Some Forest Hill back streets

Having already walked quite a few of the main roads around here on big circular routes, the job from here onwards becomes a little more tricky.

To walk every road in Forest Hill will mean going over several of the main roads a few times to go up and down the smaller offshoots, often parallel roads, but even on these you sometimes come across unusual sights.

This walk, on the evening of February 26th was just gorgeous. It was dusk as I set off so the light was possibly a little too dark already for some of these shots, but hopefully you'll get some of the effect.

The first new road I hit was Ewart Road coming off Beadnell Road, then right onto Bovill Road. Many of these are quiet side roads and nice residential streets. There is a certain "rat run" through here (if you know the route) that avoids the corner of the South Circular and Brockley Rise, but most of the day this is not a problem.

As you get to the bottom of this road and follow it around, you discover one of those "hidden sites/sights". In this case, the General Napier pub. I have only been in there once, but it is a genuine, local, neighbourhood pub (nothing gastro about it). Pint and a packet of peanuts sort of thing. It is nice to see it has survived, though who the General was I don't know.

From here I turned down Herschell Road. There are some slightly different terraced houses along here, all well maintained. At the end of the road, back at the junction of Brockley Rise, is another of Forest Hill's many churches. St. Saviour's. Not been in, but it looks pretty substantial. Funny to think that in 1850 or so, there were basically no churches here at all, and now there seems to be one every few steps - and that's after many have been taken down. I should count them one day.

So, to the main target of the walk, Lowther Hill. This road, and Duncombe Hill running parallel, are either side of a "private park" that has recently been generating some interest.

Lowther Hill is nice in itself, rising up to Brockley View, with nice houses on either side. However, it is what you cannot see behind them that is most attractive to me. The enclosed space is shared amongst all the bordering properties and is called Brockley Hill Park.

Being a large green space, it is probably already under scrutiny by a developer. I am all for developing sites with affordable housing, but that sort of in-fill development would not be right. In addition, it seems that Forest Hill is one of the few remaining habitats for certain Stag Beetles and they happen to like this park.

The sting in the tail is that all of this "green space" is not actually there for all to share, only residents, and that this "environment" is actually an accident of a most selfish development in the first place.

The whole land was apparently bought by a local Conservative Land Association for the simple reason that it could then sell the freehold plots to those who voted with them. Only freehold property owners had the vote, of course. A clear case of gerrymandering (Dame Shirley Porter would be proud - allegedly!). They had intended to build a church in the middle (what else?) but didn't get round to it I guess (why spend the extra money?).

However, that enclosure has resulted in something that today helps to make urban life just that little bit more bearable, so I guess that we can forgive them.

By the way, this information is courtesy of ... Steve Grindlay of course (original thread here on se23.com).

No chance of getting in there for me, although I hold out hope that there is some tour at some point, so I was off to the top of the road - Brockley View! Here I got a few more lovely shots of the setting sun, and headed down the hill and out of se23 (with one final shot of Canary WHarf from Brockley).

Here is a selection of the photos (links below):

1. Canary Wharf from Brockley, 2. Canary Wharf from Brockley View, 3. Sunset over One Tree Hill, 4. Lowther Hill, 5. Lowther Hill, 6. London Skies, 7. St Saviour's, Herschell Road, 8. Lowther Hill and Brockley Rise, 9. Lowther Hill rising, 10. Electrifying Skies, 11. The General Napier, 12. Bovill Street


This was a one way walk (picking the car up the other end) so that's all folks!

The back bit of "To Brockley View and Back"

At this point, my own walk took me out of SE23, but I shall mention one or two things I saw "across the border".

Just at the junction of Brockley Rise and Stondon Park Road is a church I now call "God's bunker". It has always struck me as a rather sombre, solid and defensive kind of building, nothing like the elegant spires of Christ Church or others. I wonder what inspired the builders?

Passing "The Brockley Jack" pub (another one for a future visit, although the wine list looks dire), I must admit I paused for a little lunch. This was a lunch hour walk after all. I will make a little gentle plug for a great wine bar and wine shop called Mr Lawrence in Crofton Park. I stopped in for a soup and a glass of wine from their selection of dozens available by the glass. The look is a little old-fashioned, but the owners are extremely friendly and the food and wine they offer are very good. Check them out!

