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Surbiton

Surbiton is a suburban neighbourhood in South West London, within the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames (RBK). It is next to the River Thames, 11 mi southwest of Charing Cross. Surbiton was in the historic county of Surrey and since 1965 it has been in Greater London. Surbiton comprises four of the RBK's wards: Alexandra, Berrylands, St. Mark's, and Surbiton Hill.

Founded originally as Kingston-upon-Railway when the area was first developed in the 1840s, Surbiton possesses a mixture of grand 19th-century townhouses, Art Deco courts, and more recent residential blocks blending in with semi-detached 20th-century housing estates. With a population of 45,132 in 2016, it accounts for approximately 25% of the total population of the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames. Surbiton extends over an area of 7.18 km2.

Etymology
Though Surbiton only received its current name in 1869, the name is attested as Suberton in 1179, Surbeton in 1263, Surpeton in 1486, and finally Surbiton 1597. Sūth Bere-tūn means "southern grange" or "outlying farm" in Old English, as opposed to nearby Norbiton; both Norbiton and Surbiton were possessions of the royal manor of Kingston.

History
The present-day town came into existence after a plan to build a London-Southampton railway line through nearby Kingston was rejected by Kingston Council, who feared that it would be detrimental to the coaching trade. This resulted in the line being routed further south, through a cutting in the hill south of Surbiton. Surbiton railway station opened in 1838, and was originally named Kingston-upon-Railway. It was only renamed Surbiton to distinguish it from the new Kingston railway station on the Shepperton branch line, which opened on 1 January 1869. The present station has an art deco façade.

As a result, Kingston is now on a branch line, whereas passengers from Surbiton (smaller in comparison) can reach London Waterloo in as little as 16 minutes on a fast direct service; as well as places further afield, including Portsmouth and Southampton.

Surbiton was once home to Surbiton Studios which were owned by Stoll Pictures, before the company shifted its main production to Cricklewood Studios.

National politics
Surbiton falls within the UK parliamentary constituency of Kingston and Surbiton, which is represented in the House of Commons by Sir Ed Davey, currently the leader of the Liberal Democrats who served as Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change during the Conservative–Liberal Democrat coalition. Davey also represented the constituency between 1997 and 2015, having been ousted for a short period of time by Conservative James Berry. In the 2017 general election, Davey went on to defeat Berry by 45% to 38%. Both Davey's and Berry's offices were located in Surbiton's Berrylands ward.

In the 2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum, Kingston and Surbiton voted to remain a member of the European Union by 61.7% of the local vote.

London politics
Surbiton is represented in the London Assembly by Conservative Nicholas Rogers, as part of Greater London's South West constituency.

Local councillors
Surbiton elects 12 of the Kingston upon Thames London Borough Council's 48 councillors. As of the 2018 local elections, the council is controlled by the Liberal Democrats, and all Surbiton's elected councillors are members of that party.

Transport
Surbiton is served by a number of regular bus services. Transport for London bus routes 71, 281, 406, 418, 465, K1, K2, K3, and K4, as well as Hallmark Connections route 458, Reptons Coaches route 513, Falcon Coaches routes 514 and 515, and Stagecoach South route 715 all serve the area. These provide links to Chessington, Kingston town centre, Twickenham, Hounslow, Epsom, Leatherhead, Dorking, Cobham, Staines, Weybridge and Guildford.

Surbiton is also close to two of London's largest airports: Heathrow and Gatwick.

Railways have served the town since it was founded. Surbiton and Berrylands stations are both served by South Western Railway services. It provides rail links to London Waterloo, Surrey and Hampshire.

If approval is granted for the project, Surbiton will be connected with the London Underground system via Crossrail 2. It is expected that the project will relieve pressure on both Surbiton and Berrylands stations.

Surbiton lacks major motorways, although the A3 road cuts through Berrylands ward at Tolworth Underpass. Parts of the A307 that run along the River Thames, Portsmouth Road, have become part of the London cycle routes network.

Religion
Until the early 19th century, Surbiton, like Norbiton, lay in the parish of All Saints, Kingston upon Thames. As a result, Surbiton's two town centre parish churches, Saint Mark's and Saint Andrew's, date back only to the Victorian era. There are two further Anglican parish churches in south Surbiton, Christ Church and Saint Matthew's, both also Victorian.

Christ Church was built in 1862–63, by Charles Lock Luck and lengthened in 1866. The chancel aisles were added in 1864, and 1871. It has no tower, and is built of red brick with stone dressings with some black brick voussoirs. The east stained-glass window was done by Clayton and Bell, the central stained-glass window by Burne-Jones, while the other stained glass was done by Lavers, Barraud and Westlake.

Saint Matthew's was completed in 1875, having taken less than 2 years to build. The church and the original vicarage were paid for by one man, William Matthew Coulthurst, who was the senior partner of Coutts Bank. On the outside of the east end of the church, there is a stone plaque recording this and the fact that it was partly built in memory of Hannah Mabella Coulthurst, the dead sister of William Matthew Coulthurst. Built into the wall behind the plaque, there is a photograph of Hannah, a copy of 'The Times' newspaper of the day and a letter from William Coulthurst stipulating that the church should remain in the evangelical tradition. The church and vicarage cost £26,500. The old vicarage was pulled down in 1939 and a subsequent one was built on the same plot. In 2012, work started on a new vicarage on part of the plot and this was completed in 2013. The East stained-glass window by Henry Holiday was destroyed by a V-1 flying bomb on 23 June 1944. They were replaced in 1953 with windows by Hugh Easton, with his maker's mark of a weather vane signed H Easton with a cockerel on the top. The Clayton memorial triptych window was installed in 1921, designed by Louis Davis, 'the last of the Pre-Raphaelites', and made by Thomas Cowall (1870-1949) for James Powell and Sons. The Caporn memorial window was installed in 1970 and designed by W T Carter Shapland who had also designed the West window at St Mark's. Some of the original windows by Powell & Sons survive, known as Quarry windows because they are made up of pre-stamped diamond-shaped glass known as 'Quarries'.

Other churches in Surbiton include Surbiton Hill Methodist Church on Ewell Road, opened in 1882, and the Roman Catholic church of Saint Raphael's, completed in 1848 and located to the north of Surbiton, in the Kingston upon Thames postal district.

In recent years, Surbiton has become more diverse in terms of religion, the Surbiton area having a Sikh Gurdwara and an Orthodox Jewish synagogue. According to the 2011 Census, Muslims form the largest minority religious community at about 5% of the population; the nearest mosque is located in Kingston upon Thames.

Nationality
Approximately 74% of Surbiton's residents at the 2011 Census were born in the United Kingdom (73% in Alexandra, 71% in St. Mark's, 75% in Surbiton Hill, 76% in Berrylands). The largest ethnic group, with two-thirds of the population, is "White British", with "White Other" the second largest group at just under 10%.

Sport
Surbiton Lawn Tennis Club hosted international tennis from 1900 (Surrey Grass Court Championships - SGCC) until 1981 at the tennis Club in Berrylands. From 1998 to 2008 international tennis returned to Surbiton with an event hosted by the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) and Surbiton Racket & Fitness Club (SRFC). The Surbiton Trophy was part of the ATP Challenger Series and in 2009 the event was moved to Nottingham as part of a reorganisation by the LTA. The event came back to SRFC in 2015 and continues to be played at Berrylands.

Surbiton F.C. was a short-lived football club that was among the founders of The Football Association in 1863. Surbiton is the current home of both male and female football teams, Darkside FC, Surbiton Wanderers and Surbiton Town Ladies FC.

Surbiton Hockey Club, established in 1874, is regarded as one of the best hockey clubs in the country. Its men's and ladies' 1st XIs currently both play in their respective national premier leagues, while its youth section regularly produces players of international quality.

Surbiton is also the home to Surbiton Croquet Club, which is amongst the strongest croquet clubs in the country and, with seven lawns, one of the largest.

