Hammocks, dawn raids and court dates: the fight to save a London tree

Protesters trying to save a tree in Stroud Green that the council wants to axe say it's a battle that should concern us allOn a warm midsummer evening in 2022, I stood under a plane tree on the corner of a north London red-brick street and chatted with Marcus Decker, who was then preparing for his 50th night sleeping in a hammock high among the tree's branches. The pair of them, he said, tree and Marcus, were becoming old friends - as well as allies in a struggle.The tree, on the bucolically named Oakfield Road in Stroud Green, was on the frontline of a battle being waged in the capital, a triangular fight between multinational insurance companies, councils and some of London's oldest residents - its 100,000 plane trees, originally planted to help the smoggy city breathe, because of the natural ability of their bark to absorb pollution and shed it in silvery layers. Continue reading...