Home Park in Sydenham is a grassy park on a busy main road which still manages to offer a calming open area with exercise facilities for adults and children. Add to that some magnificent trees and you have another lovely green space in South East London.
The history of Home Park
Home Park Lodge was a large property on Sydenham Road. In 1900 Lewisham Borough Council bought 7 acres of the grounds for £5,600 and opened a public park in 1901.
Sydenham Public Library
A small public library stands on the edge of the park. It is an attractive building but looks rather neglected. The interior sounds interesting, but sadly the library was closed when I visited. This was one of the 660 libraries in the UK for which Andrew Carnegie paid. Interestingly, volunteers and the Friends of Home Park ‘man’ the library, which I think is impressive.
Albert Lewis Guy designed the library and Perry Brothers of Whitecross Street in the City built it for a total cost of £4,500. Mr Guy had a practice for forty years at 195 High Street in Lewisham and also designed a library at Crofton Park, amongst other public buildings in South East London.
‘… Above the portico of the original entrance is the L.B.C. coat of arms. Built 1904, in red brick. Interior with arcades and three domes for top-lighting…’.
Edith’s Streets
A L Guy, Architect 
Perry Brothers, builders 
Home Park in 2012
‘…Along the main road the park is tree lined. It was originally laid out with formal gardens of which only a Lebanon cedar, two mature London planes and a straight walk remain. It is screened from playing fields to the south by privet hedge and shrubs. There is one notable oak in the playing fields area and the park has perimeter planting of London planes…’.
London Gardens Online, April 2012
The library website mentions grants of £75,000 in 2013 for improvements to the Park. These included cutting back : overgrown shrubs, new plants and new seating. Pathways would be rebuilt and a new cycle path made, amongst other improvements and aims. I don’t know what the area looked like in 2013 but I feel that the ‘garden’ aspect of the Park is not quite right.
However, I am reading about formal gardens laid out over a century ago. Perhaps the park was used differently at that time and formal gardens are no longer sustainable. Nevertheless I wonder if a more cheerful planting would be possible under the trees in the
Home Park today
There is a low brick wall along the main road and a row of trees immediately behind it, with a tarred path, as LGO describes. However today, eight years later, the privet hedge is ragged, and I could not see a ’shrubbery’. This line of ragged green separates the front strip of the park from the open playing fields behind and the whole strip looks rather unloved.
The Cedar tree is distorted which is a shame. It can be such a glorious sight, such as the Cedar tree in Mayow Park. I assume the tree is this shape because of pruning to allow buses and lorries to pass safely. An extremely large oak tree crowds it from the other side. I can’t find a photograph or description of the brick structure – was it a drinking fountain? or perhaps a statue?
Large oak with Cedar behind 
Brick structure 
The Cedar tree
Play and exercise facilities
The play and exercise facilities looked good to me and seem to be generous. Youth First, an organisation which aims to help the younger generation in appropriate and varied ways, manages the Adventure Playground.
Adult exercise gear 
Adult exercise gear 
Children’s play area 
Adventure playground
The avenue and grassland
The central, open grassland with some magnificent oak trees and the avenue of London Plane trees is the real glory of this park.
Home Park in Sydenham is quite a small park but also quite an elegant park, with magnificent oak trees and a wonderful avenue of London Plane trees. It is another of the many surprises which I have enjoyed while exploring the green spaces in Lewisham.