Three years ago the idea of a whole book about London’s street trees seemed somewhat esoteric – weren’t they all just London Planes?
But Paul Wood’s brilliant and acclaimed book has gone on to sell 5,000 copies in three printings, and become a fixture in London’s bookshops and museum and gallery gift shops, while the author is still busy leading his popular ‘street tree walks’ every weekend somewhere in the capital. And its revelations that London’s streets are actually an amazing ‘urban arboretum’ where you can find everything from Magnolias to Olive trees, Persian Silkwoods to Giant Redwoods, have even led local tree groups to plant the rare species featured in it to beautify their own streets.
Now, to take account of all the new species planted on the capital’s streets since the first edition – from Persimmons to Pecans! – Safe Haven is publishing a new, expanded, fully revised edition, that includes not only more trees but more of its hugely popular tree-walk routes.
Paul Wood writes the popular blog www.thestreettree.com. He is also the author of London Is a Forest, appears regular in London media, and lives in north London.
"This is a useful book [...] that just about fits into my large jacket pocket and attempts to introduce readers to the various species and cultivars of street trees throughout London. Parks and open spaces are excluded but there is more than enough material of interest to cover, The photographs are generally excellent and show the trees in their urban context rather than close ups of flowers, leaves, bark etc, so this book is definitely not intended to be a field guide. [...] If you are looking for a general interest festive stocking-filler, this book will certainly merit inclusion."
– Clive Herbert, The London Naturalist 97, 2018
"[...] Criticisms? Few. Despite the subtitle, if you want an ID guide to street trees using key features, this is not it (although, since a location for every species is precisely documented, it could be used as a substitute). Also, as a taxonomist, I would have preferred a taxonomic, not an alphabetical, listing of the species. But these are quibbles. This book gave me insights both into trees and into their place in the London scene. It is very defnitely a worthy celebration of the urban forest."
– Ros Bennett, British Wildlife 28(6), August 2017