The London Plane of De Kring

The national tree register describes this London plane by the tree behind it. About 13 metres west stands the Oriental plane of De Kring, one of the two species the London plane was bred from, so this corner of the square puts a hybrid and its parent side by side. This is the front tree and the younger of the pair, banded by the register to a planting between 1900 and 1910, which makes it roughly 116 to 126 years old. The register gives it 25 metres of height to the Oriental plane's 22, and a trunk 3.6 metres round at chest height. The pair have not had an easy century. In 2002 the Bomenstichting, the Dutch tree foundation, studied the ground beneath them and advised keeping both planes. Building went ahead anyway, inside the spread of their crowns and their roots. When the register last checked, in July 2023, it was mostly the Oriental plane behind whose crown had gone thin, with dead tips on its branches. This one is not the tree it describes as declining. A horse chestnut once made this a trio. The register records it felled in 2014 and a young tree planted in its place, so that young tree is not part of the old group. The register is the only source for this tree, and July 2023 is the last time it was recorded standing. If you have walked past it since, tell us.