To head back, I crossed the railway at the footbridge at Eddystone Road as I have often wondered where this led. You come out just at the far corner of the Honor Oak Sports Ground and New Camberwell Cemetery. The Crematorium and its peaceful garden are in this corner.

There is a fenced path that leads you between the garden and the cemetery to the central chapel (this path, by the way, is back into SE23 territory). It is an interesting walk, particularly if, like me, you are not used to visiting graveyards. We have several very large graveyards in the vicinity and they do offer a glimpse of our history, and seeing so many of them is quite ... humbling.

Following the path around the sports ground brings you to the play park for kids and then past the allotments on One Tree Hill, finally back to Honor Oak Park road. I found an amusing sign at this point, but maybe it is also a message?


From here, a quick walk directly back towards home across the railway, back along Grierson and Garthorne Road, then Beadnell Road. These are now pretty suburban streets with one or two oddities (like the palm trees outside this house), saved from the traffic elsewhere by having been mainly closed off as a through route. Lucky them!

Another strange site along Stanstead Road (the quiet bit) is this garage obviously built for either horses or even carriages. There are one or two surviving doors like this around here.

Lastly, past the Forest Hill Hotel. Apparently this might have been a brewery too at some point, but now is a nice quiet pub, one of the unreconstructed type, run by two musicians and therefore a good place for gigs. Might be worth checking out at some stage. I know my brother-in-law from Canada sought this place out when he visited looking for the "authentic" English pub experience.

This was a long walk, but worth it. And in case you are wondering about the lack of "step counts", that'll be my bad memory. I keep forgetting my little step gizmo at home. Doh!

To Brockley View (& Back?)

February 2nd 2002

This one was one of the most interesting walks yet - partly because the views were great, but more importantly it brought me to an area I had never been before. That was the whole point of the challenge.

It all started as usual, this time walking past the excellent The Honor Oak to Brockley Park Road. Another hill, but what do you expect around Forest Hill? Half way up the hill I am greeted by a strange pre-fab construction.



It turns out that there are quite a few pre-fab buildings in this general area and I must find out why and how. I suspect it is a tie-up between Lewisham council and some sustainable building charity (too "way out" for the council alone, and on too small a scale for a commercial development). It is fun to see, although particularly incongruous with the Victorian villas, Edwardian terraces and 90's commercial developments around us.

Beyond the crest of the hill, with great views back towards Sydenham and Crystal Palace, there are more substantial "eco-friendly" looking developments. I only say that because of the wood cladding and small, well glazed windows, but these seem like another interesting experiment rather than a major development. More to research.

At this point I was in new territory as I had not ventured here before. As you head down the hill and around the corner, you are faced with another steep climb up Brockley View. They did not include "View" in the name for nothing.



Once again there are lots of impressive houses, many built in the late Victorian period. One particular one stands separate from the others, in a different style and quite impressive, although not necessarily with the best views. I suspect this belonged to someone involved with selling the land or organising the construction (picking the best for themselves), however, I cannot prove that. In fact, on closer inspection it appears to always have been built as a semi-detached so this may be totally wrong.

As you follow Brockley View you come to the edge of Blythe Hill fields. I must admit I have not yet set foot in them, but I have it on good authority that the view gets even better from there. Unfortunately my path leads me onwards, so I can only admire the view of One Tree Hill, Canary Wharf, and quite a lot of London spread before me.

At the bottom of the road I turned left on to Codrington Hill heading back towards Brockley Rise. At this stage the main road changes name to "Stondon Park Road" (as a driver I hadn't realised this) just where the Babur Brasserie, Chandos pub and odd roundabout system are. I quickly turned left again onto the continuation of Brockley Rise itself which leads to a more residential street.

Here I found the highly rated Stillness Infant School (one I need to look at more closely) and further along the road another surprise - Guys Hospital Athletic Ground.

Never having been an "athlete" myself, these places always seem strange, but I then discovered it already showed up on my map of the area from the 1890's, so it has been in use for over 100 years. Apparently there is a useful connection as their rugby teams have been known to encourage others to use the services of the main employer!

The way back was another journey in itself, so I will write that up separately anon, but this route certainly made me think differently about Forest Hill.