A short history of Fulham Cemetery's trees

Introduction

• The cemetery was opened in 1865. Oldest in the borough. Margravine Cemetery was opened 4 years later, 1869.

• It was enlarged in 1874 (to Munster Rd) and 1880 (bottom half).

• All the early maps show the same path layout as today, and some show all paths as tree-lined (1872, 1878) – see maps

• A 1900 description described the cemetery as “prettily overarched with trees”

• We are at the “principal entrance”, on Fulham Palace Road

Chapel visit

• The chapel is kept locked and used by the local authority for storage. It was unlocked specially for this event by the Parks manager. 

• Designed in 1865 by John Hall in Gothic style. (A future article will look into the architect, of whom very little is known.)

• This is the Church of England chapel, the Nonconformist chapel was demolished somewhere between 1949 and 1966. 

• The Parks manager explained that the chapel is difficult to repurpose, as it lacks services. (It has electricity but no plumbing.)

Photos from 1897 (see historic photos)

• The photo is labeled “principal avenue”. Is that the avenue we're standing on, by the Fulham Palace Road gate?

• These look like lime trees, which line Fulham Palace Road today.

• If the trees in the this photo were planted when the cemetery opened, they would be 30 years old.

• All the early maps show the same path layout as today, and some show all paths as tree-lined (1872, 1878) – see maps

• A 1900 description described it as “prettily overarched with trees”

Aerial photos from 1940 and 1949

• The earliest aerial photos we have are from 1930-1949. All show just 2 avenues and very few other trees

• If other paths were once tree-lined, they were cut down by this time. Because because the cemetery was very full?

• The cemetery is very crowded! This was before the period of grassing over. This may explain lack of trees.

• [Note that the trees in the 1897 photo would have been 70-80 by this point, so quite old and very big. It’s possible the avenue was replanted]

Aerial photo from 1966

• This is the next photo we have. Unfortunately nothing from the 1950s.

• Most of the graves have disappeared – grassed over.

• As you can see, we now have the cherry tree, crabapple, and other flowering avenues we know today. I guessed they were planted during the 1950s, and this seems to bear it out.

• You can also see the purple plum tree, of which mostly the trunk survives today.

• They all seem quite large by this point, 10-15 years, and they are roughly the same size, so would have all been planted around the same time

• But the 2 principal avenues are surprisingly small - and very even. These are probably not the original trees, but were replanted. (The 1897 trees would have been 90 by now)

Why plant cherry trees in the 1950s?

• We can credit the botanist Collingwood “Cherry” Ingram, born in 1880. He first visited Japan in 1902, which piqued his interest in the country’s culture and cherry trees, which were declining due to industrialisation and other factors. He collected as many as he could, sending over 50 endangered varieties back to England.

• By 1926 he was considered an authority on Japanese cherries and was invited to address the Japanese Cherry Society. During this visit he was shown a painting (over 120 years old) of a magnificent cherry tree that had disappeared from cultivation, despite long searching. He immediately recognised the blossom as one growing in a garden back in Sussex which he had named Tai Haku.

• (I myself identified the cherry trees in this cemetery from their blossoms. There are 2 magnificent Tai Haku trees remaining.)

• Cuttings from this tree were successfully sent via the Trans-Siberian express and thus reintroduced it to Japan.

• Ingram popularised Japanese cherries in Britain with his 1948 book, “Ornamental Cherries”

• The Frustrated Gardener: “Thanks to the book’s popularity the cultivation of ornamental cherry trees rapidly became de rigeur, with hundreds of streets hurriedly planted up and named in the tree’s honour. In dreary post-war Britain the sight of trees clothed in candy-floss pink blossom each spring was just the tonic people needed.”

• “A stiffly upright variety with masses of deep pink flowers became an instant hit. It’s name was ‘Kanzan’, which means mountain border in Japanese.”

Aerial photo from 1981

• • This looks largely like you’d expect, with the flowering avenues in their prime. You can literally use this to count how many there were.

  • More trees popping up in the middle areas.

