Eltham Palace

Cherry trees have been a key feature of the gardens at Eltham Place since Stephen and Virginia Courtauld laid out their gardens in the 1930s, and they perhaps incorporated them from earlier orchards that used to dominate the landscape in this area before the suburbs of London expanded after the Second World War.

Several cherry trees are thought to be original Courtauld period plantings, their spring blossom and autumn colour now frame the views to and from the Palace looking across the Moat and Rock Garden from the Eastern Ridge.

New plantings to be completed in 2020, and supported by the Sakura Cherry Tree Project, along the other bank of the Eastern Ridge will echo the plantings on the top of the Rock Garden. They will evoke some of the orchard plantings known to have been in this area and incorporated into the Courtaulds’ garden, and resonate the fashion for flowering cherries that helped define and characterise the most stylish 1930s gardens.