The Cooper Car Company was based in a garage on Hollyfield Road from 1946 to 1968, celebrating wins in the Formula One Constructors Championships in 1959 and 1960 and developing the iconic Mini Cooper in 1961.

Resident artists and writers

The Pre-Raphaelite painters John Everett Millais (1829–1896) and William Holman Hunt (1827–1910) came to Surbiton in 1851, 26 years before Richard Jefferies (1848–1887). Millais used the Hogsmill River, in Six Acre Meadow, Tolworth, as the background for his painting Ophelia. Holman Hunt used the fields just south of this spot as the background to The Hireling Shepherd.

In the mid-1870s the novelist Thomas Hardy (1840–1928) lived in a house called 'St. David's Villa' in Hook Road, Surbiton for a year after his marriage to Emma Gifford. H.G.Wells, in his comic novel The Wheels of Chance, describes the cycle collision of 'Mr Hoopdriver' and a 'Young Lady in Grey'; the young lady approaching 'along an affluent from the villas of Surbiton'. The writer Enid Blyton was governess to a Surbiton family for four years from 1920, at a house called 'Southernhay', also on the Hook Road. C. H. Middleton (1886–1945), who broadcast on gardening during the Second World War, lived in Surbiton, where he died suddenly outside his home. The artist who brought Rupert the Bear to life for a whole generation, Alfred Bestall, sketched out his cartoons from his home in Cranes Park, Surbiton Hill.

In popular culture
Surbiton was the setting of Keble Howard's novel The Smiths of Surbiton, published in 1906. The novel proved successful and led to two sequels, The Smiths of Valley View (1909) and The Smiths in War-Time (1918), both also set in Surbiton.

A 1972 episode of Monty Python's Flying Circus featured a mock documentary which investigated whether the residents of Hounslow, another London area suburb, had long ago been descendants of the people of Surbiton "who had made the great trek north".

Surbiton is popularly remembered as an icon of suburbia in such British television programmes as The Good Life (starring Richard Briers, Penelope Keith, Paul Eddington and Felicity Kendal), though location filming was done in Northwood, North-West London, and John Sessions and Phil Cornwell's comedy series Stella Street.

Surbiton station features in the 2009 film version of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, with actors Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter and Michael Gambon as Albus Dumbledore. Filming took place in November 2007. The station also appears in Agatha Christie's Poirot: The Adventure of the Clapham Cook, a 1989 ITV adaptation of the short story by Agatha Christie. The station reflects the 1930s Art Deco style that often featured in locations used in the series.

The guitarist and singer-songwriter Eric Clapton purchased one of his first guitars from a shop in Surbiton called Bells; the shop has since closed.

According to the cassette insert for the 1980s computer game Manic Miner, the mine complex in which the game action takes place was located "while prospecting down Surbiton way..."

List of notable residents

 * Marjorie Abbatt – toy-maker and businesswoman
 * Thomas John Barnardo – Irish philanthropist and founder of Barnardo's charity.
 * Mike Batt – Singer, songwriter, musician, known for The Wombles
 * George Best – a retired footballer and TV pundit before his death (having been born in Belfast and lived much of his life in Manchester)
 * Alfred Bestall – illustrator of the Rupert books
 * Charlie Brooks – actress
 * William Bryant – co-founder of Bryant and May's matches, lived with his wife at their property 'Oakenshaw' in Surbiton
 * Wilberforce Bryant – chairman of Bryant and May's matches, eldest son of co-founder William Bryant, lived at 'The Gables' (now Hillcroft College)
 * Charles Burney – Archdeacon of Kingston-upon-Thames from 1879 to 1904
 * Arthur Brian Burton, founder and owner of Thames Ditton Foundry
 * Jane Campbell, Baroness Campbell of Surbiton – equality and human rights champion
 * Rosalbina Caradori-Allan – opera singer
 * Frank Cellier – actor
 * Julian Clary – comedian and novelist
 * William Francis Dundonald Cochrane – brigadier-general in the Army, and great-grandson of Archibald Cochrane, 9th Earl of Dundonald
 * John Cooper – car maker
 * Allan Cuthbertson – actor
 * Ed Davey MP – politician, leader of the Liberal Democrats
 * Phyllis Dixey – singer, dancer and impresario
 * Bernard George Ellis – winner of the George Cross
 * David Essex – musician, singer-songwriter and actor, lived on Ditton Road for 16 years until 2002.
 * John Foxx – musician and digital artist, former resident
 * Susan George – actress
 * Eileen Gray – cyclist
 * Thomas Hardy – author (while completing and for the publishing of Far from the Madding Crowd)
 * Roy Hodgson – football manager
 * Saskia Howard-Clarke – Big Brother contestant and glamour model
 * Leslie Illsley – artist and one of the founders of Troika Pottery
 * James Johnston – rugby union player, lived in Surbiton until 2013 while playing for Harlequins
 * Lukin Johnston – English-Canadian journalist who interviewed Adolf Hitler and subsequently disappeared
 * John Keen – racing cyclist
 * Rob Lee – former councillor
 * Lara Lewington – television presenter, attended Surbiton High School
 * Chris McCausland – comedian, Would I Lie To You?, Live at the Apollo
 * John McCririck – horse racing pundit, Celebrity Big Brother (2005), and Ultimate Big Brother (2010)
 * Debbie McGee – widow of late magician Paul Daniels, born in Kingston, lived in Tolworth, went to Our Lady Immaculate and Tolworth Girls' Schools
 * Art Malik – actor
 * Dudley Mason GC – master of the SS Ohio
 * C. H. Middleton ("Mr Middleton") – gardener, writer and BBC broadcaster
 * William Newton – Olympic sports shooter, killed in World War I, grew up in Surbiton where his parents settled.
 * Elizabeth Norton – historian and author
 * Betty Nuthall – amongst other major titles, winner of the 1930 Women's US Singles Tennis Championship, ranked number 4 in the world
 * Katherine Parkinson – actress, IT Crowd
 * Andy Parsons – comedian, Mock The Week
 * Alf Pearson (of musical double act Bob and Alf Pearson) lived in Surbiton until 2007
 * Emma, Lady Radford – English antiquarian and public servant, incl. chairman of the Kingston-upon-Thames Women's Land Army. Resided at Chiswick House, Ditton Hill, Surbiton.
 * Jon Richardson – comedian, 8 out of 10 Cats, Stand Up for the Week
 * L. J. K. Setright – motoring journalist and author
 * Dr. Helen Sharman – first Briton in space, first woman to visit Mir space station
 * David Spinx – actor
 * Twinkle (Lynn Ripley) – singer
 * Naunton Wayne – actor
 * Jimmy White – Snooker Player
 * Joe Wicks – Coach and personal trainer
 * Dorothy Wrinch – first woman to receive an Oxford DSc., 1938 Nobel Prize nominee, grew up in Surbiton

Geography
The terrain of Surbiton is relatively flat, except for a small hill near its centre. It is part of the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames in Greater London, and borders the Borough of Elmbridge in Surrey. Surbiton consists of several smaller areas, including much of Seething Wells.

Nearby areas
Surbiton is a post town in the KT postcode area, consisting of the KT5 and KT6 postcode districts. KT5 includes Berrylands, Tolworth and part of Surbiton; and KT6 includes Tolworth, Long Ditton and part of Surbiton.

title: Surbiton


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Sydenham, London

Sydenham is a district of south-east London, England, which is shared between the London boroughs of Lewisham, Bromley and Southwark. Prior to the creation of the County of London in 1889, Sydenham was located in Kent, bordering Surrey. Historically, the area was very affluent, with the Crystal Palace being relocated to Sydenham Hill in 1854. Today, Sydenham is a diverse area, with a population of 28,378 (2011 census) and borders Forest Hill, Dulwich, Crystal Palace, Penge, Beckenham, Catford and Bellingham.

