Our story

The roots from which we grew…

Street Trees for Living began life in 2011 as Brockley Society’s two person “Tree Committee”. Its purpose was to draw attention to and make good the loss of trees in and around Brockley’s conservation area. For the next eight years Brockley Society lent support, oversight and charitable status to all the Committee's work of raising awareness of tree-related issues in public and private space.

One of the “Tree Committee's" first and most inspired achievements was working with Lewisham Council to establish a public offer to residents, of street tree planting at a fixed price. In its first year it planted four street trees. By Spring 2023, as Street Trees for Living, it will have helped the council to plant around two thousand. Tree-planting has happened hand-in-hand with promotional events, most notably a Tree Conference in 2014, its Stone House concert in 2015, and its hosting of Gardeners' Question Time in 2017.

In 2017 the ""Tree Committee" won a bid for £18000 from the GLA and changed its name to Street Trees for Living to reflect its aims and achievement of planting across Lewisham. Until very recently it has been run entirely by volunteers, and a lot of the work is still done this way. Street Trees for Living continues to rely more than anything on the ongoing partnership that it has nurtured and sustained between council and community.

Street Trees for Living was honoured to be the recipients in 2016 of the Forestry Commission's London Community Tree Award, in 2017 a Lewisham Mayor’s award for voluntary contribution, a London Tree and Woodlands Community Award in 2020, and London Tree and Woodlands Awards Commendations in 2019 & 2022. It is now an independent registered charity, no. 1185165.

Written by Dom Eliot, STfL volunteer