Sydenham Walkabout (01-Oct-06)

[Falkor]

Beside the new Rose Garden at the bus garage corner of Crystal Palace park, first stop was the "Headless Nympth", which marks the spot where Osler's 27 foot high Crystal Fountain once stood in the Crystal Palace where the south transept crosses the south nave. Unfortunately, I hadn't taken out my camera at this point. Note: the fountain originally stood in the center of the Hyde Park building next to the Elm trees!




High Level Subway - Park end.




High Level Subway - Station end. Tony and Juwlz attempting to open the gates and break-in to this grade II listed building!




Beginning of Farquhar Road, looking over the bridge, where the High Level trains used to turn around on a turntable.



Approaching the tunnel mouth.


Retaining Arcade wall.



Tunnel mouth (detail), including CCTV camera!



New stretch of woods discovered with a "railway pond"!



Juwlz noticed we were treading on top of Seashells that had been scattered around the mud! Poor quality photo unfortunately...



Lot's of wood! But also, there were lot's of interesting fancy stone slabs, including ones made of what looked like marble (forgot to take photos). Also evidence of previous buildings in the woods; some foundations spotted by Juwlz.


Identification! Name of the mysterious stretch finally revealed!!


Award winning photo! Only joking... Distant/Lower shot of the High Level Subway - Station end.


"The Obese Trees"; term coined by Juwlz for these interesting trees along Farquhar Road!


Under the bridge, where the turntable once stood.



The Hotel everyone was complaining about! On the right, the former German Embassy with the Eagle on top! ^^




3 Oldish looking houses at the top of Crystal Palace Park Road--anyone know when they were built?



One of two turnings into Hillcrest Road, which no longer exist.




Old surviving houses along south side of Sydenham Hill.


Building site for a new construction--I wonder what stood here before?




Lambeth Reservoir ruins, left of Rock Hill.



Dome Hill Park--best looking road since Hall Drive? These houses must be the most sought after by the various estate agents.



Dome Hill Park--strange circular foundations! Britain BC!?



Approaching Mountacre Close--location of ravine.






Poor quality photos showing where one of the Wells Park streams must have begun. You really need to visit this place for yourself to see how this was blatantly the stream; photos do it no justice at all. Well done, Juwlz, for leading us here.


Juwlz, you really need to purchase this green book, like, tomorrow! Like I said, there might still be one on Ebay, or you could choose to support the local Kirkdale bookshop like you said. I shouldn't really be posting these scans, but thought this one might make your day. Atleast you've bought all the other books, which you brought along for this walk, so you really just need this one to complete your collection. Rather than Sydenham & Forest Hill, it's called--in reverse--Forest Hill & Sydenham.





This level of the ground here is the only comparison that can be made up the top of Springfield Rise between now and the time before the Wells Park Road clearances.



Peculiar drain outside the front of my first Sydenham house--1 (new) Rosamond Street--perhaps the sunken well of the former generating station? Anyone able to identify this kind of drain?



Old house at the top of Rowland Grove--info needed!





Remains of a building from the time of the old windmill in Mill Gardens or just an extention of a Fransfield Grove house?









Rowland Grove--before and after.




Pub and houses on the site of what was to become Hensford Gardens and a turning to the road of the same name. Also, opposite, the site of a former church in Wells Park Road, in-between Mill Gardens and Halifax Street.


Old newsagents? Been closed for near 2 decades now...


We visited this corner of Sydenham Park/Kirkdale, now occupied by the yellow bricked church with that all-powerful image of Jesus, which has become a permanent after-image in my mind since childhood; everytime I envision this, geometric shapes begin to appear... (no photo unfortunately; Jesus is beyond copyright).


1850s Church in Sydenham Park--now a gym.



"Sydenham Common at night" Copyright © 2006 Falkor. The address of this last remaining undeveloped stretch of the original Sydenham Common is a closely guarded secret! I refuse to bring anyone to my secret location in the daytime... visitors are only welcome during the night! Steve Grindlay musn't find out about this place...

[Juwlz]

Great write-up and photos Falkor. Thanks again for a fascinating afternoon. Love the pic of Longton Ave! I will check out that book asap.

[Rebelmc]

I must admit, I'm a bit gutted; was thinking of turning up for this walk, but I figured the weather would've scuppered it!

Nice pics Falkor, just for your information, the picture immediately above your caption "Old surviving houses along the South side of Sydenham Hill" is where I live (my bedroom window is the one obscured by the trees with the tiny gable and curious wooden spike above it), and following my own research and some vital contributions from Steve G, I can tell you it certainly does have some history and pre-dates many of the houses around it; I have some copies of old maps that show a time when The Wood was almost the only building at that end of Sydenham Hill.

You asked what was on the site of the construction site opposite; it was a terrace of two story houses that originally provided accomodation for the reservoir staff, although it seems they didn't last long, by the look of them they couldn't have dated back much beyond the 60s.

In addition, Dome Hill Park has an interesting history, especially the log cabin style house in the far left corner; originally owned by the Dome family, it was a display house at an Ideal Home Exhibition in the 60s and was bought by the Domes, dismantled at the end of the show and transported and re-erected on that plot of land.

