Parks & Gardens in London, the UK & abroad
Gilmore Road Triangle in Lewisham is almost on the market place in the centre of Lewisham and although I have lived here for over forty years I have never seen it before! It is almost certainly a little pocket of farmland dating back to goodness knows when – quite extraordinary.
A walk in Manor House Gardens in Lee is always a jolly occasion. There are happy children in the playground, people chatting quietly, walking, or jogging, and birds dipping in and out of the lake. This is a very popular local park with a history.
Walking in Edith Nesbit Gardens off Leyland Road is a delight because this is another little park which hides away! This park is a friendly neighbourhood green space which sits in the middle of modern and Victorian housing in Lee Green. This green space is particularly important because it is the only public park in the area. Local residents and their children enjoy the park and the playground. And then there are the inquisitive squirrels! Similar to all the green spaces where I have walked in Lewisham the Edith Nesbit Gardens have history, although it is a blurred history at this point.
Chinbrook Meadows in Grove Park and the River Quaggy come together in a surprising green space in South East London in the Borough of Lewisham. Large grassy sports fields lead through woodlands to allotments and an orchard. Apart from the usual park facilities there are several ‘routes’ through the Meadows. Firstly, there is a route for the River Quaggy. Secondly, a railway line crosses one corner of the park, and thirdly the Capital Ring Path and the Green Chain Walk lead the intrepid walker through the park and on to Grove Park Cemetery and Elmstead Woods.
Northbrook Park in Lee, in the Borough of Lewisham in South East London, is a tidy park with good exercise facilities. The park proudly flies its Green Flag Award, one of fifteen Green Flag Awards in the Borough in 2020. This park is just down the road from another surprising green space, the Grove Park Nature Reserve, which I visited last week.
KIrkdale Green & Albion Millennium Green are two small green spaces in South East London – in the Sydenham district of Lewisham. The first is somewhat neglected, and seems to be left over from the grounds for a large Victorian house which has since been demolished. Albion Millennium Green was a neglected tennis court before the local residents converted it into a small nature reserve.
Bellingham Green in SE London on the Bellingham Estate is a large housing estate built by the London County Council on farmland in south East London in the 1920s. This estate narrowly predates the nearby Downham Estate and both surprised me by their relatively late development on what was countryside in London.
Downham in South East London is built-up residential area today, but it was countryside until after WWI. It is probably a little-known area to those living in the more fashionable and trendy parts of London, but I believe that development there has interesting lessons for us in the 21C. (This article was first posted as a Guest Blog with the London Gardens Trust on October 22, 2020.)
The South Field in Ladywell Fields is a large, almost rectangular field which feels very much like parkland. With Prendergast School on one side and two railway stations and Catford shopping centre at the other end there are always people walking through and across the park. In the other direction the field leads to the Lewisham Shopping Centre via the Middle Field, and the North Field.
The River Ravensbourne divides the Middle Field in Ladywell Fields in Lewisham into two. One side of the river has the Waterlink Way and is a busy path, almost a through road. On the other side of the river is a ‘hidden’ park – quiet, surrounded by trees and with a little backwater of the River Ravensbourne.
Continue reading ➞ The Middle Field in Ladywell Fields in Lewisham