by Peter Coles

The recumbent Black mulberry , south-west of Gunnersbury Park Museum

Last week, my mulberry-sleuthing companion, Susan Whitfield, and I braved an icy Icelandic wind to visit the old black mulberry in Gunnersbury Park, West London.  This was the first time either of us had been to this stunning park, so it was a joy to discover its mature trees, landscaped ponds and Grade II listed buildings.

After the deluge we've experienced for most of this year, the lawn around the mulberry tree was sodden. The soil in this part of the park is gravel on London clay, which, of course, retains water. And water was probably always abundant here, as a row of springs once lined Popes Lane, which runs along the northern boundary of the estate, nearby.

The mulberry apparently keeled over some time ago – as elderly black mulberries often do – and its branches are now becoming new vertical stems, forming today's bushy canopy.  The two previously vertical trunks – one measuring 125 cm in circumference (at 1m 50 from the root plate), and the other 136 cm – now form a wide 'V' in the shadow of an impressive Cedar tree, which towers above Horsehoe Lake and the orangery, further down the winding path that runs from the house.  Each of the old trunks had been about 11 metres high.

The mulberry is in good health, with buds still firmly closed  – until the risk of frosts has passed later in April. What may be a scion of the tree stands at the apex of the right-hand trunk, but appears to have died.

The Black mulberry (right) is dwarfed by a towering Cedar on a mound.
Gunnersbury Park Museum is across the path to the right

Gunnersbury Park Museum

Gunnersbury Park Museum is a Grade II listed building - one of a pair of mansions that belonged to the Rothschild family (their first country estate). The so-called Large Mansion (Gunnersbury Park) was purchased in 1835 by Nathan Mayer Rothschild and his wife, Hannah, along with most of its 72 hectare (200 acre) grounds. Leopold Rothschild, Nathan's grandson  subsequently bought the neighbouring Small Mansion (Gunnersbury House) in 1889, some 54 years later. 

Ealing Council bought the entire estate  in 1929, turning the grounds into a public park and the Large Mansion into a museum, following the wishes of the Rothschilds. The park passed to the London Borough of Hounslow in 1965, while the Gunnersbury Park Joint Committee with Ealing was set up in 1967.

The mulberry probably dates from the Rothschilds' time in the latter part of the 19th century, but could even have been part of extensive landscaping by the Large Mansion's previous owner, Alexander Copland and his gardener. Martin Doran. The influential landscape gardener John Claudius Loudon (1783-1843) knew both mansions and their gardens, and is known to have favoured planting at least one mulberry tree in the grounds of the villas and mansions burgeoning in the 19th century.

A tale of two houses

According to local historians Val Bott and James Wisdom, the name Gunnersbury derives from Gunhilda, who owned the land in the 14th century.  After a succession of wealthy families occupied a medieval house on the site over three centuries, lawyer and MP Sir John Maynard finally demolished it and built a fashionable Palladian mansion, Gunnersbury House, between 1658-1660.  Subsequent residents included a rich merchant, Henry Furnese (c. 1690-1756) and socialite Princess Amelia, daughter of George II.  These owners each left their mark on the grounds, sculpting ponds and planting exotic trees and landscaping the gardens (documented in detail by Val Bott and James Wisdom in their 2018 illustrated guide, Gunnersbury Park).

After  Amelia's death in 1786 Gunnersbury House was bought by what, today, would be called a property developer, who demolished the mansion in 1801 and divided the estate  into lots planned for a number of villas.  Lot 1 was purchased by  timber merchant, Stephen Cosser and the adjacent Plot 2 by building contracter Alexander Copland. Between 1802-6 Cosser built Gunnersbury House (Small Mansion) on his plot and Copland, Gunnersbury Park (Large Mansion) on his. The neighbours each developed the grounds of their villas, a labour of love continued when the Rothschild family purchased first the Large Mansion (1835) and then the  Small Mansion in 1889, finally reunifying the estate.

Paper mulberry (Broussonetia papyrifera) near the mock-Gothic ruin that was once part of Gunnersbury House
('Small Mansion') seen here to the right.  The 'Large Mansion' (Gunnersbury Park) – now the Museum –
is beside it to the west. Both were once owned by the Rothschild family .

Gunnersbury Park Museum is worth a visit, not least because the now empty large rooms at the front, with fabulous views over the park, allow the imagination to roam.  Indeed, it was used as the setting for a rather cheesy video featuring footballer Eric Cantonar miming to a song by Oasis singer Noel Gallagher, which neverthess has the merit of showing these rooms furnished in full splendour. The museum has holdings that stretch from the Iron Age and Roman times, through to Ealing's famed movie studios.

all photos (c) Peter Coles