The Citrus Trees Of Spitalfields

Meet me on Easter Monday on the steps of St Paul’s for a tour of sightseeing and storytelling, rambling through the alleys and byways of the Square Mile in search of the wonders and the wickedness of the City of London.

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Princelet St

In these last long months at end of winter my spirits have been consistently lifted by the sight of citrus trees flourishing, heavy with fruit in the back streets and yards to the east of Brick Lane. On cold days when the clouds hung low over the city, the sight of these evergreen specimens gave me hope.

Spitalfields has always been renowned for fruit trees. In the seventeenth century, Leonard Gurle ran a tree nursery – including 11,600 plum, cherry and pear trees, as well as nectarines – that extended from Brick Lane to Whitechapel and supplied soft fruit trees to Charles II, while Thomas Fairchild in The City Gardener1722, notes that the area around Bishopsgate lends itself to the cultivation of pears and plums. A piece of horticultural history which still echoes in the name of Blossom St in Norton Folgate today.

Yet centuries of the social change and recent global warming have brought citrus trees to Spitalfields today. Just as the Huguenots are believed to have brought auriculas in the eighteenth century, three hundred years later Bengali people have cultivated shatkora, a Sylheti fruit similar to grapefruit but with very thick skin used in savoury dishes. Additionally, I have found tangerines in Flower & Dean Walk and oranges and lemons in Chicksand St.

Take a pilgrimage for yourself to visit the citrus trees of Spitalfields. Remarkably, none are growing in full sunlight although most are in sheltered spots. Be inspired by the abundant life and resilience of nature, even here in the heart of the city.