Pleached trees for a privacy hedge

[longtompot]

We bought our house about 2 years ago knowing there were flats behind us, with balconies off the living rooms overlooking our garden and into our bedrooms (how it got planning permission is beyond me, but it did). The flat that overlooks us wasn't an issue, until the tennant decided to walk about starkers with his curtains open, and the police paid a visit.
We now have a new tennant there, who likes to sit on his balcony all day, when its dry, or stand leaning over the glass balcony talking loudly on his phone.
We are trying to find a solution to being overlooked, as there is nothing we can do about the loud phone calls.
We levelled our garden to install a garden office, so it is much lower, and have a 4 ft sleeper wall at the end which then has a 5ft fence above (fence belongs to the flats). We currently have hawthorn growing in there, but we really need something to grow above the fence height, so my dh doesn't feel looked at every time he goes to his office. Or we just sit out in the garden for lunch etc. Currently I have to strategically place washing on the line.
I have read a bit about pleached trees, so wondered which were fairly quick growing, semi or fully evergreen, which could offer us the privacy we are after. I have read a bit about hornbeam and red photinia.

We have been preached hornbeam which we planted c5 yrs ago which grows about 4 get above a 6ft fence. It holds its leaves well. Excuse the crude photo we've since tidied the bottom and planted geraniums below.

It depends which variety you want to pleach.

First of all it is possible to have a fence at 2m high without needing planning permission; so increase the height of the fence. Trellis or venetian style slats on top will do the job. Plant climbers against it. Some grow fairly quickly and this gives you quite a thick backdrop of greenery.

We planted sizeable beech hedging in front of a fence with climbers. It costs more for large beech or hornbeam, but they grow quite quickly and thicken up nicely. In front of that I have planted an upright variety of Japanese cherry - Amanogawa. They came at 8 ft tall and can be planted quite closely together. Blossom is lovely.

Pleaching is fairly slow because you have to train each branch along wires and prune to make sure it stays flat and in shape. The trees in the picture above have not been pleached. Nothing wrong with them, but they are not pleached trees. You can pleach apples, hornbeam, beech, limes or anything that suits your soil. However it needs horizontal wires attached to posts and you have to train the the tree horizontally in one plane and it is certainly not an instant screen. Lovely though!

We also have pleached hornbeams planted along the back wall of our garden. We moved into our house during August last year, and the trees look fantastic at the moment. However, they didn't hold their leaves sufficiently to provide any privacy (from both overlooking flats and the neighbour's house directly behind us) for a good 6 months over late autumn/winter/early spring.

I feel quite torn about the trees, as I really noticed the difference from May onwards in terms of having significantly more privacy. But I'd be wary of recommending hornbeams as a failsafe solution to your problem.