Sydenham Hill Wood

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Coordinates: 51°26′09″N 0°04′02″W / 51.4359, -0.0671

The nine-hectare[1] Sydenham Hill Wood, situated on the clay ridge that stretches between Deptford, Streatham and Selhurst[2] and in the London Borough of Southwark is an important wildlife site. Together with the adjacent Dulwich Wood (which is privately owned[3] and managed by the Dulwich Estate[4]), Sydenham Hill Wood forms the largest remaining tract of the ancient[5] Great North Wood which once stretched from Deptford to Selhurst.[6] The two woods were separated after the relocation of The Crystal Palace in 1854 and the creation of the high level line in 1865.[4]

The land is leased to Southwark Council who haven chosen London Wildlife Trust to manage it[7] as a Local Nature Reserve. The Trust began managing the wood in 1982, and with determined support of local people it remains a valuable reserve for the continued benefit of wildlife[6] and provides a peaceful haven in the busy London metropolis.

In 1997 Sydenham Hill Wood was given the UK-MAB Urban Wildlife Award for Excellence.[8]

There are conservation workdays and wildlife events,[3] information is available on the notice boards at the site entrances[9] and at the London Wildlife Trust's What's On page.

Contents

[edit] History

The oak-lined formal avenue, known as Cox's Walk, leading from the junction of Dulwich Common and Lordship Lane was cut in the 1740s by Francis Cox to connect his establishment of the Green Man Tavern and Dulwich Wells with the more popular Sydenham Wells[10] When the poet Thomas Campbell lived in Sydenham (between 1805 and 1822) he would visit his friend Dr Glennie, in Dulwich Grove[11] who had established a school on the site of the tavern.

A rear view of The Hoo.
A rear view of The Hoo.

After the relocation of the Crystal Palace in 1854, the Dulwich Estate governors, whose responsibility was to use the land in the Manor of Dulwich to raise money to fund the college, made plots along Sydenham Hill available on long leases, and a series of very large houses was built. Between the junction with Crescent Wood Road and Cox's Walk there were seven houses. One of the largest was the Hoo, standing almost opposite the present 36 Sydenham Hill[4]. In some of George William Johnson's horticultural publications from around the 1880s there is mention of a Mr. and Mrs. Richard Thornton of The Hoo, Sydenham Hill and gardeners Mr. Ratty and W. Barrell.[12]

A view of the erstwhile trackbed from the footbridge.
A view of the erstwhile trackbed from the footbridge.

It is still unknown who had the folly built, it's location seems to be in what was the original garden of Beechgrove, 111 Sydenham Hill. Incised lines on the folly's arch simulating stonework are very much like those on the bridge in Buckingham Palace Gardens. The Pulham catalogue indicates that the firm of James Pulham and Son worked extensively in the Sydenham/Dulwich area in the 1870s. In the grounds in front of Kingswood House, less than a mile from here, there are some remains of features that were done in Pulhamite.[13]

The view towards Lordship Lane Station, painted by Camille Pissarro in 1871.
The view towards Lordship Lane Station, painted by Camille Pissarro in 1871.

In 1862 the London, Chatham and Dover Railway began the Crystal Palace and South London Junction Railway from Nunhead to serve the Crystal Palace. It went through Sydenham Hill Wood, the Dulwich College estate and two tunnels, to terminate at the west of the Crystal Palace. It opened on 1st August 1865 with one station, Charles Barry's Gothic Crystal Palace (High Level) terminus, but other stations were soon added[3] at Lordship Lane on 1st September, Honor Oak on 1st December and Nunhead on 18th September 1871.[14] Upper Sydenham station was opened on the 1st August 1884.[15]

A small part of the Upper Sydenham 1894 Ordnance Survey map, showing some of the buildings and garden paths on the southeast edge of the wood.
A small part of the Upper Sydenham 1894 Ordnance Survey map, showing some of the buildings and garden paths on the southeast edge of the wood.
The folly, a rockery and what was once the path of an ornamental stream.
The folly, a rockery and what was once the path of an ornamental stream.

In 1871, Camille Pissarro painted the view down the tracks to Lordship Lane from the wood and brick bridge on Cox's Walk.[9] The image, of a train billowing steam, grasps the optimism of the industrial age. In 1908 the footbridge was renewed in teak and iron to the same design as the original.[10]

The fortunes of the railway waned with those of the Crystal Palace, declining after the Crystal Palace burned down in 1936. It closed during the war, and the post-war re-opening was unsuccessful, with the Crystal Palace High Level station in a poor state of repair. The last service ran in 1954. The track was lifted in 1956 and the terminus demolished in 1961.[3]

In the 1950s and early 60's, the folly still showed remnants of stained glass in its window, nearby there was an artificial stream that ran down hill and there were greenhouse and potting sheds in the wood, one of which, covered in ivy, was full of clay flower pots of all sizes, still arranged as they had been left by the gardener. The green houses had boiler houses and heating systems with huge hot water pipes all round.[16]

In the 1980’s the whole of these ancient woodlands came under attack from housing developers, Professor Gordon MacGregor Reid (President of the Linnean Society of London for 2003-2006), who then worked at the Horniman Museum, organised the Sydenham Hill Wood Committee of the London Wildlife Trust to campaign against it.[17] Around this time there was also a mention of the situation in Private Eye. In 1988 there were still many wild rhododendrons, a lone Monkey Puzzle, the remains of a formal pool near the Cedar of Lebanon, fragments of Pulhamite ornaments and the folly.[13]

The trackbed was built on in some places but in others it has been allowed to revert to nature.[3] Part of the route adjacent to the Horniman Museum and Gardens is now a 'Railway Nature Trail', maintained for the museum by the Trust for Urban Ecology.[18] In Sydenham Hill Wood its path can be followed from the footbridge on Cox's Walk to the entrance of the Crescent Wood tunnel. The tunnel emerges again in the north west corner of Wells Park.

