Peach Trees block with Atlantic Tower block in the background.
Peach Trees is a large 200 floor arcology housing projects tower in Sector 13 of Mega-City One which was the main setting of the 2012 film Dredd.
Essentially a self-contained city, the block is home to in excess of 75,000 citizens with an unemployment rate of 96% and is notorious for its crime rate and reputation for slums. Judges rarely show up to stop the crimes at Peach Trees, which has led to it becoming one of the most corrupt Mega-Blocks in the city.
History[]
Peach Trees once had three main gangs vying for control of it: the Peyote Kings, Red Dragons, and The Judged. After she rose from her life as a prostitute, Madeline Madrigal killed her pimp, Lester Grimes and founded her own gang, the Ma-Ma Clan, and took over the top floor of Peach Trees. During a notable Block War known as The Great Block War, Ma-Ma eventually defeated all 3 of the rival gangs. The Ma-Ma clan slowly worked its way down, level by level, and wiped out the other three gangs giving her full control of the block and thus ending The Great Block War.
Ma-Ma then used Peach Trees as the manufacture centre for a new addictive drug called Slo-Mo, which slows the user's perception of time to 1% of the normal rate. After making an example killing of three users (who were selling Sternhammer products within Peach Trees) she attracted the attention of Judge Dredd and the on assesment rookie Judge Cassandra Anderson. This would lead to her ultimate capture and execution at the hands of Dredd. With Ma-Ma and her gang dead, Peach Trees is free from her control. It is unknown if the crime rate would go down because of it. However, with most of the criminal network removed, the block's future does appear to be brightening.
Naming[]
The name was created from the name of a restaurant in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England called The Peach Tree[1]. It was the place where screenwriter Alex Garland and Judge Dredd creator John Wagner first met to discuss the film. Further inspiration could have been derived from the Marriott Marquise Hotel located on Peachtree Street in Atlanta, Georgia, famous for its large 50-story atrium, which is shared with the block's notorious atrium. However, the building is not to be confused with the city itself, called the Peachtree City, because a picture from the movie clearly indicates that Sector 13 is located around Trenton, New Jersey and not Georgia. Mega-City One in this film only extends to Washington, D.C.