Sunday 11 November 2007

In residence in Honor Oak

Having realised that time is short, particularly with the planning of "THE FINAL WALK", I decided to set out to visit some of the side streets that I have missed for one reason or another.

I walked 4.5 miles (according to google maps) this afternoon, visiting the residential streets around Honor Oak mainly. I had walked this way before but had not been up and down all the parallel residential roads. However, the goal was to walk all streets, and all streets it shall be.

Most of the walk was relaxing and attractive, but relatively unremarkable. The most remarkable things were:

1. The "Survey House" building on Brockley Rise

2. The views from Blythe Hill Fields

Unfortunately for me, although Blythe Hill is bordered on many sides by the SE23 postcode, the park itself does not count, but it was worth the extra few steps.

The day itself was pretty nice (it had been brighter earlier, but not bad for November). Seeing kites flying on Blythe Hill was heartwarming as there was a family there all together getting the solitary kite aloft.

Survey House is (quite but not very) interesting and regularly catches my eye as I drive past. It seems to be some faux-Tudor sort of architecture, but the wood beams on the front seem real enough and I cannot believe it was custom built to be an estate agent. I wonder what its history actually is?! Anyone out there know?

I certainly hope they do more business as Surveyors than Estate Agents as I cannot believe they get much passing (foot) trade.

The only other remark I ought to make is, once again, to wonder at how many properties I walk past are being developed. It might be by current or new owners rather than for re-sale, but there are LOTS of empty properties being modernised around these streets and I am not sure what this means for the area except to hope that it is more exciting for new buyers.

5 comments:

fourstar71 said...

Glad you made it up to our neck of the woods on Blythe Hill; the park is lovely on a clear November day, isn't it.

And some wag had, until recently, amended our road sign to say SE23 instead of SE6. The council have since replaced it.

Spoilsports :)

Robert McIntosh said...

yes it was lovely, and the views were quite clear in the chilly air

as for the postcode, it neatly wraps around the green area leaving us with the roads and SE6 with the park!!

I hadn't realised there was a play park up there. Must get back there with my daughter. Have you been up there? Any good for the kids?

fourstar71 said...

Yes, we're often up there at weekends; there is a 'death slide' which I go on with Freyja, she loves it. And the pirate ship. And the swings. Not a massive area but perfectly good for a run about!

Anonymous said...

The current map on Streetmap seems to show most of Hilly Fields in SE23.

Thinking about it, I'm not sure how a piece of openland with no buildings can have a postcode.

Enjoying the blog. Keep it up.

Robert McIntosh said...

thanks SteveB that is very interesting, I hadn't noticed.

That is a boundary change since I printed my map. As you say, quite odd, but it might reflect that any house built within that area would have an SE23 postcode?

thanks for the positive comments. Not sure what I do after I complete the task, but I shall keep you posted.