Longest of long shots in IDing this front garden tree

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I'm trying to redo the front garden of the house as it was in the late 1960s when my parents bought it. This is an old picture, and the tree I'm trying to identify - or something similar - is on the left, next to the garden fence.

It's quite tall. Can anyone take a suggestion for anything similar that would work there? The sloping tree to the right was a pink cherry blossom.

It is really difficult to tell from a black and white picture. It might have been a forsythia. Did it have yellow flowers in early spring?

my first thought was lilac.
but looking at the wispy top growth a hazel?

I also think it’s forsythia. It’s not a tree but a vigorous shrub that certainly can get to that size.

My money is in it being a Philadelphus Coronarius, Mock Orange, that's been pruned at a couple of different heights.

Agree with others, it doesn't look like a tree - the multi-stemmed nature of it indicates it is far more likely to be an overgrown shrub.

Can you remember anything about it at all? Did it have flowers, for instance?

It was before my time, two years before I was born. I did buy a forsythia to replace one that had been in the back garden - as with buying a lilac I am slightly astonished at how little it is growing, so I'm not sure I would get one for the front, it takes forever. There were lilacs in the back garden which I have now replaced - well, sort of but as I say they take forever.

And we have a monk orange in the back - that has stood the test of time though I only uncovered it when I cut back a load of bushes.

Thanks for the replies. Whatever it was, it would have had to have matched the pink cherry blossom I feel.

I was going to say mock orange; you can see it's been hacked down at different points and then regrown. Or a buddleia maybe?

My grandparents' house looked looked a lot like this and they had forsythia along their boundary too. I also remember red geraniums and purple aubretia planted in long beds along each side of the pathway to the front door. Daffodils in spring which they then used to knot over for a few weeks in spring, until the foliage died down. Grandad sorted out the lawns and did heavy pruning of shrubs and Grandma planted the beds.

Firstly can I say how lovely the house looks even in black and white!
I don't think it's a buddlea, and I caution against planting one as they seed everywhere.
I agree it could be more of a shrub plant than a tree though due to multiple stems - we have a lilac out the front of our house so agree it could be one of those.
Could you ask any neighbours?

I also think it looks like mock orange. They have white flowers and flower in summer rather than in spring when the cherry would be in bloom.

I agree it could be philadelphus. I initially thought forsythia but I think it would be more in leaf when compared to the cherry.

I reckon they could have chosen something that flowered at a different time to the cherry, otherwise it's all over in one go, isn't it?

Not a buddleia, the growth habit is all wrong. Could be a weigela. Nobody's mentioned that yet, I don't think.

Whatever it is, chances are it is extremely common, and in those days was probably bought from Woolworth's. 😂

It’s a lovely looking house.

Thanks! A dose of honey fungus in the 1970s put paid to a fair bit of it. Including the cherry tree in the front - I am toying with planting one of those except a) It's a tree near the house - not good, esp for insurance purposes and b) You can't be sure it will grow in a happy way - what if it extends over the path? Or it doesn't obscure the front window from passers-by - surely it's chief purpose?

The foliage then was far more built up than it is now - it's a bit sparse now.

Honey fungus is thought to thrive on sick or dying trees so it's likely to have carked it anyway.

You can get dwarf cherry trees that are suitable for planting near(ish) a house. I have a cheal's weeping cherry that won't get more than 4 meters, but as I've moved it several times and so had to prune it hard, it's still pretty dinky after 8/9 years.

I can't make out the details of the picture clearly so I may be way off base but:

our house of a similar vintage had a red flowering currant (Ribes sanguineum). Could it be that? Warning: they have a horrible stinky fragrance, or so my childhood memory tells me. They may have bred it out since then but I doubt it because you don't seem to see them around much.

I’d go with Forsythia. It doesn’t look like my overgrown Philadelphus, can’t really put my finger on why, but I think the foliage is even more concentrated at the top. Not hazel, and flowering currant isn’t quite that branched. Yellow Forsythia and pink cherry was quite a common flowering combination in the 50s.