[Juwlz]

hi Rebelmc

Don't worry there will be more walks and I for one don't mind covering the same route, there will always be more to learn, as you have shown!

Ah - the log cabin you mention must be what we spotted through the fence on the other side from Dome Hill park where the 'ravine' is. We wondered what that was. We didn't see it when we were in Dome hill park itself, unless it looks very different from the front? Though I think there is another cottage in front of it if I'm not mistaken. Very interesting!

[Greg Whitehead]

Do you feel like doing the walk again this week Falkor? Would you care to join us Rebelmc. It'd be good to have the more the merrier (potentially Leaf, Illuminance and Pat aswell as Steve Grindlay)

I'd feel much more confident if Rebelmc was with us and it was dark..."as he's street tough!" *Boom, Boom*

[Rebelmc]

hi Rebelmc

Don't worry there will be more walks and I for one don't mind covering the same route, there will always be more to learn, as you have shown!

Ah - the log cabin you mention must be what we spotted through the fence on the other side from Dome Hill park where the 'ravine' is. We wondered what that was. We didn't see it when we were in Dome hill park itself, unless it looks very different from the front? Though I think there is another cottage in front of it if I'm not mistaken. Very interesting!

Hi Juwlz

The Dome's house does look quite different from the back; from the front it looks like it's on two floors, from the back you realise it's on three floors, with the bottom story being sunk into the ground, like a cellar, but it's exposed on it's back side, with the lawn sweeping down from the front.

I know this because there was a time when I was quite prominent in the local Cub Scout movement, Lena Dome was the Cub group Akela, and I used to scrunch myself up in the back of her MGB GT every week to be transported down to St Michaels church hall; as a consequence, I became friendly with her family, including her son Kim (who was in the Venture Scout group), and visited the log cabin many times.

[Rebelmc]

Do you feel like doing the walk again this week Falkor? Would you care to join us Rebelmc. It'd be good to have the more the merrier (potentially Leaf, Illuminance and Pat aswell as Steve Grindlay)

I'd feel much more confident if Rebelmc was with us and it was dark..."as he's street tough!" *Boom, Boom*

Nice one Greg, I wondered how long it would be before someone spotted the musical connection!

If this walk is going again, I'd love to join you, just make sure it's on a Sunday.

[Greg Whitehead]

I thought I'd get panned for that very bad joke - Street Tuff, what a track.

I'm keen for this Sunday.

[Illuminance]

Any chance we can put future messages on another thread? My cat says this page takes a long time to load on moggy-broadband and he has trouble clicking his mouse, what with not having an opposable thumb and all that.

Exellent photos by the way


Steve (and Felix)

[Falkor]

Rebelmc, glad to have you on board the cabin; thanks for the info on the Domes!

Steve, try clicking the red cross in your web browser to stop the page from loading the photos. But yeah, I'll confirm my attendance for this Sunday's walkabout--over in the other thread--by Saturday evening.

[Steve Grindlay]

Excellent pictures, Falkor. It looks like you all had a thoroughly enjoyable, and informative, walk.

I have a few comments, which may be of interest. The caption to Sunnydene, 108 Westwood Hill, suggests that the house was a former German embassy, with an eagle on top. I don't buy that. I've been told about houses in Crescent Wood Road, Sydenham Hill, Lawrie Park Road, Mayow Road and Dacres Road that were German Embassies but I can't find any evidence that a German Embassy, or even a consulate, existed in this area, although a couple of German diplomats had private residences here.

However, I do know something of the history of this house. It was built in 1868-1870 for William Richard Sutton, a "millionaire entrepreneur" who, when he died in 1900, left his fortune to found the Sutton Dwellings Trust (now known as The William Sutton Trust). The architect was John Francis Bentley (architect of Westminster Roman Catholic cathedral). Sutton's widow, Eliza, continued living there until at least 1912. The house was unoccupied in the mid-1920s and by the mid 1930s had been divided into five appartments.

A few houses down, 103 Westwood Hill was designed by architect Richard Bertram Ling for himself and his family, in 1924. The house is still occupied by a member of the family. A few years ago I was fortunate to be shown round the house and was delighted to see that so much of the 1920s fixtures and fittings were still intact. Curiously, the house is numbered 103 Westwood Hill, whereas all the other houses on this side are even numbers. No.103 was built on the orchard of 102 and as the odd numbers only reached to 63 it was considered safe to use 103. Apparently this still causes confusion to unwary visitors.

And that final picture... if the plaque is a clue, too easy! Until about 1985 this field was the site of the Upper Sydenham Lawn Tennis Club. It was, as you say, part of the common, but until drained by the railway company in the 1830s was under the canal reservoir. This site, like much else of the Sydenham Park estate, was acquired by Robert Harrild (of Round Hill House and the Wren spire). He kept deer on a field in the Sydenham Park area, and as this is the only significant part that was not used for development, it seems probable that this was where he kept his deer.

Hope to join you all on the next walk

[Falkor]

As always, some good info there from Steve Grindlay; thanks mate! I hope to see you on the next walkabout, too. I'm always keen to learn new stuff and discover new parts of Sydenham etc.