History
Originally known as Sippenham, Sydenham began as a small settlement, a few cottages among the woods, whose inhabitants grazed their animals and collected wood. In the 1640s, springs of water in what is now Wells Park were discovered to have medicinal properties, attracting crowds of people to the area. Sydenham grew rapidly in the 19th century after the introduction of the Croydon Canal in 1809 which linked the Grand Surrey Canal to Croydon and a reservoir was constructed in Sydenham. However, the canal was never successful and closed in 1836 resulting in it being the first canal to be abandoned by an Act of Parliament. The London & Croydon Railway purchased the canal for £40,250 and quickly converted the alignment for a railway from London Bridge to West Croydon, opening in 1839. After the railway opened potential gas companies began to consider the Sydenham area with the Crystal Palace and District Gas Company having works at Bell Green, which continued production until 1969; a retail park now occupies most of the site.

In 1851 the Great Exhibition in Hyde Park was housed in an immense glass building, called the Crystal Palace. In 1854 the building was bought by a private company, dismantled and re-erected at Penge Peak on Sydenham Hill (now Crystal Palace Park). Exhibitions, concerts, conferences and sporting events were held at the Crystal Palace (until it burned down in 1936), and Sydenham became a fashionable area with many new houses being built. In 1871 the French impressionist painter Camille Pissarro produced The Avenue, Sydenham, a largely still recognisable view on today's Lawrie Park Avenue; the painting is now owned by the National Gallery.

In 1860 the Walter Cobb department store at Lawrie Place, Kirkdale (now known as Cobbs Corner) opened, lasting until the 1980s. In 1872, the Children's Hospital, Sydenham opened. It closed in 1991, its services being now part of the University Hospital Lewisham. In 1884, Upper Sydenham railway station opened on the Crystal Palace and South London Junction Railway linking Crystal Palace to London Victoria via Peckham Rye. The station and the line were poorly used despite new houses being built in the area, as passengers preferred to use other stations near-by, Sydenham Hill (opening in 1863), Crystal Palace (Lower Level) and Sydenham which were on more direct routes. The ill fate of the Crystal Palace in 1936 saw patronage reduced and the route finally closed in 1954.

Sydenham was attacked by enemies during the Second World War. The gas works were a target, but were never damaged. The railway which ran through Upper Sydenham station was damaged, and some homes in the area were destroyed.

Local area
Sydenham is divided into several localities: Sydenham Hill in the Boroughs of Lewisham and Southwark runs alongside Dulwich and Sydenham Woods on one of the highest points of Greater London being 112 metres above sea level. From here, the City of London skyline is visible. Sydenham Hill has an abandoned railway tunnel from the Crystal Palace and South London Junction Railway located within the Woods. Another railway tunnel (one of the longest in Britain being 1,958 metres) goes beneath on the Chatham Main Line with Sydenham Hill station at the London end serving both Sydenham Hill and the College area of Dulwich.

Upper Sydenham is also located on Sydenham Hill and is a part of the Parish of St Bartholomew. It is diverse both racially and in terms of income; the central section of Kirkdale was Sydenham's original High Street. Renamed "Kirkdale" in 1936, the area now has a small range of shops including Tesco Express, local pubs and off-licences. Sydenham School is located on Dartmouth Road with Forest Hill Library and Forest Hill Pools alongside Thorpewood Avenue. Green Flag awarded Sydenham Wells Park, the location of the once famous Springs is one of the largest parks within the postcode.

In the area where West Hill (later renamed Westwood Hill) and Crystal Palace Park Road raise in elevation and eventually meet, many fine villas were built in the latter half of the nineteenth century. Designed in revival architectural styles, fashionable at the time, most of the properties were three or four stories high and large enough to attract more affluent residents. UK Census records suggest that many employed one or more live-in domestic staff. One of the more unusual residential streets, due to its circular arrangement is Charleville Circus, subject of an in-depth One-place study. Upper Sydenham is also the location of the Sydenham Park allotments, the Sydenham electricity sub station which had a major fire in 2008 and the Sydenham Hill estate.

Lower Sydenham & Bell Green is the location of the Sydenham Community Library, formerly run and funded by the local council. Alongside to the library is Home Park and the Home Park estate. The Bridge Leisure Centre is located on Kangley Bridge Road, near to Lower Sydenham railway station and an industrial estate home to Clarkes coach company, many other businesses and the Beckenham and Sydenham Cricket Ground. Bell Green retail park houses the Sydenham Gas Works and a large Sainsbury's superstore, formally part of the Savacentre brand. Other retailers include B&Q, Currys PC World, Next (with Costa Coffee), Aldi and McDonald's among others. The section of Kangley Bridge Road that runs south of Lower Sydenham Station is in the London Borough of Bromley and provides land for local employment.

Commercial area
Sydenham's main commercial area begins on Kirkdale around Cobbs Corner, continuing onto Sydenham Road, often known as "Sydenham High Street". It houses many independent shops, including a bakery, bookshop and several restaurants and chains stores. Furthermore, Sydenham is noted for the number of independent coffee shops. There is a Post Office branch and many estate agents. After recent closures, Natwest remains the only bank with a branch in the High Street. The first ever location of the Morley's chicken chain opened in Sydenham in 1985, and remains in operation today.

Since the Transport for London and Lewisham Council funded high street upgrade in 2012–13, there is now a monthly market located within the pocket squares, known as "Queensthorpe Square" and "Venner Square". The 18th century Greyhound pub, demolished by a developer without council permission in 2013, was rebuilt and reopened in 2017. Several new businesses such as a Sainsburys Local opened 2016 and Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward Estate Agents in 2021/22.

Community
Sydenham has a very active community, with several groups concerning the local area. Sydenham Town is the local website for the area, where residents can also voice their opinions in an on-line form. The Sydenham Society is a Civil society formed in 1972 to represent the local community. It holds local events, works with organisations and authorities as well as campaigning for improvements to the area. Green Flag and Mayor of London Award winner, Sydenham Garden, was formed in 2002. It is a charity which is involved in improving the health of residents in the boroughs of Bromley and Lewisham.

Sydenham with Forest Hill won a bid for the national Portas Pilot competition which provided a grant to improve high streets; extra money was provided from Lewisham Council and private developers. Annually every summer since 2009, the Sydenham Arts Festival is held, where there are workshops, music, family activities etc.

Conservation areas
Sydenham has seven Conservation Areas: Cobbs Corner, Dulwich Village (covering Crescent Wood Road), Halifax Street, Sydenham Hill/Kirkdale, Sydenham Park and Sydenham Thorpes. Sydenham has the highest concentration of conservation areas in the London Borough of Lewisham

Recreation
A number of parks are within the Sydenham postcode. Mayow Park, Lewisham's oldest municipal park and Sydenham Wells Park are both Green Flag Awarded. Other open spaces in Sydenham include Alexandra Recreation Ground, Baxters Field, Home Park and Kirkdale Green. Riverview Walk is a nature conservation area which runs along the River Pool from Catford. Additionally, located along the borders of Sydenham, there are Crystal Palace Park, Dulwich Woods, Southend Park and Sydenham Hill Woods.

Alongside Dulwich and Sydenham Hill Woods is the Dulwich and Sydenham Golf course, dating back to 1893. Located on Lawrie Park Road, there is the Sydenham Tennis Club, while the Beckenham and Sydenham Cricket Ground and the Lewisham Indoor Bowls Centre are both located in the Lower Sydenham industrial estate.

Sydenham Arts
Sydenham Arts is a local charitable organisation, promoting the arts for the local community, which provides free and ticketed cultural events at several festivals through the year.

