Woodberry Down’s residents and natural history celebrated in project by Royal College of Art graduate

Artist Xinqi Chen pictured in front of her illustrations. Photograph: courtesy Xinqi Chen

A Royal College of Art graduate used her final project to celebrate the beauty, natural history and residents of Woodberry Down.

Xinqi Chen has created a zine, Tree Lady, made up of a large series of her illustrations.

Chen developed the work after discovering the story of the local reservoir, where residents have long fought to preserve the place they call home.

Tree Lady cover. Image: courtesy Xinqi Chen

Tree Lady explores wider themes of regeneration through the lens of Woodberry Down, and uses the experiences of one resident who threw herself into a campaign to save the Happy Man tree as an example of how the neighbourhood has changed.

Xinqi said: “When I started doing more research about this place, I learned it’s a large estate with a long history now undergoing a very long-term regeneration.

“I felt like I needed to have a deeper understanding about [Woodberry Down] and the people’s stories there.”

Through her work, Xinqi became acquainted with Noemi Menendez, a Spanish national who moved to Woodberry Down about seven years ago and was heavily involved in the long fight to protect the Happy Man.

The campaign saw residents rally around the tree, but it was sadly cut down on 5 February 2021.

Chen’s work has been published on the one-year anniversary of the tree being felled.

Two pages from Tree Lady. Photograph: courtesy Xinqi Chen

Noemi, quoted in Tree Lady, said: “For me, everything changed very much during the tree campaign and I saw things in a different way.”

Woodberry Down is undergoing a projected 20-year redevelopment which will see nearly 2,000 homes demolished and 5,500 houses – a mix of socially rented, private and shared ownership – built in their place.

The regeneration plan, led by the council alongside partners including Berkeley Homes, the Greater London Authority and others, also boasts that it will provide new facilities for local people, including three new public parks and a new children’s centre.

But residents have been resistant, fearing they will lose the social housing they have lived in for so long to private owners and renters.

Tree Lady is set to be the first instalment of an ongoing project by Chen, who not only wants to explore more of Woodberry Down but other neighbourhoods too.

Tree Lady by Xinqi Chen is available to explore here.