Long-time London resident and avid museum and theatre-goer. I started this blog in 2014, and got serious about it in 2020 when I realised how much I missed arts and culture during lockdowns. I go to a lot more events than anyone would think is sensible, and love sharing my thoughts in the forms of reviews, the occasional thought piece, and travel recommendations when I leave my London HQ.
Join me on a second arboreal walk through London, taking inspiration from Paul Wood’s 2020 book. This time we explore some of my old haunts, from Wapping to Canary Wharf via Limehouse.
We will be following a walk today from Paul Wood’s London Tree Walks – Docklands Old and New: Wapping to Canary Wharf.
A Second Tree Walk Through London
The thing about London is that you get busy. There is a lot to do! Theatre, museums and exhibitions, and exploring the city. I was able to devote a lot of time to exploring the city during lockdowns, but have found it harder to fit in walks at the weekend since then. But the changing seasons can be a good motivation. If you want to do a walk themed around London’s trees, for instance, then winter isn’t going to be a great time to do it. Neither are spring or autumn, really, if you’re not good at recognising trees and need as much help as possible. So summer it is! With a slight publishing delay I hope you will forgive me for…
This is my second tree-themed walk. The first was from Honor Oak Park to New Cross Gate, my current neighbourhood. I saw oak trees, Persian silk trees and even a giant redwood. And learned about mythical Elizabethan picnics, and community projects including gardens and tree plantings. I found it an interesting lens through which to view familiar streets. Today’s walk is very much the same. I walked many times from Wapping to Canary Wharf when I lived in the former. It can be a surprisingly green area, so I’d certainly noticed some trees. But the beauty of Paul Wood’s book London Tree Walks is that it combines historic anecdotes with information about specific trees, copses and woods and how they got there. Given how much this area has changed, from wharves and industry to residential buildings and finance, it makes for an interesting story. Let’s take a closer look now.
London Tree Walk: Starting Out From Wapping To Canary Wharf
The book starts us off at Wapping Station, and relates some of the history of the first tunnel under the Thames, Marc Brunel’s massive Victorian engineering project. I know Wapping Station well and learned all about this tunnel at the Brunel Museum so instead started with a picnic in Wapping Rose Gardens. I like the view of some of the old wharf buildings.Lunch successfully eaten, we head across the street to Waterside Gardens to start the walk proper. This is next to the Marine Policing Unit which has its own small museum (a topic for another day). But the views of the river are pleasant from here. The foreshore is accessible here at low tide, but only by a rather scary and tall ladder.Our first tree stop! Wood points out here the small copse of silver-barked Grey Poplars. Nothing notable about their history though, it seems, so we merely admire them and move on. I am already out of my depth with poplars, though, in terms of tree identification, so relied on a blend of a Google image search and Wood’s description of the bark in order to spot them.Let’s continue on from Riverside Gardens, then, past a notable blend of old and new architecture.
London Tree Walk: Wapping Continued
We make another tree-related stop a bit further on, in St John’s Churchyard. Given that this has always been a green area rather than an industrial one, the trees are quite well-established. The gravestones, on the other hand, have mostly not remained in place. There are a couple still in situ, with a few others placed around the edge, but for the most part this churchyard now functions as a park. In terms of notable trees, we have first of all this bulbous London plane (middle image above). Wood refers to this as a ‘baobab’ cultivar. Baobab of course meaning that it looks a bit like a baobab tree, and cultivar being a type of plant bred for special characteristics. It’s one of several enormous plane trees in the churchyard.Across the street is St John’s Church itself. The church tower and the next-door school were all that survived the Blitz during WWII. Today it’s been turned into flats. On a long-ago walk with the local historic society I heard that it wasn’t the first church tower on the site anyway, the first having sunk down into soft ground.Across the street in turn from St John’s is The Turk’s Head. Originally a pub, it’s now still a pub/cafe but also a community centre and charity. It was saved as a community asset some years ago and is a nice survivor today.