Notable buildings and structures

 * St Bartholomew's church, (1827–1832), at the end of Lawrie Park Avenue, featured in Camille Pissarro's painting of 1871: "The Avenue, Sydenham". The building was designed by Lewis Vulliamy.
 * Park Court, (1936), by Frederick Gibberd, pioneering modernist development of residential flats on the estate on Lawrie Park Road adjacent to the famous Crystal Palace Park.
 * Six Pillars, (1934–35), by Berthold Lubetkin, on Crescent Wood Road, a villa strongly in the spirit of Le Corbusier with eponymous six pillars at street level.
 * Cobbs Corner, takes its name from a draper's shop at 291–307 Kirkdale run by Walter Cobb. The shop grew into a large department store catering to the gentry of the area. Interesting imposing dome where you can find the date on the building.
 * 180 and 182 Kirkdale, built in the 1850s in Gothic style, with Tudor doorcases.
 * 168–178 Kirkdale, three pairs of Italianate houses built around 1862. Number 174 was briefly the home of the conductor August Manns.
 * Memorial to Queen Victoria (1897), baroque-style memorial celebrating Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee. Restored for Queen Elizabeth II's Silver Jubilee and designed by Alexander Hennell, a Sydenham resident and architect.
 * Jews Walk, it is believed that a wealthy Jewish resident planted a row of trees to define the boundary of his walk from the Common. Numbers 2,4 and 6 are classical villas dating from the 1840s. Karl Marx's daughter Eleanor lived on Jews Walk. On 9 September 2008 a blue English Heritage plaque was placed on the house to commemorate this fact.
 * Halifax Street, beautifully preserved street with houses dating from the 1840s. Of notice are in particular the closeness of the houses, the length of the street and the size of the gardens.
 * The Kirkdale Building, previously the Sydenham Public Lecture Hall, was built in 1861 by Sydenham resident Henry Dawson.
 * Sydenham Community Library is a Carnegie Library built in 1904.

Education
There are five non-religious primary schools in Sydenham (Alexandra, Adamsrill, Eliot Bank, Haseltine and Kelvin Grove) and three religious schools (St. Michael's, St Philip Neri and St. Bartholomew's Church of England). Sydenham contains two secondary schools, the private Sydenham High School and the state Sydenham School. Both of these schools are exclusively for girls. Forest Hill (for boys) is just outside Sydenham across from Mayow Park. Other secondary schools close by include Harris Bromley (for girls), Harris Crystal Palace, Sedgehill and the private Dulwich College. There are no colleges in Sydenham, but Sydenham and Forest Hill schools have a joint sixth form.

Population
According to the 2011 census, the SE26 postcode area had a population of 28,378, with 13,714 males and 14,664 females.

Famous residents

 * A-ha – Norwegian pop band lived in Sydenham and recorded early demos at Rendezvous studios on Kirkdale with John Ratcliff.
 * John Arnott — footballer
 * Edward Aveling — biologist and social activist, partner of Eleanor Marx
 * John Logie Baird — inventor of both the first publicly demonstrated colour television system, and the first purely electronic colour television picture tube
 * George Baxter — inventor of colour printing, lived on Peak Hill from 1860 till his death in 1867. Has a memorial at former Christ Church, Forest Hill.
 * Dietrich Bonhoeffer
 * David Bowie — spent five years living in Sydenham in his early adult life
 * Bill Bradley — cricketer
 * Kelly Brook — the model and actress once shared a home with then boyfriend Billy Zane in Lawrie Park Road
 * Thomas Campbell — poet
 * Louise Creighton — social activist and writer, born in Sydenham
 * Connie Fisher — singer and actress, winner of the BBC TV program How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria?
 * Bud Flanagan — music hall singer/entertainer, died in Sydenham
 * Denis Gifford — comics and film historian
 * Wilfrid de Glehn — painter, was born in Sydenham
 * W. G. Grace — England's greatest cricketer
 * George Grove — of musical dictionary fame
 * Rolf Harris — musician, television personality, painter and actor, was a key figure in the Sydenham Society
 * Norman Hunter — writer and creator of Professor Branestawm
 * Kazuo Ishiguro — Literature Nobel Prize winner, Booker Prize winning novelist, wrote The Remains of the Day in Sydenham
 * Richard Jefferies — the naturalist and author, lived at 20 Sydenham Park (a blue plaque indicates the house)
 * Shivani Kapoor — Indian model, cousin of famous Bollywood sister actresses Karisma & Kareena Kapoor
 * Flora Klickmann — editor of The Girls Own Paper from 1908 to 1931
 * René Lalique — according to Henri Vever, Lalique studied at Sydenham Art College between 1878 and 1880
 * Prof Edmund Albert Letts FRSE — chemist, born in Sydenham
 * Margaret Lockwood — star of Alfred Hitchcock's The Lady Vanishes (1938)
 * Lionel Logue CVO — Australian speech therapist and stage actor who successfully treated, among others, King George VI. He lived in a villa named Beechgrove from 1933 to 1940
 * Linda Ludgrove — Commonwealth gold medallist swimmer
 * Eleanor Marx — daughter of Karl Marx, lived and died in Sydenham
 * Tsakane Valentine Maswanganyi — Opera singer, she first came to public notice as a member of the world-famous opera band Amici Forever
 * John Dudley North – aircraft designer, born at Sydenham
 * Sandy Powell — three-time Academy Award winning costume designer
 * John Scott Russell — naval architect who built the SS Great Eastern
 * Dame Cicely Saunders — founder of the modern hospice movement
 * Ernest Shackleton — the Antarctic explorer
 * Francis Pettit Smith — one of the inventors of the screw propeller
 * Charlene Soraia — alternative singer-songwriter, born and grew up in Sydenham
 * Jason Statham — film actor
 * David Henry Stone — Sheriff and Lord Mayor of London, lived at 'Fairwood' on Sydenham Hill
 * Baroness Mary Warnock – philosopher, writer and life peer
 * David Wiffen — singer-songwriter, born in Sydenham in 1942
 * Bill Wyman — member of The Rolling Stones, grew up in Sydenham
 * Billy Zane — the Titanic actor once shared a home with then girlfriend Kelly Brook in Lawrie Park Road

Transport

Sydenham is served by National Rail and London Buses for its public transport. Sydenham is located in Travelcard Zones 3 and 4.

Railway stations

 * Sydenham for London Overground and Southern services to London Bridge, London Victoria, East & West Croydon, Clapham Junction, Caterham, Shoreditch High Street and Highbury & Islington. This is the busiest station, with up to 12 trains per hour off peak and a usage of 4 million passengers in year 2015–16
 * Sydenham Hill and Penge East stations for Southeastern services to London Victoria, Brixton, Bromley South and Orpington.
 * Lower Sydenham station also is served by Southeastern but with services to London Charing Cross, London Waterloo East, London Cannon Street, London Bridge, Hayes and Lewisham.

Buses
The area is served by routes 75, 122, 176, 181, 194, 197, 202, 227, 352, 356, 363, 450 and N63 linking Sydenham to Central London, Lewisham, Catford, Croydon, Thornton Heath, Bromley, Shirley, Peckham, Camberwell, Elephant & Castle, Blackheath, Forest Hill, Penge, South Norwood and Grove Park.

Roads
The South Circular Road passes close by in Forest Hill. High Street improvements being funded by Transport for London from September 2012 are making the increasingly busy Sydenham Road (A212) more user friendly. So far, Kirkdale to Mayow Road has been completed, with Mayow Road to Kent House Road currently, as of December 2013, being upgraded. The Kent House Road to Bell Green section is still waiting for funding to be found.

Geography
Sydenham is approximately 7 mi to the south east of Charing Cross. It is also at the centre of many of south London's major shopping districts being 3 mi south of Lewisham, 3.2 mi north west of Bromley and 3+1/2 mi north of Croydon.

Upper Sydenham and Sydenham Hill is located on the large Norwood Ridge formed of London Claygate beds deposits; Sydenham Hill is one of the highest points in London at 367 feet (112 m). Sydenham Hill Wood is a nine-hectare nature reserve located west of Sydenham Hill Road, along with Dulwich and Sydenham Hill Golf course. The hill was once covered by the Great North Wood which covered all of Sydenham, Norwood, Woodside, Gipsy Hill etc. In the 19th Century it was home to the spa and health resort of Sydenham Wells.

The western parts of Sydenham, from Upper Sydenham and Forest Hill towards Crystal Palace Park is a more leafy, suburban area with some parts like the Lawrie Park and Thorpes areas being more affluent than others. Lower Sydenham at the bottom of more gentle slopes being east of Upper Sydenham, south of Forest Hill and west of Bellingham. The River Pool, a 5.1 mi tributary of the River Ravensbourne straddles the east of Lower Sydenham along the Hayes railway line.

