Queens Gardens: Tree-planting breathes new life into key Hull Maritime route
GOING IN: A major tree-planting project is under way in Queens Gardens. Pictures by Neil Holmes Photography
By Simon Bristow
On a crisp winter’s morning in Queens Gardens, a major tree-planting programme is getting under way as part of a project that will transform this much-loved public space for generations to come.
In what is the biggest refurbishment of the gardens for nearly 75 years, trees that have come to the end of their natural life are being removed and replaced with new and varied species sourced from some of the finest nurseries in Europe.
Although requiring the use of machinery – some of the trees weigh 4.5 tonnes –it is careful and delicate work and is being carried out to a detailed plan devised by landscape architect Liam Haggerty of Southern Green.
A total of 99 trees are being planted over the four months of this planting season, with a further 31 to follow in the next season. The first batch are being planted along a new, wider central avenue, as the gardens are prepared for a new and important role in Hull’s future.
The poplars along the central avenue, which are entering the latter stages of their lifespan, are being replaced with a new avenue of Metasequoia glyptostroboides (Dawn Redwood) and Taxodium distichum (Swamp Cypress) which are a fast growing, deciduous, coniferous species that grow well in wetter soils up to a height that can exceed 35m (115ft).
The work will also see the clearing of self-seeded trees and vegetation, and new and improved boundary walls and entrances, which are all designed to make the gardens more open, accessible, and safer.
Liam said: “A lot of it was established way before accessibility standards were a thing and in recent years accessibility standards have been updated. The ramps and steps didn’t comply with any of the current guidance and largely, to anybody other than a completely able-bodied person, made the gardens very difficult to access if not impossible.
“One of the key issues or constraints before the project started was that natural surveillance, in and out of the gardens was a real issue.
“There were a lot of areas where vegetation had become quite dense, there were a lot of very tall walls and boundary walls, even the ones from the outer edge looking in, they weren’t as high from that perspective, but inside the garden looking out they were quite dominant.
“So we’re bringing all of those down, replacing walls where required and replacing them with railings so the accessibility, visibility and indivisibility inside and outside of the gardens is going to be significantly improved.”
Liam travelled to the Netherlands to source the trees as UK nurseries do not typically stock the number of trees at the mature sizes he was looking for.
He spent days carefully selecting each individual tree, which was then marked with a tamper-proof tag before being shipped to Hull.
“It’s a really fundamental part of what we do as a profession,” he said.
“Trees can vary massively from one tree to the next, and that can relate to quality. It’s also quite a subjective thing.
“What one person thinks is a beautiful tree another person might not. I’ve hand-selected every single tree that’s coming into the gardens. They’ve all been individually tagged with an anti-tamper ID tag so that’s how we ensure we get exactly the trees that we’ve specified.
“When you go to the nursery you’re often in a field of thousands of trees, and in any given species of the size you’re looking at you could be selecting three or four trees from a line of two-hundred.
HAND-SELECTED EVERY TREE: Landscape architect Liam Haggerty
“And the process is quite labour intensive – we’re there for three days and you literally walk up and down and assess the quality, the form, the structure, the health – everything about each individual tree you have to thoroughly review before you make your ultimately subjective opinion on which ones you believe to be the best ones.”
The project will also significantly increase the number of trees across the city centre, with three planted for every one tree removed. This is not just in the gardens but at locations including Connexin Live, South Blockhouse, Liddell Street Park and the History Centre.
In total, 151 trees will be removed and 453 will be planted within the gardens and across other locations.
Trees will also be planted for the first time in the Rose Bowl, the beautifully maintained feature at the western entrance to the gardens, which was once the biggest illuminated fountain in the country.
Liam said: “We will end up with significantly more trees across the city centre, slightly fewer on site but that was one of the problems; there were a lot of self-seeded trees, particularly around the perimeter, adding to the issue with natural surveillance and visibility.
“And that’s what we’re keen to avoid within our scheme, to make sure we get a good amount of tree cover but we don’t make dark, unfriendly spaces that people don’t want to spend time in.”
He added: “The immaculately presented Rose Bowl will be the benchmark for the standard of the gardens. That is setting the tone and the standards for what we should expect.”
Once the refurbishment is completed in 2025, Queens Gardens will become the main thoroughfare linking key sites in the Hull Maritime project – from the Maritime Museum and Dock Office Chambers at one end to North End Shipyard at the other – where the historic trawler Arctic Corsair will be berthed as it resumes its life as a floating museum.
And what people who have enjoyed this vast green space for years may not know is that the gardens themselves are very much part of Hull’s maritime story.
Before being filled in during the 1930s it was the biggest dock in Britain, Queens Dock, and it was not the branches of trees that swayed in the wind but the masts of ships.
That story will be brought to life as part of the Hull Maritime experience.
Gillian Osgerby, programme director for Hull Maritime, said: “This key green space was once this vast area of water and bustling with ships coming in and out trading from Hull.
“It was our connection internationally into the wider world and it’s about bringing that story to life, which hasn’t been well told and will be through bespoke pieces of artwork that we’re installing; traditional interpretation, digital resources, plus all of the outreach and engagement that we’ve done through the project.
“It’s really exciting for the team to be on site, to make the most of this space, which I think has been significantly under-utilised. A city having such a large green space within a city centre is unusual and I think we’ve got to use it, maximise it and celebrate the green space that it is but also just how important it has been in Hull’s past.”
Queens Dock opened in 1778 and was closed in 1930. It was filled in four years later and transformed into Queens Gardens, which opened to the public in 1935.
‘IT’S ABOUT BRINGING THAT STORY TO LIFE’: Gillian Osgerby, programme director for Hull Maritime
Queens Gardens was included in the post-war plans for rebuilding the city. During the 1950s the gardens were redesigned and landscaped by Sir Fredrick Gibberd. The design involved lowering the level of the gardens as a tribute to the former dock, the installation of ponds and a network of geometric paths.
The new plans recognise Gibberd’s design and his important contribution to the development of public spaces in the UK, with Queens Gardens being one of the last surviving examples of his landscaping work.
Asked what sense of satisfaction he would have when the project ends, Liam said: “I don’t think my involvement will ever end. This is the beauty of what we do for a living – landscape schemes aren’t finished when they’re finished.
“The vision for Queens Gardens isn’t what you’ll see in 12 months’ time, it’s what you’ll see through the duration of our lives and beyond. For me it’s what do I leave behind?
“Hopefully I’ll take my kids to see it and they’ll take their kids to see it, to see what grandad did, and that’s the sense of satisfaction and that goes for all of our work. That’s why we’re passionate about what we do.”
Donna Riley, capital development manager at Hull City Council, said: “I think for me as well it’s that we are getting the opportunity to plan for the next hundred, hundred-and-fifty, maybe even two-hundred years in terms of the landscape we are creating.
“So I think that’s really significant and it’s really special to be part of a project like that.”
Hull Maritime is a major regeneration programme funded by Hull City Council and The National Lottery Heritage Fund.
This heritage driven, city-wide cultural regeneration project will continue to build upon the remarkable transformation initiated by Hull’s year as UK City of Culture in 2017.
Five historic sites in the city centre will be transformed: the refurbishment of the Grade II* Hull Maritime Museum and Dock Office Chambers, the creation of a new visitor attraction at the North End Shipyard and the restoration two historic vessels, Arctic Corsair and Spurn Lightship.
The new maritime experience is expected to add £5.5m to the local economy each year.