London Tree Walk: Wapping Gardens To Wapping Lane
The Turk’s Head is also on the corner of Wapping Gardens. You might think these are some more big old trees rather than recent additions as the area has become more residential, and you’d be right. Wapping Gardens dates back to 1886 (following slum clearances) and was originally Wapping Recreation Ground. Wood says they have fared so well here they could easily be mistaken for 18th Century plantings. I will take his word for this, but they’re certainly impressive. You can also see in the top picture how the dry summer of 2022 caused earlier than usual leaf fall and an autumnal appearance – I completed this walk in August.After Wapping Gardens we come to another historic pub, Turner’s Old Star. It’s name comes from the fact that the artist Turner originated the pub, installing his mistress Sophia ‘Puggy’ Booth as its landlady. He apparently spent debauched weekends in Wapping, which generated a load of erotic sketches found with the Turner Bequest. What a secret life! Anyway, getting back to trees, Turner’s Old Star overlooks Wapping Green and its Horse Chestnut trees.One of those times that I needed to Google what I was looking for! I think this is the one. Wood describes “a curiosity in the shape of a One-leaved Ash, a cultivar of the common ash with confounding non-pinnate leaves.” Consider yourselves confounded.Nearby is a very new planting/pocket park, new even since we moved out of the area in 2021.
London Tree Walk: Tobacco Dock To Shadwell Basin
Ah, the familiarity of Tobacco Dock, which our previous flat overlooked. We also learned a bit about it on this walk. Basically it was once a tobacco warehouse, designed by architect Daniel Asher Alexander. In the 1990s it became a shopping mall for a brief, unsuccessful stint. It’s now a strange space, with a rooftop bar, pop up events, and periodic filming taking place.Our book describes this as a ‘bosky’. I had to look it up, it’s somewhere woody or bushy, which I might have been able to guess if I’d put my mind to it. Anyway, it’s the path we’re taking as we continue on our way from Wapping to Canary Wharf.And it’s now time to cross Wapping Woods. This was all underwater until the late 1960s so the trees are more recent than they might appear. There are White WIllows, Grey Poplars and Leyland Cypresses. Around the outside of the space there are also some interesting vestiges of the old dock infrastructure if you look closely enough.On past an ornamental canal towards Shadwell Basin. I believe this must be the avenue of Crack Willows our book mentions? The bark certainly looks right.And here we are at lovely Shadwell Basin, lined by an early and successful postmodern housing development. Take note of St Paul’s Shadwell to the left in the trees. James Cook used to attend an earlier version of this church and baptised his son here.A quick close up of some of the greenery in front of St Paul’s Shadwell.
London Tree Walk: Prospect Of Whitby To Narrow Street
Wood directs us around the rest of Shadwell Basin now to walk down the side of the Prospect of Whitby pub. One of Wapping’s many nice old historic pubs, this one is well worth a look in if you’re not on an arboreal mission. So we will just stop long enough to admire this Weeping Willow and its view of the Thames.Around a little bit of waterfront path we find some Silver Lime and Judas Trees shading our walk.And another handsome Weeping Willow before we turn off to our next stop.The path to Kind Edward VII Memorial Park features some tree-related points of interest like these tall cypresses, as well as this ventilation shaft for the Rotherhithe Tunnel (which again we saw on an earlier walk). Plus some Thames sewer works.Inside the park are various interesting mature trees of different types. My hand is provided for scale, particularly on what I assume is the leaf of a Handkerchief Tree. I couldn’t work out if the bottom image was the ‘fine Norway Maple’ that’s somewhere in the park. Any gardeners know? And what are those white spots? Presumably not good.Around now to Free Trade Wharf and our first view on this Wapping to Canary Wharf walk of the latter’s towers. Wood notes the line of White Poplars, including a variegated one which I am confident I have correctly identified in the lower image!A nice Cabbage Tree to remind me of home (New Zealand) as we head around and emerge on Narrow Street. This historic street means we’re now past Wapping and into Limehouse.
