The Tree Climber’s Guide. Jack Cooke

The Pedestal, Kensington Gardens

       The High Bower, Greenwich Park

       The Royal Perch, St James’s Park

       The Tree of Knowledge, Richmond Park

       The Lookout, Primrose Hill

       Houdini’s Door, Regent’s Park

       Streets, Roundabouts & Rooftops

       The One-Way Willow, Swiss Cottage Roundabout

       Tramp’s Corner, The Mall

       The Spire, Highbury Island

       The Burnt Treehouse, Lillie Road

       The Traffic Warden, Park Lane

       The Flying Oak, Kensington Roof Gardens

       The Soldier Fig, Stratford Greenway

       Seasons

       Open Ground

       A Strange Vision, Peckham Rye

       The Oasis, Blackheath

       The Turnip Tree, Tooting Commons

       Lamp Post 33, Clapham Common

       Gwain’s Bane, Wormwood Scrubs

       The Talisman, Wandsworth Common

       The Commentary Box, Hackney Marshes

       The Fallen Oak, Hampstead Heath

       The Dule Tree, Wanstead Flats

       Secret Gardens

       The Bowsprit, Rosmead Garden

       The Holy Holm, Lambeth Palace Gardens

       The Widow’s Veil, Chelsea Physic Garden

       The Prince of Persia, Kew Gardens

       The Lost Dragon, Kew Gardens

       The Peacock Roost, The Hurlingham Club

       A Night Aloft

       The Sprouting City

       Branching Out – A Tree Climber’s Glossary

       Acknowledgements

       About the Publisher

Introduction

      One thing we rarely do in the city is look up. Only time and weather seem to invade our thoughts as we tramp the urban mile. We may raise our eyes to coming rain or the hours called by clocks, but little else breaks our focus on the way to and from – our eternal quest for convenience.

      There is another dimension to the city, a world far removed but close at hand. It is a place of limitless space and light, and a simple antidote to the crowds. When we escape into this realm our senses are awakened; we taste cleaner air and see further than the end of the road. Where does this unlikely utopia lie? All around and above you, in the lofty, green canopy of the city’s trees.

      The city I inhabit is not so very different from any other. Like all cities it is sculpted from the same fixed matter: steel and glass, stone and brick. But like all cities it is underpinned and overhung by nature. Everything man-made is dug into the soil, and beneath the street a vast network of roots threads the land.

      I have climbed trees in London, but wherever you live you cannot be