A Really Old Tree

Believed to be over 300 years old this plane tree in Brunswick Square is equally interesting as it has been allowed to grow to its natural shape.  Most plane trees in cities are radically pruned each year and so never develop the graceful sweeping beaches of this one.

The garden square was next to the original foundling hospital and orphanage, an important feature for   its founders who insisted that the children have an area to play that gave them a sense of being in the country.  London during Victorian times was powered by coal and gas, a thick black fog hung over the city most of the time, not exactly a healthy environment for sickly children.  This area with no industry and open fields provided the nearest to the clean fresh countryside possible.