A tree like no other - the Cheapside plane

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When you're next in the City of London take a walk along Wood Street and at the junction with Cheapside look up. You'll see something quite old, not uncommon in these part but which is said to have inspired one of England's most famous poets - a 70-foot-tall London plane tree. However, this hardy tree, ideally suited for a city environment, isn't just any old tree - it's actually listed as one of the Great Trees of London by the Trees for Cities charity, who call it The Cheapside Plane. Of a hardy hybride variety of treeIdeally suited for city life, they estimate it's age at over 250-years-old, making it one of the oldest trees in the Square Mile.

It stands on the site of one of the City's many vanished churches, St Peter Cheap, which like many others succumbed to the Great Fire of London in September 1666 and was never rebuilt. All that remains now to indicate it was ever a place of worship is an image of St Peter, the names of some churchwardens and a number of gravestones around what is now a pocket park.

_{The Cheapside Plane, possibly the oldest living thing in the City of London}

_{Credit: Andrew MacKenzie}

Some shops on Cheapside, renext to the tiny park are conspicuous by their rather stunted look which conveniently, with the help of some City ordinances it has to be said, accommodates the Cheapside plane. In fact, Victorians used to use it as a local landmark, with nearby businesses sometimes giving their addresse as "under the tree" or "opposite the tree".

_{A business in 1890 gives it's address as "under the tree"}

The famous English poet said to have been inspired by the Cheapside plane was none other than William Wordsworth. His name and 1797 poem, A Reverie of Poor Susan, are inscribed on a flat memorial close by the tree. This melancholic poem recounts how a country girl called Susan, now living and working in the City, is suddenly transported back to her previous rural life as a milkmaid by the sound of a thrush singing on, or near, the Cheapside plane. Susan's mind conjures up images of green pastures, hills, rivers and her own country cottage, in contrast to the urban life she now leads.

_{The Reverie of Poor Susan by William Wordsworth}

_{Credit: Wikisource}

This bittersweet poem speaks of the very human need for some kind of link to nature. Her former life is pulling at Susan's subconscious reminding her of what she left behind and of her dislocation from a simpler, less hectic existence.

So, the next time you're walking down Cheapside, spare a moment for the Cheapside plane and remember: while the City of London has many fascinating things, it doesn't have everything a human sometimes needs, as poor Susan knew only too well.