Tree: Kensington Town Hall - Royal Golden Wedding
Erection date: 19/11/1947
This Cornus kousa tree was planted by the Mayor Councillor Edward Hess, to mark the Golden Wedding of Her Majesty the Queen and His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh, 19 November 1997.
Surprisingly this is, so far, the only memorial to the royal Golden Wedding that we have found. Same with their Silver, at the Barbican.
This tree (the smaller one in our picture) is also known as a Chinese dogwood.
Site: Kensington Town Hall - Royal Golden Wedding & Churchill (2 memorials)
W8, Hornton Street
Kensington and Chelsea Civic Centre by Sir Basil Spence was constructed in 1972-6 on open land on which the existing trees were preserved. RBKC's virtual museum has an image of the land before construction began, showing a few trees but we think it was taken before the Redwood was planted.
This Town Hall replaced the old Kensington Town Hall which was on the High Street and which we discuss (you may think, oddly) on our page for Chelsea Old Town Hall.