To the west of and parallel with the trackbed, there is a small stream in the woods called the Ambrook,[7] a tributary of the River Effra[19] feeding a pond in the neighbouring Dulwich Wood. From here it flows across the golf course, then alongside Cox's Walk, under Dulwich Common and into the lake in Dulwich Park. In wet weather it rises above the drains and flows along the road around Dulwich Park by Frank Dixon Way.[19]

[edit] Wildlife

Now a unique mix of old woodland, Victorian garden survivors, and recent woodland, it is one of the closest ancient woods to central London and is home to over 200 species of trees and flowering plants. A multitude of fungi, rare insects, birds and elusive woodland mammals are also present.[6]

Mostly sessile oak-hornbeam woodland, with a wide variety of other tree and shrub species, including numerous exotics planted when the wood included parts of large gardens. The flora includes numerous indicators of long-established woodland; wood anemone (Anemone nemorosa), lily-of-the-valley (Convallaria majalis) and hairy wood-rush (Luzula pilosa). The last two of these are uncommon in London. All three British Woodpeckers breed, along with nuthatch, treecreeper, tawny owl and sparrowhawk. Hawfinches are recorded occasionally and may also breed. Invertebrates are well recorded and include the purple hairstreak butterfly and several nationally scarce bees and wasps. Fungi are also well recorded (174 species) and mosses include Mnium punctatum at its only known London locality.[20]

There is only one small pond in Sydenham Hill Wood which tends to dry up in summer, so there are no frogs or toads on any regular basis.

Of the bat species using the wood, there are records of common and soprano pipistrelles, noctules (which are in decline nationally) at least one species of the myotis bats, and brown long-eared bats (the only site in Southwark where these have been recorded).[21]

[edit] Access

There is a map and numbered trail from the entrance on Crescent Wood off Sydenham Hill and there is another entrance by the footbridge on Cox's Walk. By public transport the Crescent Wood entrance can be reached by bus 356 from Forest Hill station alighting at the 'Crescent Wood Road' stop. The wood can also be reached from Sydenham Hill railway station. From the station turn right a short distance along College Road, past St Stephen's church, then through the white gate on the opposite side of the road into Low Cross Wood Lane and on the left just ahead is a gate to Dulwich Wood. In Dulwich Wood follow the path straight ahead until turning to the right just before the pond. This will bring you out close to Crescent Wood tunnel in Sydenham Hill Wood. If the gate into Dulwich Wood is locked follow the steeply upward sloping lane onto Crescent Wood Road, turning left at the top and following the road will bring you to the Crescent Wood Road entance.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Secret London: Sydenham Hill - The view from the bridge by Humphrey Evans, The Independent on Sunday, Dec 28, 2003
  2. ^ LWT interpretation board at the Crecescent Wood Road entance
  3. ^ a b c d e london-footprints.co.uk
  4. ^ a b c Based on post by local historian Steve Grindlay to Sydenham Town Forum Topic: Old Sydenham Hill
  5. ^ The Great North Wood - A brief history of ancient woodlands from Selhurst to Deptford by LSC Neville, London Wildlife Trust, 1987
  6. ^ a b c London Wildlife Trust about Sydenham Hill Wood & Cox's Walk
  7. ^ a b Colin Higgins, Project Manager, Sydenham Hill Wood LNR, London Wildlife Trust
  8. ^ MaB Urban Forum
  9. ^ a b Southwark Council Parks
  10. ^ a b From the Nun's Head to the Screaming Alice by Mathew Frith, The Friends of the Great North Wood, 1995
  11. ^ "Thomas Campbell" in A Book of Memories: Great Men and Women of the Age, from personal Acquaintance (1871) pages 345-58 by S. C. Hall
  12. ^ From a search for "The Hoo, Sydenham Hill" on Google Books
  13. ^ a b Great Credit upon the Ingenuity and Taste of Mr. Pulham by Sally Festing, Garden History, Vol. 16, No. 1. (Spring, 1988), pp. 90-102
  14. ^ Disused Stations in the UK Lordship Lane page
  15. ^ Subterranea Britannica Site: Upper Sydenham Station
  16. ^ From a reminiscence by Kenny B about Sydenham Hill on Sydenham Town Forum
  17. ^ The Linnean 2005 volume 21 number 1
  18. ^ Crystal Palace and South London Junction Railway
  19. ^ a b Walking the River Effra
  20. ^ London Wildweb
  21. ^ London Wildlife Trust News Archive Monday, 10 September 2007, Woodland Bat Roost Project at Sydenham Hill Wood

[edit] External links

[edit] Further reading

  • Crystal Palace (High Level) and Catford Loop by V Mitchell & K Smith, Middleton Press, 1991
  • From the Nun's Head to the Screaming Alice by Mathew Frith, The Friends of the Great North Wood, 1995
  • London's Local Railways by A A Jackson, David & Charles, 1978
  • The Crystal Palace (High Level) Branch by W Smith, British Railway Journal 28, 1989
  • The Great North Wood - A brief history of ancient woodlands from Selhurst to Deptford by LSC Neville, London Wildlife Trust, 1987
  • The Railway through Sydenham Hill Wood, leaflet, London Wildlife Trust, 1993
  • Durability Guaranteed - Pulhamite Rockwork pdf file on the English Heritage website.