planes.
If we go further along towards Camberwell, there's another new Lambeth tree where Herne Hill becomes Denmark Hill. It's just opposite the turning into Sunray Avenue, next to 206 Denmark Hill at:
Porchester Close - London plane.
New tree: Carver Road
As part of the same Herne Hill planting programme a new tree has also appeared on Carver Road, just before it gets to the main road:
Between no. 57 and Herne Hill - Japanese pagoda tree (Sophora japonica).
The Sophora is a medium to large drought-resistant species that will be familiar to residents of Holmdene Avenue, where several grow. Officially the botanical name 'Sophora' has now been replaced by 'Styphnolobium', but we're happy to stick with the original for the time being. It's easier to say and easier to write.
There was previously a pagoda tree inside the garden of 155 Herne Hill, just a few yards in from where the new one stands, but it had to be felled.
New tree: Sunray Avenue
Finally, on Sunray Avenue, on the grass verge in the cul-de-sac that faces towards the shops and post office on Crossthwaite Avenue, stands our final new tree of this batch:
No. 18 - sweet gum (Liquidambar styraciflua 'Worplesdon')
This replaces another sweet gum nearby that died in 2020. 'Worplesdon' is a very fine variety, with deeply cut five-fingered leaves like a maple and dark red autumn colour.
If you fancy having a look at this newcomer before the leaves drop then glance across the road at the same time, where there's a tremendous common hornbeam (Carpinus betulus) in its autumn cloak.
It's one of four hornbeams in the immediate vicinity, and there are three more in the garden square off Casino Avenue. They seem to really thrive here and in Dulwich.
So just a couple of weeks into the 2021-22 planting season we've already seen a total of nine new trees added to Tree Watch territory. That's a terrific start.
Now the bad news
There's just one very unwelcome item to report. Just three or four days after it was planted, the London plane outside 25 Herne Hill, on the corner of Casino Avenue, was carefully sawn in half and completely decapitated.
The leafy crown was dumped outside the row of shops down the hill.
Southwark classed the incident as criminal damage. The injured plane might have been able to regrow, like another victim did at 97 Denmark Hill, next to the postbox outside King’s College Hospital pharmacy. But the council decided to swiftly uproot the remaining stem. They've told us it will be replaced.
Autumn leaf gallery
Right at the start of November, when the colours were at their peak, we took a few photos of some of the best autumn displays in the area. When you leave the cars and the houses out of the picture our streets can look pretty wild.
Since then a lot of the foliage has gone, including the vibrant Yoshino cherries on Winterbrook and Stradella. But the ginkgos all round the neighbourhood are just coming into their golden prime, and if you stroll down Burbage beyond the crossroads with Turney Road you’ll see more stunning sweet gums in their finery.
Some of our side streets are still very colourful, including Hollingbourne Road where, among the cherries and the tulip tree, you’ll find this very jolly hybrid cockspur thorn (Crataegus x lavallei) at no. 19. The glossy leaves on this hybrid hawthorn stay green until the end of the year and the orange-red berries, which look like little tomatoes, persist through the winter too.
In the weeks ahead keep an eye open for the Redspire pears (Pyrus calleryana Redspire). These are cousins of the chanticleer pears (Pyrus calleryana Chanticleer) which have become very common on practically all our streets in the last 10 or 20 years. But unlike the chanticleers, the Redspires’ dark green leaves stay on the branches until very late in the autumn when they turn yellow, red and purple. There are two on Wyneham Road, one at no. 9 and one outside 39b Beckwith Road. Stradella has another two, at no. 4 and no. 6.
Council planting schedule
Southwark has drawn up a preliminary list of locations where it’s considering planting trees between now and the end of March, when the 2021/22 season officially ends. There are 33 trees on the list (including the sweet gum we mentioned earlier that’s already been planted) but the plan is provisional and subject to change.
We’ve produced this table based on the map that we’ve seen, although we’ve deleted two proposed sites that are shown there: one where there is already a mature tree close by and another where we’ve been told sub-surface water pipes would impede the tree’s growth.
We’ve also removed a third site, at 101 Herne Hill, where a London plane was felled earlier this year. We’ve agreed to fund the replacement, ideally a whitebeam (Sorbus aria), from our own Cleaner Greener Safer (CGS) award, and we don’t want to double-count the same location.
If you add together:
the 33 trees on the Tree Department’s list
the seven that have already been planted on the Southwark side of Herne Hill and Denmark Hill
the new tree on Carver
the 34 or so trees that should come out of our CGS budget
a number of replacements for lost trees that we’d like to see delivered this winter and
a few trees that were held over from last season,
we could easily be looking at 80-plus new trees in the next few months. We’ll keep you updated as the plans crystallise.
Welcome Nairne Grove
Finally, we’re very pleased to welcome four volunteers and supporters from Nairne Grove, which was one of two remaining streets to have no Tree Watch representation at all (the other is Delawyk Crescent).
We’re working with them and their neighbours to come up with an agreed plan for four new trees on what has up to now been a pretty bare street (apart from the short well-wooded stretch that leads off to Bessemer Grange school).
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