Nameless alleyway?

[goonerchamp]

After a few drinks last night a friend and I had a discussion about the alley that leads from the bottom of sydenham park (by the footbridge) along by the train tracks to Clyde Terrace then along to the WHSmith in Forest Hill all my friends and friends family seem to know it as dog s**t alley everybody that I have asked refer to is at this - has it actually got a name ?

Also my mum used to live in Noel Terrace and wants to know if anyone knows anything about it - the History and any photos etc.

Thanks all

[Falkor]

I remember this long alleyway about 15 years ago! I think it actually starts before Sydenham Park, somewhere in Lower Sydenham; I know I walked to WH Smiths from Home Park, mostly via that alleyway. No idea of it's name or history though... Next time I go down Lewisham Local studies centre, I'll enquire about it there....

[Steve Grindlay]

It's quite possible that the alley is a surviving remnant of the towpath of the Croydon Canal. The high pavement outside the Hob has often been claimed, with good cause, to be on the line of the towpath (with the shops and their basements along Davids Road in the canal bed). It may not be apparent on the ground, but it's easy to make out from maps that the high pavement and the alley follow the same alignment. Furthermore, the recently cleared area between the Dartmouth Arms car park and the alley is probably a remnant of the canal bed. If this is so, then this shabby alley would date from about 1809, and be one of the oldest features in Forest Hill.

As far as I am aware the alley has never been officially named. I'm afraid dog s**t alley has already been claimed by those who use the alley opposite Sainsburys, leading to Derby Hill Crescent.

[leaf]

i have always known it to be called dog s**t alley,and the one that runs from derby hill to oppisite sainsburys was always known to me and everyone i know as rapists alley...sorry! i expect because if you were walking down there and realised someone was behind you,by the time you reach halfway you were convinced they were a rapist! as it is rather scary

[Barbara]

Go into that wonderful bookshop opposite the Greyhound car park. There are some brilliant books on 'old' Sydenham that will give you all you need to know about your allyways and long gone canal ways