Trees in town and city.

  • Great Britain. Ministry of Housing and Local Government.
Date:
1958
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Trees in town and city. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    13/96 (page 3)
    complex, changing and often accidental. The scene shifts rapidly as the observer moves; it depends on the season; it changes as trees grow and wall surfaces weather or are painted. Yet trees whose growth is unrestricted rarely look misplaced; they bring a living quality to the hard surfaces and angular shapes of roads and buildings. The close relationship in which a single tree may stand to a building in winter is illustrated by fig. 3. The silhouette and shadow of branches and twigs intricately decorate the walls. When trees come into leaf, they appear to detach themselves and stand more solidly and simply across the background. In summer, the roundness and deep shadow of the chestnut trees in fig. 4 contrast with the hard rectangular patterns of con- temporary architecture. The seasonal transformation of the familiar view from a particular window is illustrated in figs. 5 and 6. These photographs were taken from a flat in Paddington. In winter the trees frame and criss- cross the terrace opposite; in summer they block out the view of the buildings, drawing attention down to the triangular garden and to the sun- light, shadow and shades of green in grass and foliage. The impression of happy accident produced by most single or irregularly-spaced deciduous trees has a special value whether or not it is deliberately contrived. This is illustrated by photographs of two localities of very different character (figs. 7 and 8). In the first, of High Street, Oxford, is a sycamore which has been described as one of the most important trees in the world. To the long sequence definite natural touch. The second shows a group of planes, in a churchyard, forming a pleasant feature of a stretch of main road in Camberwell. The irregular shapes and positions of trees can be used deliberately as a contrast to architectural regularity. This was frequently done when planes were planted here and there in the centres of London squares (fig. 9). It is equally effective in Crawley (fig. 10). The factory, seen between slender stems and under light foliage, was sited in relation to the existing coppice. Similarly, the trees shown in figs. 11, 12 and 13 are used freely and informally. Yet their place and purpose in each of the three scenes is distinct. Con- fined to the ends of Alexander Place, Kensington (fig. 11), they help to complete the urbane and intimate space formed by the terraces of Georgian houses. By contrast, trees in profusion along the roadway in fig. 12 themselves compose the scene; most of the houses are hidden. In fig. 13 the arrangement of trees, buildings and open space produces an impression of a village green. But the sense of random growth is more apparent than real. The poplars in the foreground were deliberately used for their vertical forms to contrast with the long low horizontal lines of the cottages. Landscape design can be based on the definite and characteristic differences in the size and colour of different species of tree. But in only a few species, such as the Lawson’s cypress, will the shape of the free-standing separate tree provide a de- pendable formal element in the composition. The growth of most free-standing trees is—pleasingly— irregular.