TV-eken, Historical oak tree in Östermalm district, Stockholm, Sweden
TV-eken was an old English oak tree in the Östermalm district of Stockholm, standing near the television and radio broadcasting buildings that gave it its name. The tree had a very wide trunk and over time developed internal decay, which eventually led to its removal.
In the 1960s, a planned road expansion threatened to destroy the oak, but garden master Holger Blom stepped in and succeeded in protecting it. The tree stayed in place for many more decades until advancing internal decay made it impossible to keep standing safely.
TV-eken was a gathering point for local residents who saw it as part of their neighborhood rather than just a tree. Its presence in the middle of the city showed how a single oak could become a shared landmark for the people living around it.
The original tree no longer stands, so there is nothing to see at the exact spot, but the Östermalm area is easy to reach on foot and pleasant to walk through. The location is close to the broadcasting buildings, which are visible from the street.
After the tree was felled, workers collected acorns from it and raised a new sapling grown directly from them. This young tree, a direct offspring of the original oak, was planted nearby to carry the lineage forward.
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