Tree Timeline

Le Nôtre’s bold ‘Grand Plan’ was further compromised over time, as paths were cut through his carefully designed landscape and trees were lost.

In 1716, a report to the Lords of the Treasury described a ‘great waste made in Greenwich Park’, adding that ‘one grove of Chestnuts has been cut down and entirely destroyed.’

Just over a hundred years later, a survey was taken of trees in the Park. It found that 475 needed to be felled, but suggested that 1,000 were planted in their place.

These new trees included English and Wych Elm, Spanish and Horse Chestnut, Beech, Scots and Lark Firs. The surveyor, Edward Kent, noted that ‘The Wych Elm grows remarkably well in [the] park’.

Further information

Forest Research - Searchable database of over 60 tree species found in the UK

Superintendent John Gibson wrote a report on the state of trees in the Park, noting that they ‘assume various degrees of luxuriance and decay’.

Gibson explained that many trees making up the Park’s long avenues were beginning to deteriorate. He recommended that, through ‘timely’ planting, these avenues should be replaced with something more in keeping with the ‘style and taste of the present day’. This, he suggested, would open up views and compliment the landscape’s ‘beautiful undulations’.

Despite Gibson’s ideas, the avenues laid out in the seventeenth century are still a notable feature of Greenwich Park. However, none of the original trees from the 1660s remain today – they have since been replaced.

Throughout the nineteenth century, many trees in the park were lost due to severe storms. One of the worst occurred in October 1881.

‘A storm of wind, seldom equalled in violence and long continuance’ is how the Illustrated London News described it, sharing images of the destruction wrought across the capital. In one, a chestnut tree in Greenwich Park is shown torn up from the ground. A man stands on top, dwarfed by the tree’s exposed roots.

W.H. Hudson was an eminent naturalist who wrote many books about birds. In 1898 he published Birds in London, a volume that described avian activity in the metropolis.

In this volume, Hudson describes the state of trees in Greenwich Park:

[T]here are not in England such melancholy looking trees as those of Greenwich. You cannot get away from their said mutilated condition […] they were thus mutilated some twenty to twenty-five years ago to save them from further decay!

Hudson goes on to link the loss of healthy trees to the disappearance of birds from the Park, noting that jackdaws and owls are no longer seen there.

Hudson would be happy to know that things have much improved. More than 30 species of bird are known to breed in Greenwich Park today, including nuthatches, goldcrests, chiffchaffs, blackcaps, coal tits, ring-necked parakeets, song thrushes and stock doves.

Further information

William Henry Hudson (Wikipedia) - Biography of the author, naturalist and ornithologist.
Bird Spotter Sheet - Read about Greenwich Park's winged visitors, and see how many you can spot.

Though detailed records have not survived, we know that a number of new trees were planted in the early twentieth century. These were placed along the avenues established in the seventeenth century to replace older trees that were dead or decaying.

At around this time, the Superintendent of the Park was a man called A. D. Webster. In 1902 he published a book called Greenwich Park: Its History and Associations. This volume remains a valuable source to this day and has proved particularly useful for the team working on Greenwich Park Revealed! The photograph above was taken from Webster’s book.

Greenwich Park in 1924

Royal Observatory in 1948, with saplings along Blackheath Avenue

Visitors admiring the mature horse chestnut trees as they stroll along Blackheath Avenue today may be surprised to learn that back in the 1940s - within living memory - these magnificent trees were no more than young saplings.

The whole avenue was replanted around 70 years ago. Unfortunately, park records from this period do not survive, so we cannot be sure why – but war damage might have had something to do with it.

The area surrounding Greenwich Park has been described as ‘one of the hardest-hit areas of London during the air raids’ and records show that at least one bomb fell on Blackheath Avenue during the Second World War.

In the photographs above, you can see the avenue of mature trees in 1924, and the new saplings growing in 1948. Below is an aerial image of Blackheath Avenue as it appears today.

We have recently been carrying out mulching – adding woodchip - to boost the soil moisture and the nutrients available to Blackheath Avenue’s horse chestnut trees.

By the 1970s, it was clear that the avenues in the park required replanting because many trees along the parterre banks had succumbed to Dutch Elm Disease. These were removed but, unfortunately, the new trees planted in their place were poorly chosen.

Turkey oaks and beech trees were placed in overcrowded rows which did not allow the canopies to flourish and thrive. These crowded trees are indicated by a red arrow in the image above, taken in the 1980s.

A number of these trees from the 1970s have already died and been removed, while most of those that remain have a life expectancy of just 10-15 years.

Further information

Dutch Elm Disease (Wikipedia) - Information about its origins and treatment.

In 1987 England was lashed by a hurricane-force storm. It is thought that around 15 million trees were lost across the country.

4,500 trees were lost across the Royal Parks - all of which were forced to close for several weeks while the damage was cleaned up.

Further information

The Great Storm of 1987 (Wikipedia) - Information about the devastation in southern England and northern France.

In 1991, the Park lost Queen Elizabeth’s Oak. This famous tree got its name as Elizabeth I is said to have taken tea inside its hollow trunk. Her parents Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn are also thought to have danced around it. Some years later, reports suggest, the tree was used as a prison for those who broke Park rules!

The tree died in the nineteenth century but remained standing until 1991, when it fell during a storm. You can still see it in the Park, where it is marked with a special plaque. Scientists working for Historic England have dated the tree to 1292!

As the Greenwich Park Reveals project gathers steam, we are planning a major restoration of the tree avenues along the parterre banks, which have been in a state of decline.

Visit royalparks.org.uk/gpr to find out more.