The East End's Oldest Tree Saved

The High Court has ruled to save the East End’s oldest tree.

Developers had wanted to uproot the 400 year old Bethnal Green Mulberry Tree, which survived being bombed in the Blitz, to build flats on the site of the former London Chest Hospital.

However campaigners, backed by Dame Judi Dench argued that replanting the tree would kill it.

Tower Hamlets council granted permission for almost 300 homes on the site next to Victoria Park and developer Crest Nicholson said the tree would be picked up by the root base and “replanted it in its entirety” elsewhere.

On Friday High Court judge Sir Duncan Ouseley said the council’s planning committee had “misinterpreted” planning policy when it considered whether the tree would die if it was moved and the “material consideration was ignored”.

A East End Society spokesman said:

“Crest Nicholson’s overblown development would have blighted the Victoria Park Conservation Area in East London for generations to come. It demolished a listed building, removed a large number of mature trees and delivered far too few affordable homes. The Bethnal Mulberry is the oldest tree in the East End, surviving plague, fire and blitz. We hope it will flourish for centuries to come to inspire us all.”

The socety also thanked Dame Judi who acted as a patron of its campaign and said the idea of digging up the tree “filled her with horror”.

A Tower Hamlets Council spokesman said:

“The Council acknowledges the High Court decision to quash our original approval for planning and listed building consent for a development of 291 new homes, of which 35 percent were affordable, at the London Chest Hospital site. The application to challenge our decision was based on five legal grounds, of which the High Court dismissed four. The fifth relating to the mulberry tree, has been upheld.”