The Plane of Burgerhoutsestraat

This London plane stands at the front of the same Burgerhoutsestraat building whose southwest corner holds a registered catalpa, banded by the national register to a planting around 1870, roughly 160 years old and a generation younger than its catalpa neighbour on the other side of the same property. London plane is the hybrid that resulted from crossing an American and an Oriental species in seventeenth century Europe, and it turned out to tolerate compacted soil, air pollution and hard pruning better than almost any other large tree available, which is why it became the default choice for European streets and squares from the eighteenth century onward. Its bark flakes away in patches rather than splitting, leaving a mottled grey, green and cream pattern across the trunk that keeps changing as old plates drop and new bark shows through underneath. At the front of a building rather than tucked behind it, this plane has likely had more pruning against passing traffic than its catalpa neighbour, which a plane tolerates without much complaint. The register records only species and decade. If you know the building's own history, tell us.