The Hearn Recital Room
Took place on Tue 16 May 2023, 8.00pm

Talks

C.J. Schüler: The Wood that Built London

£10
60 minutes
The Hearn Recital Room
Took place on Tue 16 May 2023, 8.00pm

In this meticulously researched yet accessible work, historian C J Schüler brings to life a largely forgotten slice of the capital’s topography.

Geographical Magazine

The writer, journalist and historian C. J. Schüler discusses his latest book The Wood That Built London, with an illustrated talk chaired by literary journalist Suzi Feay.

Standing in the busy streets of South London today, it is hard to imagine that much of this suburban townscape was once a vast wood, stretching unbroken for almost seven miles from Croydon to the Thames at Deptford.

Drawing on historic documents, maps and environmental evidence, this compelling narrative charts the fortunes of the Great North Wood that once covered much of what is now South London: its ecology, ownership and management, the gradual encroachment of the metropolis, and the battles fought by locals and the London Wildlife Trust to save what remained.