footpath forest hill railway

[regoneil]

Hello again, Reg O'Neil calling to answer your question regarding the footpath that, we as kids, knew it as the "Chicken run". It linked the station with the " wooden Bridge" at the end of Sydenham Park. The shot you depict is just a few yards or so going west from the station at the back of " Chalk & Cox" butchers in Dartmouth Road. The buildings are on that road and one was "Williamson" cake shop and restaurant upstairs.
A littke further along would have been the back of a builders called "Christmas" just before one would have reached the original signal box which was situated over the footpath. I remember it well, having walked it so many times.
Hope this answers yoir question
Regards Reg

[Falkor]

Thanks for the info, Reg, regarding the Dartmouth Road shops. I was wondering about the decorative brick wall in the foreground?

[will greenwood]

i remember that bit of decorative stuff being put in in the 70's..or very early 80's to plug a hole that had been smashed through..
I used to live in Noel Terrace...(another building worth some historical attention).. so I know this so well...although from recent images it seems even this is all changing now...

[Falkor]

I see, so there wasn't any houses at the back of the Dartmouth Arms, or thereabouts, fronting onto the railway footpath?

[will greenwood]

any buildings would have stables, sheds for the shops or pubs on dartmaouth arms..
there may have been railway buildings long ago...(i'll look at some maps)..but I dont think there was ever much access to this area, the footpath was separate even then, and access to the yards would have been through the shops themselves or the Dartmouth arms or Bird in hand passage

[Falkor]

Can you say with any certainty what specific building this remaining wall section belonged to?

[tulse hill terry]

I think this subject has developed a split personality with it splitting into two threads, this one and then this one:

http://forum.sydenham.org.uk/viewtopic. ... dda4136f60

[will greenwood]

Can you say with any certainty what specific building this remaining wall section belonged to?

not without a wider image...
....its certainly between than the florist ( if its still there) at no.19, visible in the picture, and yard of the dartmouth arms...

[Steve Grindlay]

It is a retaining wall, with a buttress, and supports the land forming the car park of the Dartmouth Arms, about five feet high at this point. Although the brick wall is not contemporary with the canal, I'm still convinced that it follows the line of the western edge of the canal.

There have been stables here, probably from the 1850s. This map, from a planning application, shows the site in 1883:

The application was to extend a livery stable, the Victorian equivalent of a mini-cab office, no doubt to take advantage of the brand-new station.

[Falkor]

Thanks mate!