Possibly frost last winter, age and drought, Guest. It has been so hot and dry in the London area for weeks on end. Some fruiting trees have a good coping root system, others not so good. If a plant, shrub or tree in your garden looks unhappy, some extra TLC may help. A long slow soak from a trickling hose, plus mulching with well rotted compost. Cut off the dead bits. Tidy up the tree and wait and see.

We had a Victorian plum tree for a number of years but the fruits went brown and we were told to cut it down so we did and DH carved a mohican out of it so we still have our old plum tree. The photo of the mohican is on 'pictures' I think. I couldn't find a way of putting on with this message.