Estimated reading time:9 minutes, 16 seconds
Everybody has a story. After a month of lockdown spent looking out of the flat window six-year-old Daisy asked her Mum, Vicky Lawson, how she could cheer people up. The answer was to decorate their nearest street tree. Soon everyone was joining in. Interview by Nicola Baird
Vicky Lawson with her daughter Daisy by the Positivitree, now identified by Street Tree expert Paul Wood as a Hop Hornbeam. It was Daisy who had the idea to start the Positivitree on Monsell Road. (c) Islington Faces
Over the phone on a wet Friday Islington Faces listened to Vicky Lawson and her six-year-old daughter Daisy explaining how the big tree they can see from their window near Monsell Road has transformed lockdown. It’s also cheered up the neighbourhood. Once the idea to make a ‘positivity tree’ was born, the family left out wooden circles for people to decorate. Very quickly the tree was covered in positive words – live, love, laughter, joy, happy, my old friend -s and messages as well as quirky drawings.
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Vicky is Islington born and bred. “I’m from Canonbury. My Dad was born in Bewdley Street of Liverpool Road and my mum born in Islington too,” she says. But the idea began thanks to Daisy. Vicky, who has been homeschooling Daisy and also looks after her nearly two-year-old son says: “It all started from Daisy. It was her idea to have a ‘positivity’ tree, or a Positivitree.”
It’s fun checking the messages on the Positivitree. See if you can spot: Heal the world; Bliss, we are together, Fight Covid-19, This, Love, Hilary – proud of my labels; Love conquers all, Happy, Safe (c) Islington Faces
Q: Why is there a Positivitree in Monsell Road?
Daisy: “I was looking out of the window one day, and I said to my Mummy ‘I keep looking out the window, but what can I do in lockdown? I said ‘I can’t stop looking at people being so sad. I want to make them happy. Let’s make them a positivity tree.’ We had these wood pieces left over from arts and craft and I said could we decorate the tree and people can be happy.”
Vicky: “It was the start of lockdown on 23 April. We were sitting at home and Daisy was looking out of the window and saying she was so bored of doing school work. We’d done so much arts and crafts and she looked out of the window and said let’s decorate the tree. I thought well why not, as long as we’re not harming it. We had a few wood pieces and I wanted to see if we could hang them on the tree. It worked! Then we went back home and Daisy said we should have written positive words so everyone who was sad from coronavirus could walk past and cheer up.”
Q: Did the idea spread?
Vicky: Yes! Whenever Daisy saw someone at the tree she’d say ‘Mummy we’ve got a visitor. She tells them what to do – take a wood piece, decorate it and then bring it back for us. The branches of the tree are so green now I can’t see the bottom of the tree. We can still see people visiting it.”
Vicky ordered more seven boxes of the wood pieces – which come with a hole you can put string through and hang up. “We put a notice on the tree and within about 3 days there were already 30-40 pieces. We’d only started with four and now there are over 200. It’s so crazy. They are all different from such different backgrounds. Some are just scribbled. Some are from toddlers who’ve written what makes you happy – ice cream, we’ll fight this together. The Met Police have written on one. I saw six police were around the tree. I said so sorry ‘Are we not meant to do this?’ and she said ‘No, it’s OK we are adding to it.’
Daisy: “When we did our radio talk (an interview with Hart radio), there were 200!”
The positivitree has 300 or more designs on it. Vicky Lawson helped her daughter Daisy get the project going and quickly saw the community joining in. “There’s an artist that lives round the corner who has drawn two wooden pieces – a blackbird and 2 love birds and on another they’ve carved one of the pieces into the shape of a pig. On one side it says ‘posipigity’!” (c) Islington Faces
Places Vicky and Daisy like in Islington
- Favourite place is Canonbury Square as that’s where my grandmother (and Daisy’s great grandmother) lived and that actually has a bench in there with her name on it. She absolutely loved the square. When me and my brother were little she couldn’t get out much, but she could watch us as we ussed our scooters and bikes there.”
- We go to a lot Gillespie Nature Reserve in the summer. It’s a nice open space and we cut through with the pram. It’s quite forestry and Daisy loves the outdoors.
