The Tree in the Street: The Greening of the City of Victoria

Abstract

While the history of greening in the City of Victoria through the establishment of the Hongkong Botanic Gardens and efforts to reforest the ‘barren rock’ in the 1870s is widely known, the role of the street tree in the early colonial period is not. Trees were planted along streets from as early as 1847. As they grew and started to cast shade across the street, they began to affect public life, creating tolerable summer conditions in the new public spaces, attracting and organizing transactional and community activities within the street, and encouraging new recreational pursuits. Street trees quickly took on broader meanings for the community, and came to emphasize colonial authority and social order within the emerging city. This presentation sets out the genealogy of tree planting in the early years of the colony and discusses their role in shaping city life.