London Tree Walk: Cable Street To Limehouse Basin
This is actually the very end of Cable Street, another East London spot we have visited before. It was the scene of an anti-Fascist street battle in 1930. The street we’re on has the lovely name of Butcher Row. And Wood would like us to note the apparently unusually gaunt London Plane tree.This is an interesting one. I took a picture of this building for a walk on Black History in Tower Hamlets a while back, but didn’t recognise its significance. This is the former vicarage of St James’s, Ratcliff, a nice Georgian house. The church was unfortunately bombed during WWII. These days it’s part of the Royal Foundation of St Katherine’s, a religious retreat, conference centre and B&B. This isn’t the Foundation’s original location, however, which is back at St Katherine Docks. As we learned on this walk, the original monastic hospital has a history stretching right back to the 12th Century.Into yet another small park now, this time St James’s Gardens, site of several bike rides by yours truly during lockdowns. This time we’re looking at the London Planes, kept in good order so they don’t drop branches onto cars entering the Rotherhithe Tunnel on the other side of the wall.The Limehouse Link Tunnel, of which this is part of the infrastructure, was apparently at the time the most expensive stretch of road ever built in Britain.Over we go now to Limehouse Basin. The original purpose of this body of water was to link the Regent’s Canal with the Thames. Now it’s mostly just for fancy houseboats. Where you can see the DLR train passing is actually the oldest surviving railway viaduct in the world, as we also learned here. Although the other book actually said it was the second oldest, so…? Very old, anyway.Not many trees on LImehouse Basin. I was on the lookout for a pair of Irish Yews. Is this a sole survivor?
London Tree Walk: Ropemaker’s Fields To Canary Wharf
Let’s continue along this towpath to the next park, Ropemakers’ Fields.Ropemakers’ Fields, which was looking particularly dry, has Turkish Hazels, Horse Chestnuts, and Limes.I often wondered about this building when I lived in the area. I found out from Paul Wood’s book that it is a lone survivor from some heavy WWII bombing. For a time it was a pub called The House They Left Behind. Now private housing. We’re looking at it from under this copse of Southern Catalpas.We are most of the way from Wapping to Canary Wharf now, and will pass through this passageway through Dunbar Wharf. This building is modern but the name is historic. Duncan Dunbar ran a shipping line from here transporting variously convicts to Australia and troops to the Crimean War.A quick look back towards Wapping (and the City behind) and then we continue on past some more Plane Trees and Pin Oaks.Up a long flight of steps to Westferry Circus, which is a nice place to stop and rest for a while. The planting is quite imaginative here, and includes Persian Ironwood, Southern Magnolia and English Oak.West India Avenue is more traditional, with an outer avenue of Limes and an inner of London Planes.Cabot Square seems rather devoid of greenery with the tall buildings above, but does have some Silver LImes. It’s also one of two spots where we see artworks by Helaine Blumenfeld, which I devoted a post to here. We then pass through the shopping mall which is most definitely devoid of nature.As is this passageway towards the Crossrail Station, but at least it is bright and artistic! This is Captivated by Colourby Camille Walala.
London Tree Walk: Gardens Of Canary Wharf
Phew, back to some greenery at the Crossrail Roof Garden. This has the feel of a botanical garden greenhouse or an airport feature (or maybe I’m just thinking of that butterfly garden in Singapore’s Changi Airport). Wood also comments on its hyperreality. Apparently its inspiration was the Wardian Case. London’s botanical diversity has always been driven by its status as a port. The Wardian Case accelerated this: it was essentially a terrarium, a case to transport living plants, allowing more delicate and tropical species to be transported back by ship. In true Wardian form, the Roof Garden has many subtropical species.And this is now our final stop, Jubilee Park. This park is planted with Dawn Redwoods and the odd Swamp Cypress. Spot the Helaine Blumenfeld sculpture as well. Dawn Redwoods were known only from fossil records until they were discovered in a remote spot in China in the 1940s. Imagine their surprise to be in this busy corner of London in the 2020s.And finally we head home via Canary Wharf Station, a Norman Foster design. From Wapping to Canary Wharf we have seen centuries of history and development through the lens of the trees that have survived, or arrived and thrived. As with our walk from Honor Oak Park to New Cross Gate it’s been an interesting way to explore a familiar area. And to learn more about the natural world and try to take note of the green spaces around me. I hope to see more next summer when the trees will be waiting for me! Thanks Paul Wood for the inspiration.
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