- Normally take things to Second Chance. They have nice things in the window.
- Before lockdown we’d go to church every Sunday in Clerkenwell to St Clements. For eight years I used to work in the pharmacy on the corner of Canonbury Lane. This was before my daughter was born and the lady I worked with was the church warden, so that’s why I go to that church. Daisy really misses the kids’ club there. We follow our priest online as Father David does a service every Sunday, and he calls us once a week. He’s got a piece on the tree! His word was ‘kindness’. A few friends and family have been sent wood pieces in the post or I say you can tell me and we’ll do it here. My church warden friend did ‘Blessing’.
The Positivitree has 300 or more designs on it. Vicky Lawson helped her daughter Daisy get the project going and quickly saw the community joining in. (c) Islington Faces
Q: How did Gillespie School get involved?
Vicky: “I was volunteering at Daisy’s school before lockdown, helping in the nursery. I’m a trained SEN support worker and that’s what I’m trying to get into now. I told the school and they put information about it in the newsletter – I delivered some wood pieces to the school for the keyworkers’ children and those children then decorated them. They then had a school trip to put on the tree. It was so lovely, and Daisy go to see her teacher from the window.
Daisy: “We said hello through the window they made about 20 pieces. I’ve been missing my friends and school.”
Q: Did you have time to do anything else in lockdown?
Vicky: “The first few weeks every drawer and cupboard got sorted. We’ve got things to give away that are too small, or too girly for her brother. I only thought it would be for a few weeks, I didn’t anticipate how long it would be. We went through a big spate of making salt dough, waiting until it went hard and then painting it but we couldn’t hang this on the tree because when it got wet it turned into jelly – that kept us entertained for a while. Daisy’s school is very anti plastic – so we were trying to find a material that would be environmentally friendly, so nobody would be upset and it would be ok to be outside. The wood pieces are slices of old trees, so it’s like putting the tree back on the tree and I had a few in the arts and craft box at home.”
Daisy: “I like drawing. My favourite book is the Alpha book it’s about Elsa from Frozen, and my favouritest food is spaghetti Bolognese and pizza.” .
Vicky Lawson with her daughter Daisy by the Positivitree. Vicky: “We need more space to put the extra bits on.” (c) Islington Faces
Q: What’s the plan for the Positivitree?
Vicky: “In a couple of months’ time, we’re going to hopefully move all the wood pieces to Gillespie school playground so all the children will know that during lockdown this was created and they can also keep adding to it. All the words are very positive as are all the words they make up. When we started we just did one positive word but it’s gone to lots of different words it’s lovely. It’s worth having a look for 15 minutes. Some of the pieces are amazing.”
Daisy: “Every few days I put up a piece for the tree. I think I’m going to try and make a bird. If you can’t make it to the tree, send us a letter and tell us what piece you want.”
Q: What’s the Positivitree done for the area?
If you go down Monsell Road you are sure to see people stopping to enjoy the messages, and the tree. Vicky is clearly amazed at how her daughter’s idea has turned into a Blackstock Triangle trend. Even people who haven’t contributed to the art part of the project enjoy stopping to study the messages on the positivitree. Vicky’s also grown curious about just what kind of tree it is, so if anyone knows please share with Islington Faces and we’ll report back. We all have heard how lockdown brought out the best in some people – Vicky and Daisy’s story shows how a simple idea can have immense power to cheer us all up. Here’s hoping they have a lovely summer and the Positivitree keeps on blooming.
Over to you
If you’d like to nominate someone to be interviewed who grew up, lives or works in Islington, or suggest yourself, please let me know, via nicolabaird dot green at gmail dot com. If you enjoyed this post you might like to look at the A-Z index, or search by interviewee’s roles or Meet Islingtonians to find friends, neighbours and inspiration. Thanks for stopping by. Nicola
FEEDBACK
Dorothy: “Thank you for the Islington Faces blog – lovely, positive …just right”
Paul Wood author of London’s Street Trees (a great book): “Identifying trees is one of my joys – I think the tree is one of the large Hop Hornbeams, there are two or three of them around there, rather unusual, and especially as mature street trees.”
Anne F: Love this.
