Jew's Walk

[lambchops]

Probably been covered before in a thread, but why's this called Jew's Walk?

[Falkor]

http://forum.sydenham.org.uk/viewtopic. ... bf42d72506

Jews Walk was named after two Jewish brothers who lived in Westwood, a large house on the edge of Sydenham Common, where the Shenewood (my preferred spelling, as it is named after a wood owned by Shene Priory) estate now stands. In about 1769 the brothers obtained permission from Lord Dartmouth, the Lord of the Manor, to create a tree-lined walk across the common from what is now Kirkdale to their house. This walk became known as “the Jews’ walk”. When Sydenham Common was enclosed in the early 19th century the name was retained. By at least 1854 the residents of Jews Walk felt that such a name was not appropriate (undertones of anti-Semitism) and they began referring to the street as “The Grove”. In 1878 the Metropolitan Board of Works, a London-wide body amongst whose responsibilities was making sense of house numbers and street names, was petitioned to officially rename Jews Walk to “The Grove”. To their credit the MBW refused to change the name and “Jews Walk”, one of the oldest street-names in Sydenham, survived. However, the Congregational Church continued to be known as the Church in the Grove.

[will greenwood]

I've just added Sydenham Common to the Croydon Canal map;

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?hl=en&ie ... &z=14&om=0

...just roughly sketched at present, so feel free to guide the boundaries, if I'm wrong anywhere.

[lambchops]

bewdy, thanks guys.

i have now won a bet! i said it was probably because some local jews walked up the road here regularly.

[nannyjacks]

I was christened in the old church -in -the grove church in 1945 and I still have a photo of my late Mum holding me on the front steps of it