Climate
The nearest Met Office climate station is based in Greenwich Park:

Trivia
The Beast of Sydenham of 2005, was a large, panther-like black animal, which had been spotted around the area, and attacked a man. The beast was said to be 6 ft in length and 3 ft in height.

In March 2022, a crested caracara, named Jester, which escaped London Zoo, was spotted in Mayow Park, Sydenham.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Sydenham, London


text:
Thamesmead

Thamesmead is an area of south-east London, England, straddling the border between the Royal Borough of Greenwich and the London Borough of Bexley. It is located 11 mi east of Charing Cross, north-east of Woolwich and west of Erith. It mainly consists of social housing built from the mid-1960s onwards on former marshland on the south bank of the River Thames.

Military use
Most of the land area of Thamesmead previously formed about 1000 acre of the old Royal Arsenal site that extended over Plumstead Marshes and Erith Marshes. There is some evidence of prehistoric human occupation of the area: flints, animal bones and charcoal were found in bore holes around Western and Central Way in 1997 by the Museum of London Archaeological Service (MOLAS). In Roman times, the river level was significantly lower, and work by MOLAS in 1997 around Summerton Way revealed evidence of field ditches and pottery and quernstones from Germany dating from around the 3rd or 4th century. After the Roman era, river levels rose again and the area reverted to marshland. According to Hasted, some areas of this marshland were drained by 1279 by the monks of Lesnes Abbey.

Between 1812 and 1816, a canal was built by convicts to take materials such as timber from the River Thames to Woolwich Royal Arsenal. Much of this canal has been filled in, but part remains in Thamesmead West and is now called the Broadwater. A disused lock gate and swing bridge over the canal still exist beside the River Thames.

Original concept
Thamesmead as it is now was built at the end of the 1960s. Efforts were made to solve the social problems that had already started to affect earlier estates. These were believed to be the result of people being uprooted from close-knit working-class communities and sent to estates many miles away, where they did not know anybody. The design of the new estates meant that people would feel more isolated than they would have done in the terraced housing that had been typical in working-class areas. The solution proposed was that once the initial residents had moved in, their families would be given priority for new housing when it became available.

Another radical idea of the GLC division architect Robert Rigg was taken from housing complexes in Sweden, where it was believed that lakes and canals reduced vandalism and other crime, mainly among the young. He used water as a calming influence on the residents.

Thamesmead was designed around futuristic ideas, and indeed, looked impressive at first from a distance. It provided walkways between its blocks of homes and later between sections in North Thamesmead. The walkways quickly became littered and abused. They were not considered safe places to walk. Pathways set out for people to walk on were put in without regard to how people would wish to get about, so some were ignored in favour of more direct routes over grassed areas.

Much of Thamesmead was initially built by the Greater London Council (GLC) for rent to families moving from overcrowded back-to-back Victorian housing (also referred to as slums) in south eastern parts of Inner London. The area had been inundated in the Flood of 1953, so the original design placed living accommodation at first floor level or above, used overhead walkways and left the ground level of buildings as garage space. There is also an elevated 'escape route' from the estate to be used in the event of flooding, which runs along the top of a grassed mound to the north of Lesnes neighbourhood.

The first residence was occupied in 1968, but already there were rain penetration problems. The pre-1974 parts of Thamesmead are a mix of modernist town houses, medium-rise and 12-storey blocks system-built in concrete, which have featured in various films due to their 'rough urban look'; the design of the newer buildings is more traditional and in brick.

When the GLC was abolished in 1986, its housing assets and the remaining undeveloped land were vested in a non-profit organisation, Thamesmead Town Limited (TTL). TTL was a private company with an unusual form of governance. Its nine executive directors were local residents; they periodically submitted themselves to re-election. Subsequently six additional paid directors who did not live in the area were appointed.

Problems of the original design
Despite early proposals for the Jubilee Line Extension to go to Thamesmead, via the Isle of Dogs and the Royal Docks, Thamesmead was not included and after reaching the Greenwich Peninsula, the line heads north to Stratford (via Canning Town and West Ham), despite Stratford also being on the major Central line tube link into London. The main reason cited for this decision was that many workers in Canary Wharf lived in Essex and could change from National Rail to the Jubilee line at Stratford and West Ham.

Thamesmead is also cut off from the north of the River Thames and is in the centre of the 15 mi gap between the Blackwall Tunnel and the Dartford Tunnel/QE2 Bridge. Various proposals have been made for a new river crossing, the closest of which was in the late 1980s, when there was a controversial proposal to alter the shape of London's South Circular inner orbital road to run through Oxleas Woods. Houses in Plumstead were compulsorily purchased but the plans fell through. Since then, Thamesmead has grown significantly, limiting the number of potential sites for a new river crossing.

The most significant design failure was the almost complete lack of shopping facilities and banks: only a few "corner shops" were initially built at Tavy Bridge. From the start Thamesmead was cut off from Abbey Wood, the nearest town with shopping facilities, by a railway line; however a four-lane road bridge was built over the railway in the early 1970s. The area was then cut in two by the A2016, a new four-lane dual carriageway by-pass of the Woolwich to Erith section of the A206 (although this road only got as far as the industrial part of lower Belvedere: the extension to Erith was opened in 1999). Still, residential building continued, this time on the other side of the A2016, which cut this part of Thamesmead off from rail travel to central London.

Over time more facilities developed, with a Morrisons supermarket and retail park near Gallions Reach. Bus services were improved and residents can now easily reach Abbey Wood railway station.

21st century
In 2000, TTL was wound down and two new organisations were formed. In broad terms, Gallions Housing Association took over the ownership and management of the housing assets whilst Tilfen, later Tilfen Land, took over the remaining undeveloped land. Tilfen is jointly owned by Gallions and Trust Thamesmead.

District heating and cable radio broadcasting were pioneered in Thamesmead. The District heating system was decommissioned around 2000; properties connected to it had wet radiator systems installed by the landlord.

The Tavy Bridge area is now being redeveloped by Gallions in partnership with Wates Group; the plans include homes with dwelling space at ground-floor level, making them susceptible to any future flooding.

Thamesmead now features a retail park finished in brick anchored around a Morrisons Supermarket; there is also a shopping parade which has mainly service-based outlets such as hairdressers and estate agents. It features a clock tower and lake. Some of the original overhead pedestrian walkways have been demolished for reasons of public safety and some ground-floor garages have been unfilled, as incidents of crime deterred their use as parking space.

Trust Thamesmead is a registered charity set up to provide community services across Thamesmead. It runs six community centres and a variety of projects promoting social development and work and training projects.

Thamesmead West contains Gallions Ecopark a pioneering small social/affordable housing development with homes built to high energy efficiency and environmental standards. The estate also includes a small lake and a number of man-made landmarks created from recycled excavated material that serve as viewing platforms. The biggest of these is 20 m high Gallions Hill with a spiral path leading to the summit.

Part of Thamesmead West is also sometimes referred to as Gallions Reach Urban Village. This can lead to confusion, as it is on the opposite bank of the River Thames from Gallions Reach DLR station and Gallions Reach shopping park. There is no Docklands Light Railway, London Underground or rail station in Thamesmead West.

Early 21st century new build properties in Thamesmead West have been blighted by social problems and mass repossessions, attracting national attention. Housing is still under construction both by Gallions Housing Association (for rent and part rent/part buy) and by private developers (for outright sale). Another new development is under construction in 2010. The final phase of the Gallions Reach Urban Village (ecopark) is the creation of Gallions Reach Park, a 14.3 acre public open space land, between Gallions Hill and the River Thames. Water remains an important feature of the several parks and open spaces.

In November 2007, Bexley Council marked Thamesmead's 40th birthday with a motion proposed by local Councillor David Leaf and seconded by Councillor John Davey.

