Urban Tree Festival Walkabout

A guided walk where you’ll learn more of the technical challenges involved in Urban Tree Planting and maintenance on a large scale

Join Julian Tollast, Head of Masterplanning and Design at Quintain, as he provides an exclusive tour of the newly completed Olympic Way, Union Park, as well as offering a glimpse of things to come.  On this tour, you will learn more about the technical challenges involved in Urban Tree Planting and maintenance at this scale, with illustrations and technical details, made accessible and appealing to all ages, interests and levels of knowledge.

The tour starts on Olympic Way where an Urban Arboretum has been created celebrating the Champion Trees of the Northern Hemisphere.

Meeting point

Nearest search on Google Maps: Bread Ahead, Olympic Way, Wembley Park HA9 0NP

Meet: By the Paulownia tomentosa (Foxglove Tree) on Olympic Way. 

What3words: wants.enhancement.wipes

Easily accessible by Public and Private Transport.  

Quintain, Wembley Park

The Developer behind the 85 acre regeneration around Wembley National Stadium.

The transformation of the 85 acres in Wembley Park has been underway for over 17 years and is now not only Northwest London’s world-famous entertainment district but also a 365-day neighbourhood.

Over the past six years, Quintain - the team behind the regeneration of Wembley Park - has been working with Dixon Jones Architects, Gross Max Landscape Architects, Tony Kirkham and other expert advisors to deliver an “Avenue of Champion Trees of the World” lining Olympic Way (colloquially known to thousands of visitors as “Wembley Way”).

Completed in June 2021 ahead of the UEFA Euro 2020 (sic) championships, Olympic Way has been transformed into a promenade designed to fully complement the magnificence of the world-famous national stadium and provide an attractive and convenient thoroughfare to Wembley Park.

As part of this transformation, a site-wide tree planting strategy - in place at Wembley Park since 2005 - has allowed for the planting of 24 matched pairs of trees along Olympic Way, of varying species selected from the temperate zones around the world. The new trees also benefit from a system of specialist tree pit planting designs which provide the environment for them to thrive.

The strategy, which won the Trees and Development Award at the 2017 London Tree and Woodland Awards, includes the planting so far of over 1000 trees across the neighbourhood, all of which are recorded on the curio-xyz tree mapping app.

About The Speaker

Julian Tollast – Head of Masterplanning and Design – Quintain, Wembley Park.

A trained Architect with over 32 years’ experience with the ability to rapidly explore and realise the potential of any opportunity and at any scale, “from District to Doorknob”.

At the Masterplan and Infrastructure scale some bold foresight in the early years at Wembley Park is reaping greater environmental benefits in the long term. A clear set of design principles that champion a “Space Positive” approach have ensured that the public realm and residents’ gardens are equally as important as the buildings.

Alongside his role at Quintain he was also a founding Trustee of the National Park City Foundation.