Capital grains: the city timber getting a second life

Furnishings maker Bruce Saunders was stumped. He’d lived in London for greater than 40 years, surrounded by parks, streets and leafy suburbs bursting with a wealthy mixture of timber.

Why, then, did he must journey 70 miles to search out British-grown timber? And why was 90% of the hardwood bought within the UK imported?

“There are sufficient timber in London for it to be designated a forest,” says Saunders. “However the actuality is, tree surgeons working within the metropolis can’t afford to retailer the wooden they’re felling: they must slice it up for firewood or chip it for biomass.”

Saunders is aiming to plant a brand new narrative via Fallen & Felled (FAF), the timber firm he based alongside his architect spouse, Antje. Specialising in timber sourced in and across the capital, the corporate is saving fallen city timber from assembly a fiery finish, remodeling what would in any other case have been wasted into one thing lasting and purposeful.

“I’ve at all times discovered it unusual that you would be able to have lots of of individuals protesting a few tree when it’s residing, however as quickly because it hits the deck it’s value zero,” Saunders says. “It’s like: ‘Cling on a minute – that tree might be was stuff that may final one other hundred years.’”

Saunders’ first act of arboreal salvage got here virtually a decade in the past when he noticed a London aircraft getting the chop close to his dwelling in Camden. The tree surgeon was solely too completely satisfied for him to take it.

From there, he blagged his manner into extra timber, at one level securing 12 lorry masses that had been felled throughout HS2 works. Lifelong pal and advertising guru Patrick Welsh joined the enterprise in 2020.

“We promote wooden with a narrative,” Welsh says. “It’s good to suppose {that a} tree has seen historical past, maybe lots of of years of historical past. Who is aware of what it’s witnessed? We like the concept when its life is over, that historical past can proceed. Folks can use its wooden and change into a part of its story.”

Generally, these tales are actually written into the timber. Saunders recollects discovering that one slab destined to be a kitchen counter had been stained gray by wartime bomb shrapnel. He assumed the consumer would complain.

It’s good to suppose {that a} tree has seen historical past, maybe lots of of years of historical past. Who is aware of what it’s witnessed? We like the concept when its life is over, that historical past can proceed

“In reality, he was delighted,” Saunders says. “He was a historian – he mentioned he couldn’t have wished for something higher! That’s our sort of buyer.”

FAF has rescued tonnes of ‘priceless’ black walnut that had been felled on a golf course close to Croydon, a few of which has been crafted into cupboards by award-winning positive furnishings maker Sebastian Cox.

A black poplar salvaged from London’s Previous Kent Street lives on as counters and tabletops in a Soho denims retailer, an area bakery and a consulting agency – all inside a mile of the place it fell.

There’s even British-grown tulip [poplar] wooden from Chartwell Farm in Kent, as soon as a part of Winston Churchill’s property. “Probably even planted on his instruction,” notes Welsh.

Saunders says city timber is distinct from wooden sourced from forestries. “Somebody described it as being like an unruly teenager,” he says. “When timber develop in forests, they will wait many years for a free spot of daylight to seem within the cover. Within the city setting, they develop a lot quicker, so pretty recurrently you get extra color within the timber – what we name flaming.”

It’s largely seen as undesirable, however the place many see a color defect, the pair see solely magnificence.“We like it,” Saunders says.

Now, FAF plan to maneuver from their present base in Walthamstow to a railway arch in Camden, one thing of a symbolic homecoming. And whereas they’d by no means advocate felling wholesome timber for the sake of it, they’re pragmatic about what occurs subsequent when it must be carried out.

“The easy fact is that timber die: they don’t final perpetually,” says Welsh. “If one goes to return down, we’d want to show it into one thing new.”

Fundamental picture: Bruce Saunders in Fallen & Felled’s timber warehouse in Bulphan, Essex

Images by Beth MacInnes