In 2014, Gallions, Tilfen Land and Trust Thamesmead were taken over by Peabody Trust, a London housing association. In 2015, two Housing Zones in Thamesmead were announced by the Mayor of London for delivery of 2,800 homes. The zones are Abbey Wood and South Thamesmead, between Abbey Wood station and Southmere Lake, and Abbey Wood, Plumstead and Thamesmead. Peabody said in 2018 that it will deliver 20,000 new homes, increasing the number of residents to around 80,000.

While a railway extension from Barking Riverside was mooted for several years, Transport for London secured funding in 2020 for a potential Docklands Light Railway extension to Thamesmead on the network's branch to Beckton. A public consultation about the proposed extension was launched in February 2024.

Geography
Thamesmead is located 11 miles (18 km) east of central London, being on the same latitude as Westminster. In Thamesmead East, the River Thames makes its most northerly incursion within Greater London near the Crossness Sewage Treatment Works.

Areas
Thamesmead consists of four distinct areas:
 * Thamesmead South is in Bexley and is the location of the original development built in the late 1960s to early 1970s. The buildings are almost entirely of concrete, in a Cubist/Brutalist/Modernist style, and include a number of high-rise blocks. It is east of Harrow Manor Way (A2041) and south of the A2016. Postcode(s): SE2, DA18
 * Thamesmead North is in Greenwich and Bexley and is north of the A2016 and east of the A2041. Built from the 1970s onwards, it was initially made up of town houses in grey brick; more recent builds are in red & yellow brick. Postcode(s): SE2, SE28
 * Thamesmead Central is in Greenwich and was first developed in the early 1980s in the ring between the A2016 and A2041. It originally consisted of large, sprawling, concrete and red brick, eight- and nine-storey estates overlooking the A2041, and three-storey red-brick town houses. It has spread west of the A2041 and now also includes a number of red and yellow brick homes built from the 1990s onwards. Postcode(s): SE28
 * Thamesmead West (also known as Broadwater Green) is in Greenwich near Woolwich and Plumstead (Between Whinchat Road, the A2016 & the banks of the river Thames) and was built from the 1990s onwards. It is a significant distance from the original development and consists mainly of medium density residential development with yellow brick fascias, with towers along the riverside. Postcode(s): SE28

Belmarsh Prison, Isis Prison and Thameside Prison are located on the western edge of the area, while the sewage processing works at Crossness, built in the Victorian era is on eastern edge of Thamesmead. The southern boundary is the covered Southern Outfall Sewer, which has been landscaped as an elevated footpath called the Ridgeway.

Neighbouring areas
Nearby areas are: Barking & Dagenham (across the Thames), Belvedere, Abbey Wood, Plumstead, Welling, Woolwich, Bexleyheath, Erith and Greenwich.

Demography
Thamesmead's population is increasing rapidly as new developments are being built in the area. Based on mid-2018 estimates, the area's population has reached to 41,121, an increase of almost 30% in seven years over the 2011 figure of 31,824. Because of this, there is an increasing level of demand for the proposed DLR extension from Gallions Reach.

In common with the rest of London, the ethnic make-up of Thamesmead has changed since it was first built. Initially, it was one of the most homogenous estates of its type in London, being predominately white and working class. The lack of London Underground services and at the very edge of the metropolis may have meant Thamesmead was not first port of call for immigrants arriving in London. The housing selection policy that favoured relatives of existing residents reinforced this aspect.

However, after the Fall of Saigon and the American withdrawal from Vietnam in the late 1970s, a small group of Vietnamese refugees built a community in the area. In the 1990s, another ultimately larger wave of emigration from West Africa (predominately Nigeria and Ghana) began. The 2011 census revealed that 35.58% of residents in the Thamesmead Moorings ward described themselves as Black African, the highest percentage in both London and the UK; Thamesmead East had the second highest at 34.88%.

Thamesmead also adjoins the Thistlebrook travellers site which is situated just inside Abbey Wood.

Thamesmead Moorings; Ethnicity Breakdown:

Black or Black British 42.9%
 * Black African 35.6%
 * Black Caribbean 3.8%
 * Black Other 3.5%

White 42.4%
 * White British 33.3%
 * White Irish 0.7%
 * White Gypsy or Irish Traveller 0.3%
 * White Other: 8.1%

Asian or Asian British 7.8%
 * Indian 1.5%
 * Bangladeshi 0.7%
 * Pakistani 0.7%
 * Chinese 2.2%
 * Other Asian 2.7%

Mixed Race 5.3%
 * White and Black Caribbean 1.7%
 * White and Black African 1.8%
 * White and Asian 0.6%
 * Mixed Other 1.2%

Other Ethnic Groups 1.7%
 * Arab 0.3%
 * Other 1.4%

Crime
Some estate residents claim that gang T-Block (Now known locally as Greenside or GS28) have been left untouched by police, due to the high levels of drug-related crime and violence taking place in the Thamesmead area and local areas Abbey Wood and Plumstead. Gangs and Crime have been prevalent in the area since the late 1970's, due to increased rates of poverty, due to a failing economy and rise of working class communities during The Tories reign in government. However, in the 80s, there was a raise of racist gangs which ran riot within the Thamesmead area, and local areas (such as Welling, Erith, Belvedere, Eltham & Plumstead). These groups (such as R.A.) felt inclined to defend their 'turf' and would often harass young black men and boys from Thamesmead, and surrounding local areas. These behaviour was shown within a famous murder within the area, which soon shaped the major change within the Thamesmead area from the 1990s onwards - The Murder of Rolan Adams. Rolan Adams (1975 - 1991) was a Black British boy who was murdered as the result of a racist hate crime which was committed in 1991. He is frequently associated in connection to Stephen Lawrence, another teenager from a neighbouring area Eltham in Southeast London, who was later killed in a similar incident, exposing the public view of racially motivated attacks in London, England at the time. From the late 1990s onwards, a rise of Afro-Caribbean people would move into the areas, from abroad (Countries like Ghana, Nigeria, and Jamaica) and inner South London, due to re-housing and gentrification in areas like Peckham, Camberwell, Walworth and Brixton. Many of the black youths who would move into the area, will move around together to defend themselves against these racist gangs, seeing the early formation of the gang T-Block (now known as Greenside or GS28) in 2002. The gang would fall into heavy beefs with local gangs Woolwich Boys, Cherry Orchard Boys and R.A. (Welling & Erith) but also form deep alliances with other local gangs, such as Glyndon Boys, Ferrier Estate Boys and Peckham Boys, during the mid-late 2000s and early 2010s

Transport
Thamesmead's location between the Thames and the South London escarpment (see North Downs) makes it difficult to build new road and railway infrastructure. As a result, Thamesmead has no underground or above-ground rail lines. With a population of almost 32,000, it is one of the largest districts in Greater London with no railway infrastructure. Most residents travel by bus to the nearest rail stations. There is, however, a disused railway trackbed from Plumstead which originally served the Royal Arsenal. The London Assembly proposed on 4 October 2016 to build an extension of the DLR from Gallions Reach to Thamesmead, and a public consultation about the proposed extension was launched in February 2024.

Buses
Many bus routes serve the area, all provided by Transport for London.

National Rail
The nearest stations are Abbey Wood, Belvedere, Plumstead and Woolwich Arsenal for Southeastern and services towards Crayford, Dartford, London Cannon Street, London Charing Cross, Elizabeth line services to Paddington and Thameslink services towards Rainham via Dartford and Luton via Blackfriars.

Cycle paths
The Ridgeway cycle path, owned by Thames Water, passes through the town from Plumstead Railway station to Crossness Sewage Treatment works, dividing the town into North and South Thamesmead.

Culture
There are a wide variety of active community groups and local bands (The Bargains and a member of post-rock act From The Sky) and a short-range commercial radio station - 106.8 Time FM - that grew from the original cable (subsequently FM) service "Radio Thamesmead".

Places of worship in the area include the Thamesmead Ecumenical Parish, with shared buildings and co-operation by the Methodist Church, Church of England, United Reformed Church and Roman Catholic Church, and the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Goodnews Haven on Nathan Way.

