Sydenham Town Forum

Stanford’s 1862 map shows a large house adjacent to the railway line. That was Newlands. The Newlands estate extended in width from the railway line to Penge Lane (Newlands Park), and south as far as the railway line through Penge East station excluding, of course, the relatively small grounds of th...

Hi leaf

It certainly looks possible. I do hope you can track the book down. Can you remember what it was called?

Not a ghost story, exactly, but still intriguing. A book called "Spontaneous Human Combustion", published some 15 years ago, contained the following account: "Summer 1922, Sydenham, London - 68-year-old widow Mrs Euphemia Johnson returned home from a shopping trip and made a pot of te...

Scepticism is an invaluable quality, particularly in local history where so much is passed down as fact without proper investigation. You forced me to think much more carefully about something that I had previously vaguely assumed, and I think we've established something really very interesting. Tha...

I could be wrong, but wouldn't those streams really be a pair of proposed sewage tunnels/pipes Why would you assume that, and what would have fed the reservoir? Unfortunately, my copy of the map was lent to someone a couple of years ago, and he failed to return it, but Sydenham & Forest Hill Pa...

Pat and I have has an amicable discussion, and I think we are now more or less in agreement. My views are based on a couple of maps. So that others can judge I've put them on flikr at: http://tinyurl.com/pdtz2 These are the notes that I sent to Pat explaining the maps: The Metropolitan Commission of...

You're right, Greg. On the extreme left is the CP mast, and the Norwood mast is partially obscured by Dawsons Heights.

I'm sure you are looking at the range of hills from Forest Hill to the Crystal Palace and beyond. There is a mast on Horniman Drive, then a dip to London Road (sometimes you can spot the Horniman museum tower), then at the end of Sydenham Hill is Crystal Palace mast and beyond that at the junction o...

this could be alot of old tosh or be indeed true I'm afraid there’s not much truth in it. Home Park Lodge, a very large house on Sydenham Road very close to where the library is, and its gardens was acquired by the local authority of the time in 1899. The last recorded occupant of the house (in 189...

I'm not sure that I agree, Pat. A land use map of 1800 shows four separate streams, fed by springs, flowing down the hill across what was then Sydenham Common. When main drains were laid in the 1860s these streams were culverted, but occasionally they are uncovered. One of the streams follows the va...

The source for that information is "The Croydon Railway", published in 1839 to celebrate the opening of the line. This is the full quote, with the writer describing the journey through FH station: "As we pass along the embankment, we perceive ahead an orange-red disc on top of a white...

Isn't the upper part of this valley the precise place where currently the water springs out of the ground to form the ponds in wells park? Juwlz, I think that's very likely. I have a copy of the leaflet of the opening ceremony in 1901 which says: "Advantage has been taken of the natural undula...

what about the 1850s reservoir you spoke of? Sorry, falkor,I forgot about that. It was on the Dulwich side of Sydenham Hill, next to a lane called Rock Hill. The Lambeth Water Works constructed it in about 1858. It has recently been built over. I have to say I'm thoroughly enjoying the pictures you...

You mean Sydenham Hill as in the entire area of Sydenham Hill Estate and upper half of Wells Park Road I mean Sydenham Hill as in the whole hill from Crystal Palace Parade to London Road, including the slope, ie the topographical feature. I understand that, because of impervious rock deep below the...

leaf wrote: do you know where the original one was if not the syd park building?

Yes, it was on the same site as the present church, but was bombed by the Germans during the war

This is the first time I've been plagiarised, Greg, and it’s rather flattering! You mention three churches, falkor. The first is the Park Chapel, Sydenham Park (now, I believe, a gym). This was built in 1850 by the Congregationalists. They had previously used a church on the site of the present Some...

So many questions, falkor… I may be able to answer a few of them. For geological reasons underground water seeped to the surface along the slope of Sydenham Hill (indeed it still does, and the water company has tried to shirk responsibility by saying that as it is spring water it is not their fault)...

If anyone's interested, I've written an article on the Greyhound that includes a picture of the tiled entrance, at http://www.sydenhamsociety.com/Greyhound.html

I suspect copyright issues; most, if not all, of the pictures are in the London Metropolitan Archives

It would certainly be worth trying their heritage centre. They are at: http://www2.salvationarmy.org.uk/history It might also be worth contacting Lewisham Local Studies at http://tinyurl.com/aex8q as they might also have some information. I'm not aware of any Barnado's homes in Sydenham so the home ...