At a confluence of footpaths in the NE corner of Hyde Park, not too far from Marble Arch, is a circular mosaic that marks the spot (perhaps) of what became known as the Reformers’ Tree.
The monument, by sculptor Harry Gray (who was also responsible for the statue of Hugh Myddleton on Holborn Viaduct), was unveiled by Tony Benn, former Labour cabinet member and the erstwhile Viscount Stansgate, in 2000.
It commemorates – it is said – an oak tree that stood here or hereabouts in the 1860s, the centre and scene of a great rally of perhaps 200,000 people organised by the Reform League, which was campaigning to extend the franchise to all men.
At the end of the rally the tree was set on fire, but the blackened stump then became a sort of noticeboard for the League, the rallying point for future gatherings and (although I very much suspect that this is a romantic embellishment, a sign of the original story being inflated as time passes) a podium for speakers.
As such the site of the tree has an important place in the history of the left in Britain, a symbol of the forward march of democracy and the power of popular protests. The 1867 Reform Act doubled the number of men who could vote, and subsequent Acts in 1872 and 1874 brought in secret ballots and extended the franchise further, although it was not until 1918 that women over 30 were given the vote (and it took until 1928 for them to be given voting equality).
There are, though, quite a few gaps in the tale, and some eliding of stories/fables into ‘truth’. Firstly, although the legend mentions an oak, this might just be the coupling of the species of tree that is the embodiment of England with the popular movement. The area where the tree stood was planted with elms, not oaks.
Secondly, the tree may or may not have been torched at the end of the rally. Although the protestors had initially been prevented by the police from entering Hyde Park, the vast crowds simply pushed over the railings and stormed in. Reinforcements were called (including a detachment of the Horse Guards), there was some violence and a large number of arrests. However, a Sergeant Edward Owens, who published a memoir in 1905 of his 20 years as a policeman in Hyde Park says it was in 1875 that the tree stump (an elm), already “a stark, blasted-looking old trunk, dead as a doornail”, was burnt down “by mischievous boys” after a quite different protest.
We can’t know (or, rather, I have been unable to determine) whether Owen’s recollection is correct (remember, he’s writing it some 30 years after the event he is recording) or whether it’s his memory playing tricks; he worked as a policeman in the park from 1874, so wasn’t a witness to the Reform League protest. It is, I suppose, quite possible that the Reformers’ Tree was burnt both in 1866 (originally) and then again in 1875 (“mischievious boys”).
[The Internet Archive has the full text of Sergeant Owen’s “little book” here.]
Further confusion ensues with the text on the memorial. Running around the outer ring of the mosaic is the legend: This mosaic has been designed to commemorate the ‘Reformers Tree’, a venerable tree which was burnt down during the reform league riots in 1866. … A new oak tree was planted by the then Prime Minister James Callaghan on 7 November 1977 on the spot where ‘Reformers Tree’ was thought to have stood.
As London Remembers points out, there is no obvious new tree close to the spot of the monument, and the fact that the inscription says a tree was planted where the previous tree once stood means that the mosaic is not on the site of the original.
So there we have it: a memorial that is probably in the wrong place, to a tree of another species, commemorating an event that might not have happened. History, eh.
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