Kidbrooke Village Tree Tagging

Kidbrooke Village, in the Royal Borough of Greenwich is an award winning regeneration scheme by Berkeley Group replacing the former Ferrier Estate. Consisting of 4,800 new homes and surrounded by 136 acres of open space, it is a major new village suburb for South East London.

Murdoch Wickham were commissioned by Berkeley Group in 2015 to work on Phase 3, the Village Centre. This phase will deliver 983 new homes, a new station ticket office for Kidbooke station as well as a new central Village Square and commercial hub.

MW’s landscape design for the new central Village Square at Kidbrooke Village

I joined MW as a graduate Landscape Architect nearly a year ago in May 2016. As an Atelier studio one of the three values that underpin MW’s ethos is that everyone will be able to “Grow Through Learning”. This means that the skills and knowledge that people have are passed on and shared with the team, so that we all grow in our understanding of the processes and practice of working in landscape and placemaking.

Each and every person has the opportunity to further their knowledge, MW have found that this continual enrichment benefits us all, our clients and the quality of our schemes. Personally I have found that this way of working has been incredibly beneficial to my development as a Landscape Architect and that as I grow in my knowledge and experience, the projects that I am involved with will benefit too.

As part of this learning process, I have been encouraged to get involved in all aspects of the roll of a Landscape Architect. As such, last week I joined my college Clive McDonnell on a two day trip to two of Europe’s leading tree nurseries to select and tag trees for Phase 3 at Kidbrooke.



It was an early start at Stansted, but the rain didn’t dampen our anticipation at seeing what would be on offer, flying to Hamburg our first day was spent at Pflanzen von Falkenhayn, two hours west of Hamburg. We weren’t disappointed with the tree stock that we saw, the quality and variety was outstanding. It was great to see these specimens in the ground where they had been lovingly cared for many years.









It was a long day but after a lovely meal and a good night’s sleep we headed back to Hamberg. Before visiting Lorenz von Ehren, just south of the city we were invited by Peter Flügge of von Ehren to view his private collection of trees. These fields held some very special species that Peter had grown from seed over 30 years ago, which were fascinating to see. Myself and Clive couldn’t help but tag some of the stunning Amelanchier lamarckii umbrellas found here. Once at von Ehren, again being another nursery of the highest quality we were spoilt for choice.



























Reflecting now on the trip, I feel that it has been of vast benefit to my continual understanding and career development. Seeing the trees and multi-stems in the nursery and selecting only the best specimens will also ensure that the scheme is delivered to its full potential!

Murdoch Wickham strives to create successful spaces for communities to use and enjoy.

Our vast range of experience and passion for design excellence allows us to enhance the environment, both sustainably and for the community.