The Low Trees of Store Street

April 28th, 2014, 8am

Today this sign means something else, but in the 1960s this was the site of some genuinely low trees.

Camden council had asked horticultural avant-gardists Art Fruit to design a planting scheme for Store Street; intended to rejuvenate a slightly neglected area. AF decided that the best response was bonsai and spent a long weekend installing dozens of delicate miniature trees along the kerbs and parking bays from Tottenham Court Road to Gower Street. Needless to say, the installation was short-lived. All the bonsai were trampled, stolen or eaten by pigeons before lunchtime on the first day.

The disaster was mostly hushed up (local media was more compliant in those days) but council workers keep this sign in place as a reminder and a snub to their bosses.

Art Fruit went on to world renown with the 1970’s Manhattan project - The Flume Trees of Bleecker.


Kristen, Adrian, David Wade, Ellen and 3 others said thanks.

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Russell Davies

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