Sport and leisure
The local football team was Thamesmead Town F.C. who played at the Bayliss Avenue ground. Thamesmead were champions of the Kent League in 2007–08, and were then promoted to the Isthmian League Division One North. Thamesmead Town folded in October 2018.

The Thamesmead Riverside Walk runs alongside the Thames through Thamesmead West, Thamesmead Central and Thamesmead North and is part of both the Thames Path Southeast Extension and National Cycle Route 1. Thamesmead is also one of the starting points of the Green Chain Walk, which links to places such as Chislehurst and Crystal Palace.

There is a combined swimming pool, fitness centre and library run by Greenwich Council and Greenwich Leisure Limited in Thamesmead Central (The Thamesmere Centre). Bexley Council run a library at Binsey Walk near Southmere Lake, and sailing and canoeing are run at Southmere Lake in Thamesmead South by Southmere Boating Centre (with Greenwich Yacht Club) and sailing only by the YMCA in association with Erith Yacht Club. Trust Thamesmead run an indoor climbing wall (The cave) near Southmere Lake. The Thamesview Golf Centre in Thamesmead North has a nine-hole course and driving range. Fishing at Birchmere Lake in Thamesmead West is organised by Thamesmead Town Angling Club. Fish include tench, bream, carp and pike.

Cultural references
Thamesmead estate was featured prominently in the film The Optimists of Nine Elms (1973) starring Peter Sellers. Thamesmead is seen as a new and better alternative through the eyes of two small children who live in older, dilapidated flats in Nine Elms, Battersea. The Tavy Bridge area of Thamesmead South, including Southmere Lake, was used as a setting for the Stanley Kubrick film A Clockwork Orange and also the play and Channel 4 gay coming-of-age film Beautiful Thing. The British TV drama Misfits was also filmed in Thamesmead. Many scenes take place around Southmere Lake, while Bexley College was once also used as a setting. The estate featured in The Libertines video What Became of the Likely Lads. The video of "Come to Daddy" by electronic musician Aphex Twin, directed by Chris Cunningham, was also shot in Thamesmead. The Firm (1989), starring Gary Oldman, was filmed in Thamesmead. The music video for New York rapper A$AP Rocky's and London rapper Skepta's song "Praise the Lord (Da Shine)" was partially filmed at the Thamesmead Estate,  with the estate featuring prominently alongside shots of New York throughout the music video. The music video for American producer Skrillex and British producer Four Tet's song Butterflies was filmed on the Thamesmead Estate.

title: Thamesmead


text:
London Borough of Enfield

The London Borough of Enfield is a London borough in Greater London, England. The main communities in the borough are Edmonton, Enfield, Southgate and Palmers Green. Enfield is an Outer London borough and forms part of North London, being the northernmost borough. The local authority is Enfield London Borough Council, based at Enfield Civic Centre. The borough's population is estimated to be 333,794.

It borders the London boroughs of Barnet to the west, Haringey to the south, and Waltham Forest to the southeast. To the north are the districts of Hertsmere, Welwyn Hatfield and Broxbourne (in Hertfordshire), and to the east is Epping Forest District in Essex.

Etymology
Enfield was recorded in Domesday Book in 1086 as Enefelde, and as Einefeld in 1214, Enfeld in 1293, and Enfild in 1564: that is 'open land of a man called Ēana', or 'where lambs are reared', from the Old English feld with an Old English personal name or with Old English ēan 'lamb'. The feld would have been a reference to an area cleared of trees within woodland that would later become known as Enfield Chase.

History
In Roman times, Enfield was connected to Londinium by Ermine Street, the great Roman road which stretched all the way up to York. Artefacts found in the early 1900s reveal that there were Roman settlements in the areas that are now Edmonton and Bush Hill Park.

In 790 King Offa of Mercia was recorded as giving the lands of Edmonton to St Albans Abbey. The area became strategically important as East Anglia was taken over by the Danes. In the 890s strongholds were built by men loyal to King Alfred the Great, in order to keep the Danes to the east of the River Lea.

After the Norman Conquest, both Enfield and Edmonton were mentioned in Domesday Book. Both had churches, and Enfield had 400 inhabitants, Edmonton 300. Enfield is also described as having a "parc". This parc—a heavily forested area for hunting—was key to Enfield's existence in the Middle Ages (see Enfield Old Park). Wealthy Londoners came to Enfield first to hunt, and then to build houses in the green, wooded surroundings. In 1303, Edward I of England granted Enfield a charter to hold a weekly market, which has continued up to this day. The old market cross was removed in the early 20th century to make way for a monument to the coronation of King Edward VII, but was preserved by the horticulturalist E. A. Bowles for his garden at nearby Myddelton House, where it remains today.

Enfield Grammar School with its Tudor Old Hall stands next to the Enfield Town Market Place and St. Andrew's Church, the school having been extended several times since 1586. A new hall and further additions were completed shortly before World War II.

Nearby historically was the palace of Edward VI, where Elizabeth I lived while a princess, including during the final illness of Henry VIII. Edward was taken there to join her, so that in the company of his sister, Edward Seymour, 1st Earl of Hertford could break the news to Edward, formally announcing the death of their royal father in the presence chamber at Enfield, on his knees to make formal obeisance to the boy as King. Later Elizabeth held court there when she was queen (this was remembered in the name Palace Gardens that was a street running behind Pearsons department store and is still recalled in the name of Enfield's shopping centre).

Industry
Enfield has a history of armaments manufacture—see Royal Small Arms Factory. The Lee–Enfield .303 rifle was standard issue for the British Army until 1957, although its usage carried on afterwards for some time. Other firearms manufactured there include the Bren and Sten machine guns—the "en" in both cases denoting the place of manufacture.

The world's first solid state circuitry colour televisions were manufactured by Ferguson at their now closed plant in Enfield.

The first mass-produced dishwasher was manufactured in Hotpoint's now closed Enfield plant.

The Barclays Bank branch in Enfield was the first place in the world to have an ATM or cash machine; it was officially opened in June 1967 by Reg Varney, a television actor and personality most famous for his lead role in the comedy series On the Buses. This historical event was marked by a silver plaque on the wall of the bank, and later by an English Heritage Blue plaque.

A fine example of a grade II listed art deco factory building can be found along Southbury Road, with the former Ripaults Factory, now an office building for Travis Perkins.

Administrative history
The area of the modern borough broadly corresponds to the two ancient parishes of Enfield and Edmonton, and was historically part of the county of Middlesex. Both parishes were made local board districts in 1850, each with an elected board overseeing public health and responsible for the provision of infrastructure. The Edmonton district was divided in 1881, when its western part was made a separate district called Southgate. Such districts were reconstituted as urban districts under the Local Government Act 1894.

Each of the three urban districts was later raised to the status of a municipal borough: Southgate in 1933, Edmonton in 1937, and Enfield in 1955.

The modern borough was created in 1965 under the London Government Act 1963, covering the combined area of the former boroughs of Enfield, Edmonton and Southgate, which were all abolished at the same time. The area was transferred from Middlesex to Greater London to become one of the 32 London Boroughs.

The armorial bearings of these three boroughs were also merged. The heraldic beast on the shield of the Enfield coat of arms is known in heraldry as an "Enfield" (or colloquially as the Enfield beast), and is used extensively as a logo representing Enfield, particularly by the borough council.

Enfield today
The borough's Civic Centre is in Silver Street, Enfield Town, and is home to the council. Enfield Town is also home to the local credit union, North London Credit Union.

In 2007, Enfield Town centre completed a major redevelopment project under the name PalaceXchange while retaining the Palace Gardens Shopping Centre. An extension was added to the existing retail area with many new shops, and a second multi-storey car park was built along with a new road layout.

A major redevelopment of Edmonton Green including the shopping centre, and adjacent municipal housing over a wide area, started in 1999. This is still on-going, and provides new housing, health facilities, a new leisure centre, a supermarket, and many other civic features.

