Hardy Tree Falls in London | Thomas Hardy

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The Hardy Tree, named after the writer who piled tombstones around the base of the cinders when both man and plant were young in the 1860s, fell.

The tree, which once stood in the Old St Pancras Churchyard in London, was surrounded by dozens of tombstones placed at its base while engineering work was being carried out on a railway line. It became a landmark image of life among death.

Thomas Hardy, not yet the famous writer he would become, was working as a young architect in the office of Arthur Bloomfield, in Covent Garden, London. The company obtained a commission from the Bishop of London to separate a large number of graves from Old St Pancras Cemetery. The Midland Railway was about to forge its way into what is now the King’s Cross St Pancras station complex and needed land for its rails.

Hardy was instructed to exhume the mass bodies and re-bury them properly elsewhere. The church’s website described the tree as a “monument to 19th-century railroad encroachments”.

Pictures of the fallen tree appeared online on Tuesday.

In July, the Camden New Journal reported that the council had warned the tree might fall, after it had been weakened by a storm. We are looking for ways to memorialize this tree and its story when it finally falls.

“The council recognizes the importance of Veteran Hardy Trees, both to our local communities and nationally, which is why we have taken measures over the past eight years to manage this phase of its life cycle, and to keep it safe for visitors,” the hall’s statement read.

“Unfortunately, following storms earlier this year, the tree has moved and there is an increased risk of it falling, and as a precaution we have trimmed back the crown to ensure there are no risks to those visiting the churchyard.”

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