  • But with one notable absence - what happened to the 2 principal avenues? Gone.

What happened to UK trees in the late 1960s?

• Dutch Elm Disease

Let’s look at the 1966 photo, zoomed out

• You can see Margravine Cemetery - it was famed for its beautiful elm tree avenue.

• Fulham Cemetery may well have copied it in the 1930s/40s, when the avenues were replanted.

• But by 1981, those avenues are gone – from both cemeteries.

• (Except for the bottom part of the avenue! It would appear those were not elms, but lime trees, the same ones still growing today.)

• Some of that avenue was extended with ash trees.

Aerial photo from 1992 (colour)

• Here we see many of the trees currently around us, planted along principal avenue.

• We see the cedar trees that today shade the avenue, as young trees.

• Also the purple plums (from 1950s)

• And the crimson maple, still a small tree.

• And the “Ukon” cherry, behind the war memorial.

• Avenue extended with ash trees

• Making all of these trees 30-something, planted in late 1980s

• Note how all the trees in the southeast path are purple! Purple plum & Japanese crab

New trees

• 36 new trees were planted! Map on website. Will point them out on the way

• They were planted in quite random fashion

Circular trail section 1: Central avenue

• Cedars - Atlas cedar (atlantica) blue Atlas cedar (glauca) - from Atlas mountains in Morocco and Algeria. They are young trees (30ish) and will grow old and gigantic

• Cherry tree avenues. Tai-haku to the north of the chapel, Kanzan to the south. Disappearing. Only 2 Tai-haku left, enormous spreading trees. About 6 Kanzan left, and a few more elsewhere in the cemetery.

• Norway maple “Crimson king”. Not native, but widespread across Europe. Cute winged seeds. Self-seeds readily. Invasive in USA. Many cultivars for leaf shapes and colours, like the crimson. Not used for syrup like the sugar maple. Probably planted in the 1980s.

• Avenue south: ash trees, lime trees. Avenue to the north was probably also lined with elm trees as they disappeared after 1966. There is no longer a clear path here, but it was shown in all the older maps.

• New trees planted in January, visible from here:

  • 3 Kanzan cherries, near the chapel.

  • 3 Tai-haku and 2 Shirotae “Mt Fuji” cherries, near the central tap. Also a magnolia.

  • 2 cedars, atlantica and glauca.

  • 2 birches south of the path, and a crabapple.

• Old purple plum (just a stump) - visible in 1966 photo. There is another purple plum south of the avenue.

• Two leaning pines - may be worth clearing the overgrowth around them to reveal their interesting shapes.

  • Also, one is hiding a walnut tree

• Central north-south avenues: cherries, crabapples. in decline.

• "Ukon" cherry, behind the war memorial - probably from 1980s. “Turmeric” for yellowish colour. Only one of its kind in the cemetery.

Circular trail section 2 (southeast avenue = purple avenue)

• Flowering fruit trees, planted at the same time as the Japanese cherries, in the 1950s. Most of them have purple foliage.

• Purple plum (purple leaves, white blossoms, not fruit bearing)

• Japanese crabapple – 2 remaining. Notable for their crimson blossoms.

• Medlar – 1 remaining. The fruit of this tree has been cultivated since Roman times, but are a novelty in this day and age. Very popular in the Victorian period and before, being referred to in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.

  • The fruit require a period of bletting, a lovely word meaning in essence to be matured off the tree to the point of rotting. Then they can be made into sauces, jellies, tarts, pies, or medlar cheese. (I have not tried this myself.)

  • (We think there was at least 1 more medlar along this path.)

• New tree planted at bottom corner: magnolia.

Discussed along the walk:

• One Japanese crabapple has a normal apple tree growing at its base. Not sure how it got there, perhaps self-sown, or perhaps growing from below the graft?

• A large grapevine has grown around the bushes on one grave.

• Circular trail section 3 (south avenue)

  • Crabapples, in decline

  • One is in danger of falling and could damage the underlying gravestones

• Circular trail section 4 (southwest avenue)

  • Pink "Kanzan" cherry trees, in decline