| Fuck Tree | |
|---|---|
 The Fuck Tree in 2025 | |
 Interactive map of Fuck Tree | |
| Species | Sessile oak (Quercus petraea) |
| Location | Hampstead Heath, in the London Borough of Camden |
| Coordinates | 51°33′53″N 0°11′11″W / 51.564844°N 0.1863602°W |
| Custodian | City of London Corporation |
The Fuck Tree is a sessile oak tree[1] on West Heath on Hampstead Heath in north London. It is located in an established gay cruising area. It is noted for its prostrate trunk which facilitates gay sex.
History
In 2025, an article in the Daily Telegraph said that the Heath has been used for cruising since Victorian times.[2] Bron Maher visited the tree in October 2023 for The Fence, a British satirical magazine.[3] He described the tree as having managed to "elude public consciousness" and described it as "... poetically perfect for its role. The roots of the tree splay out like a hand clutching a bed sheet; the trunk is prone and abdomen-high, its belly flat to the Heath floor before making an abrupt 45-degree lift toward the canopy. This tree, I tell you, has a slutty little back arch".[3] The tree was described in Armistead Maupin's 2024 novel Mona of the Manor. The character Wilfred visits the tree while cruising for sex. Maupin writes that the Fuck Tree "stood in a clearing bordered by dark thickets on all sides. The trunk of the tree swooped so low to the ground that it became a chaise against which you could lean for wanking or bend over to be fucked".[4] A 2025 ACT UP protest against anti-cruising notices in West Heath included a sign that said "take me to the fuck tree".[2]
In art
The 2017 art film Fuck Tree by performance artist Liz Rosenfeld was created as a portrait of the Fuck Tree and as a response to the 1989 film Sodom by Luther Price.[5] Rosenfeld subsequently soaked parts of the film in their own ejaculate to erode its image and buried it in the garden of the art gallery LUX.[5] Rosenfeld's film has been described as examining "queer dystopia, a positive embrace of apocalypse, invisible genocide, and queer life after queer death".[5]
The artist Trevor Yeung recreated the tree in soap at his 2023 exhibition Soft Ground at the Gasworks Gallery in Kennington.[6] Yeung described the tree as "a physical embodiment of desire, that most enigmatic of feelings" and a monument to "human interactions".[6]
See also
References
- ^ Farrelly, Niall (12 October 2023). "The Wood for the Trees". Plinth. Archived from the original on 13 February 2025. Retrieved 5 June 2025.
- ^ a b "Hampstead Heath at war over tree used in gay cruising". The Daily Telegraph. 9 March 2025. Archived from the original on 5 April 2025. Retrieved 16 April 2025.
- ^ a b "The Fuck Tree". The Fence. 12 October 2023. Retrieved 19 April 2025.
- ^ Mona of the Manor. Random House. 7 March 2024. p. 100. ISBN 978-1-4735-7656-8.
- ^ a b c "FUCK TREE". Lux. Archived from the original on 26 May 2025. Retrieved 17 April 2025.
- ^ a b Jhala, Kabir (7 December 2023). "Hampstead Heath's notorious gay cruising spot recreated for London exhibition". The Art Newspaper. Retrieved 19 April 2025.
External links
Media related to The Fuck Tree at Wikimedia Commons- ACT UP London – The Sodomites Walk 2025
