‘It’s social distancing at its finest’: The tree surgeons maintaining London’s parks during lockdown

The root of it: tree surgeon Adam Rendell in London’s St Pancras Gardens They call themselves tree surgeons . But swinging from branch to branch and taking turns slicing through trails of dead wood at neck-craning heights, Adam Rendell and Sam Davis look more like urban avengers who have figured out how to vanquish the coronavirus lockdown and still get a paycheck. “It’s social distancing at its finest,” Davis says after an hour amid the treetops of St Pancras Gardens, his workspace for the moment in one of London’s greenest boroughs. When Britain’s 23 March lockdown began, Davis, a 29-year-old former bartender, saw friends working in restaurants and in the film industry suddenly put on furlough. Rendell, a 27-year-old who walked away from an IT job three years ago, said co-workers at his former office endured pay cuts and were told to work from home. The pair consider themselves lucky to practice a trade that, by its very nature, keeps them safe from crowds and contagion. Recent human ancestors ‘may have regularly climbed trees’ Britain is beginning to loosen its coronavirus restrictions. But throughout, the green spaces of London, and those who tend them, have been considered essential. The […]

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