The Great Trees of London initiative was originally developed by the London Tree Forum and supported by The Countryside Alliance, to celebrate and bring to the public's attention the importance and uniqueness of London's tree heritage.  The London Tree Forum and the Great Trees of London initiative were subsequently brought into Trees for Cities’ programme of work.

The first wave of Great Trees were chosen by a public nominations campaign in the Spring of 1997 and marked the 10th anniversary of the 1987 storms, which damaged so many of London’s largest and oldest trees.

In 2008 Trees for Cities and sponsoring partners Barratt Homes, Magic 105.4, the Forestry Commission and the Royal Parks, launched the second phase of the initiative to find another 20 Great Trees.

On Wednesday 9 July, Trees for Cities issued a call for the public to start nominating trees at a launch event by one of the existing Great Trees, the wonderful 500-year-old Holm Oak in the gardens of Fulham Palace.

In October, an expert panel of Judges then got together to begin the difficult process of selecting the 20 winning trees.

What makes a Great Tree?

All new Great Trees are publicly accessible (easily viewed from all sides) so that they can be visited and enjoyed by all and they were judged on the following criteria:

· historical significance – is the tree related to past events and/or people, or with a story to tell
· location – is the tree situated in a landmark location or somewhere special
· physical character – is the tree very large, or old, or an unusual shape

All winning trees were judged by our panel of experts and were celebrated with a commemorative plaque.

All the Great Trees of London are featured in a beautiful new book produced by Time Out which is available to buy from the Time Out website.

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