Eldon House

There are currently 16 trees on the London Tree Trunk Tour, but now only 15 stops. If you are visiting London from outside of the city, there is a good chance that one of your first stops after leaving Highway 401 will be the London Tourism Visitors Centre.

'Eldon House', a carving representing one of London's other tourist attractions, is located beside the visitor's centre, at 696 Wellington Road South. This carving has recently been joined by Mother Nature, most likely due to issues with that trunk's structural stability in its old Queens Av. location. The Visitor's Centre is about a ten minute drive from downtown, so its not a walking tour, by any means. Having more that one sculpture in the same place does give people more of an opportunity to stop and take a look at what they are all about.

'Eldon House' is somewhat similar to 'Charles S. Hyman' in its construction. There are a few elements which were carved into the trunk itself, and many other parts of the design are plaques made in a workshop and attached to the tree once it was finished in this location.

There is, unlike any of the other stops on the tour, a commemorative plaque in front of the trunk, which gives a little bit of info about the carving, and also promotes Eldon House itself.

The trunk has large, rough, rounded flowers at the top, which look like daisies, or perhaps peonies, London's official flower. They face both the front and back of the piece.










The elements that relate to Eldon house itself are divided into 8 separate areas on the trunk. Two designs are placed every 90 degree turn around the tree, giving the carving 4 different 'faces' to look at.





The front face has an owl's face recessed into the top and carved in relief. It was carved from the solid piece of trunk. The bottom is a front view of Eldon house with its wide veranda. 

Travelling around the trunk counter-clockwise, the next face is two portraits, Amelia Ryerse Harris above, and John Harris below. These images appear to have been created from scans of official portraits inside the house.

The rear face of the carving has a compass on the top. John Harris was a surveyor in the British Navy, and one of the initial surveyors when Upper Canada was being mapped. This is likely what the compass represents. Below, there is a view of one of the ladies of Eldon House in the dining room.  The house was well known at the time for its hospitality. That reputation was not harmed by the fact that the Harris family had seven daughters to court.

The fourth face's plaques picture an elephant's foot umbrella stand, and a military soldier in a doorway. The umbrella stand is a well known trophy, collected by John's grandson George Henry Ronalds Harris during his time in Africa. The soldier is, if you look closely, somewhat transparent, which makes me think he represents the ghost of Eldon House. This story seems to have a higher level of interest than when I visited Eldon House on school field trips as a child.

 I would like to make a couple of notes about how the caving was made. The main body of the tree is a chainsaw carved trunk, with trees and leaves. Almost all of the detail work is slabs of wood carved with a computer aided design technique, and then attached after the trunk was placed in its location. For the chainsaw carving purist, this might not be what was expected in a sculpture. I'm also not sure how well the pieces will age and colour relative to the different wood on the trunk itself.

The signature is a subtle one again. The initials of Neil Cox, and Mary-Ann Jack-Bleach, the collaborating artists, are carved into
the trunk, above a date of 2010.





Although this is not a movie, I do have bonus footage! Check out the arrival and completion of this tree carving, courtesy of Tourism London.

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Curious about this artist? Try Neil Cox's Links

Convergence

If you are wondering, perhaps, where the London Tree Trunk Tour began, I would likely direct you to Peter St. in downtown London. Peter St. is a short side street, perhaps 200 meters long, and it is the home to the Robbin Wenzoski sculpture entitled "Convergence".

As detailed in the London Free Press article from 2005, there was no Tourism London partnership or Stihl Canada sponsorship. It does confirm that the original idea came from Orangeville, and the Woodfield Heritage Association raised the money to pay for the first commission.











The Free Press article also mentions that the nature of the commission allowed Mr Wenzoski to have creative freedom with the final piece. The final result is a sculpture with lots of flowing lines and a few different features. On the north side, we have a sun, created to look like an 8 pointed star. Its a similar motif as used on the work 'Shining Brightly' on Dundas St.

On the top third of the trunk, we have an owl perched, wings down. He is looking across the street, towrds the house at 23 Peter St. There is also an owl on top of the Learning Tree on Queens Av.

The trunk itself sits beside 518 Queens Ave, which is the Queens Village retirement residence. its a very large manor house, which has been added onto and had previously served as a nursing home. It is now a retirement building.

As is customary in my look at the tree carvings, I like to note the artist's signature. Just the initials here, no logo or stylization, but a Robbin Wenzoski work nonetheless. The evolution of the signature is an interesting hint as to when the piece was completed.

The last thing I consider when documenting a piece like this is any condition issues. These trunks are outdoors, unsheltered and close to the road. May of them are in very good condition, but 'Convergence' is the exception. There doesn't appear to have been any effort at protection or maintaining this sculpture since its creation, and six years later, it shows. There is a shelf like mushroom growing on one side of the tree. The cracks are much deeper than on the other trunks, and there is significant loss of detail on the upper surfaces and on the owl.

Hopefully someone takes a look at this piece in the near future and can work out a way to help preserve it, otherwise there may be one less stop on the official Tree Trunk Tour.






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