The Velperweg Copper Beech

The house is from the 1930s. The beech in its back garden was already the better part of a century old when the builders turned up. The national register dates the planting to between 1840 and 1850, so roughly 180 years, and suspects the tree once stood beside one of the villas that occupied this ground before the present block went up. It became somebody's garden tree by accident of town planning. So be clear about what this visit is. You cannot walk up to it. The garden is private, the register marks the tree as not visitable, and there is no path, gate or arrangement that changes that. What you can do is see it. The register states that the full crown shows from the public car park on the Rosendaalsestraat, and that a smaller part of the tree is visible from the Velperweg itself. Stand in the car park, look across the gardens, and the dark red canopy is the one thing on the block you cannot mistake for anything else. Bring eyes and nothing else; there is nothing here to walk to. At the last measurement, in 2006, it was approaching four metres round. Nobody has recorded a figure since, so the number today is likely to be larger and nobody can tell you by how much. Only the register has written this tree down. About twenty minutes on foot from the station.