How shrapnel from WWII got into our Bases | London Plane Wood

01/07/2020 Newly Photographed News We Love

We offer many of our bases in locally sourced London Plane wood. Each piece has been hand selected by Peter Bellerby and has a known story which is pretty special.

We recommend staining it quite dark as pictured, but the naturally light wood can be stained to your preference.

London plane is a tree ‘invented’ by the Victorians in Kew Gardens (oh weren’t they clever) by hybrid breeding species to enable the resulting variety to thrive in city environments (pollution and root compacting). The trees were originally planted in London’s Royal Parks, and subsequently found a home in New York both in parks and streets – as well as Australia in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth. It is therefore not found naturally in woodlands, so it has a limited supply.

The UK had a glut of supply following the devastating (famously downplayed by the met office) storm of 1989, and then a further oversupply following the 2012 Olympics and the resulting clearance of Hackney Marshes. Our current supply comes from the clearance around Euston station to enable a new station to be built to house the HS2.

We have bough several of these trees in their entirety which is allowing us to have the wood dried to the correct size (allowing for some planing), thus reducing waste as well as allowing larger pieces of wood to make our bigger rotational bases from one piece. Amazingly some of this wood, which was planted in the early C20th contains pieces of shrapnel from WWII which embedded inside during The Blitz.

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Some examples of London Plane Wood :

Medium Stain – 22cm Mini Desk Globe in Gagarin

Dark Stain – 36cm Livingstone Base

Dark Stain – on an 80cm Albion variation (Gagarin colouring) and a 65cm Curve (Mediterranean Blue) :

Light Stain – Parchment 22cm Globe

Osmo Finish – Cobalt Cassini globe –

Medium Stain – 22cm in Blue Cassini –

Dark Stain – on a 36cm Albion, globe is Glacial Blue with added illustrations

A dark finish paired with a 22cm Moon –

Another example of an Ebonised Finish –

Globe here is a lighter variation of Schmincke Gagarin, and the base is a light Osmo finish to a unique piece of London Plane Wood. Each piece will always be totally one of a kind.