Many local activities are located around the A10 road, on the sites of former industrial enterprises, which has a number of large retail outlets and a large multiplex Cineworld cinema. The cinema also hosts Jubilee Church on a Sunday morning; whilst cinemagoers continue to watch films in the other screens, a charismatic church which draws its worshippers from a wide area, hiring several auditoria for worship.

The western part of Enfield is largely residential, with shopping centres in Southgate, Palmers Green and Cockfosters.

Parts of Enfield experienced rioting in August 2011, in which a private car and a van were set alight and completely destroyed, a police car vandalised (smashed windows) and a number of shops in Enfield Town Centre as well as others in the Enfield Retail Park being broken into and looted. The Sony Distribution Centre in the Innova Business Park, near Waltham Cross, was burnt to the ground. In September 2012, a year after the attack, a rebuilt Sony Distribution Centre was opened by the prime minister, David Cameron.

Governance
The local authority is Enfield Council, based at the Civic Centre on Silver Street in Enfield.

Greater London representation
Since 2000, for elections to the London Assembly, the borough forms part of the Enfield and Haringey constituency.

Health
Two major NHS hospitals, Chase Farm Hospital operated by the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust and North Middlesex Hospital operated by the North Middlesex University Hospital NHS Trust, are located in the borough. NHS Enfield Clinical Commissioning Group is responsible for local primary health care, taking over this role from Enfield Primary Care NHS Trust in 2013. Another hospital in the borough, Highlands, was closed in 1993.

Schools
The London Borough of Enfield is the education authority for the district. Education is provided in a mix of community, voluntary aided and state schools. A number of private schools are also located in the borough.

The borough is home to the well-renowned Enfield Grammar School, founded in 1558, which still uses its Tudor building which is now often referred to as the Old Hall. Enfield Grammar School is based in the center of Enfield Town. St Ignatius' College is the borough's largest Catholic school and one of the best-performing non-selective schools in the borough, at both GCSE and A-Level. Bishop Stopford's School is Enfield's largest school, and The College of Haringey, Enfield and North East London also has a campus in the borough.

In 2007 a new school named Oasis Academy Enfield was opened, following the takeover of Albany by the Oasis Company as Oasis Academy Hadley. The Latymer School is another Grammar school in the borough, and is based in the Edmonton area. Enfield County School is an all girls comprehensive school which sits opposite Enfield Grammar Boys school in Enfield town. It is a split site school with the lower years situated towards the area of Forty Hall.

University
Middlesex University, the former polytechnic, used to have two campuses in Enfield: Cat Hill and Trent Park. These sites both closed in 2011 and courses were relocated to the Hendon campus.

Oak Hill Theological College, an associate college of Middlesex University, is located in the borough.

Capel Manor College also offers various courses.

London Fire Brigade
The London Borough of Enfield has three fire stations; Edmonton, Enfield and Southgate. However, if an incident requires a higher attendance, appliances from throughout London can be mobilised to meet the needs of the area if required.

The three fire stations operate a total of five pumping appliances, one rescue tender, a command unit and a USAR unit.

Of the three fire stations within the borough, Enfield is mobilised to the most incidents and has the largest station ground (the area of which Enfield is the first appliance to attend).

Museums
The borough's museums include Forty Hall and the garden exhibitions at Capel Manor, Myddleton House (part of the Lee Valley Park) and the Whitewebbs Museum of Transport. The Borough's own museum is based in Thomas Hardy House, 39 London Road.

Youth activities
Scouting and Guiding have many groups within Enfield. The annual St George's Day Parade has around a thousand young people marching through Enfield Town, led by the Enfield District Scout Band.

The Boys' and Girls' Brigade are also quite active within the borough, participating in various ceremonies and events throughout the year, including the Enfield Town Show, St Georges Day Parade and on Remembrance Day Parade.

The Air Training Corps has three units in the area, No.85 (Enfield & Southgate) Squadron based in Winchmore Hill and Enfield Town, No.1159 (Edmonton) Squadron based in Edmonton, No.1571 (Ayleward) Squadron based in Aylward School and No.2473 (Highlands & Southgate) Squadron in Highlands School, Southgate.

The Red Room music and film project ran from 2008 – 2014 based in Ponders End, aimed at 13 – 19 year olds supported and funded by Enfield Council.

Media
Enfield Dispatch and Enfield Independent provide local news.

Sport and recreation
Enfield's King George's Field, named in memory of King George V, includes the Queen Elizabeth II athletics stadium, the Enfield Ignatians Rugby Club and numerous football, rugby and baseball diamonds. The playing fields were used as a POW camp for Italians during World War II.

The second largest playing fields are at Firs Farm on Firs Lane. There are a handful of rugby pitches along with more than a dozen football pitches. These are used by local amateur football clubs including Winchmore Hill Football Club, Mayfield Athletic FC and Southgate County FC. The pitches drain reasonably well but are generally in poor condition with old, rusted goalposts. The changing facilities are also very dilapidated, with some changing rooms being no more than concrete sheds with corrugated roofs.

Many sports teams and clubs are located in Enfield; Winchmore Hill Sports Club, Winchmore Hill Football Club, Enfield Town F.C., Enfield 1893 F.C., Cockfosters F.C., Enfield Borough F.C. and Futsal Club Enfield are the most prominent. The once successful football club, Enfield FC, were forced into a nomadic existence after the sale of their Southbury Road ground and became defunct at the end of the 2006/2007 season after years of ground sharing at many Hertfordshire based clubs. Enfield 1893 were formed after Enfield FC's demise and have spent time groundsharing at Ware FC and Broxbourne Borough FC. They finally found a ground in the borough when they merged with Brimsdown Rovers for the start of the 2011/2012 season. Saracens Rugby Football Club used to play in Enfield and still train at Bramley Road sports ground near Cockfosters.

The principal cricket clubs in the area are Enfield, Winchmore Hill Cricket Club, Edmonton and Southgate, with many others playing cricket in and around the borough such as, Enfield Invicta, Mayfield CC, Myddleton House, North Enfield CC, Botany Bay and Holtwhites Trinibis CC. Many clubs play in either the Middlesex Cricket League or the Hertfordshire League. Enfield, Southgate, and Winchmore Hill have long been the area's most successful cricket clubs, regularly competing in the Middlesex Premier League. Enfield (in 1988) and Southgate (in 1977) are both past winners of the ECB National Club Cricket Championship

The main swimming club in the borough is Enfield Swim Squad, which was created from an amalgamation of Edmonton Phoenix S.C. and Griffins S.C. of Enfield.

Futsal is also played in the area with Futsal Club Enfield who were founded in 2007 playing in the National Futsal League Premiership South Division for 2019/20.

Gaelic Football is also played in the area. The club North London Shamrocks play at Enfield Playing Fields.

Enfield Phoenix is the local basketball club with teams playing in the National League and the Central London League. The team play at the Edmonton Leisure Centre, Edmonton Green with seating for 400 spectators.

Theatre goers are catered for by the Intimate Theatre, the Millfield Theatre, the Dugdale Centre and the Chickenshed Theatre Company, with amateur and professional shows, dance pieces, musicals and live music on show. Amateur dramatic companies include Saint Monica's Players, The Capel Players and The London Pantomimers. Talkies Community Cinema screens British Independent and specialist films in a range of venues across the borough.

Tottenham Hotspur Football Club's new training ground is located in Enfield at Bulls Cross.

Enfield is the home to the annual Livestock Music Festival. It is also home to Cheerleading squads- Sapphire Elite Cheerleaders, North London Wildcats and Enfield Blaze All-star Cheerleaders.

Croquet is played at Enfield Croquet Club in Bush Hill Park.

The first international branch of the WWE Performance Center was opened in Enfield's Great Cambridge Industrial Estate on 11 January 2019. The center is used by the WWE as a professional wrestling school to train potential future wrestlers from across the globe, as well as a training centre for current WWE wrestlers.

Transport
In 1840 the first section of the Northern and Eastern Railway was opened from Stratford to Broxbourne, with stations at Water Lane (Angel Road) and Ponders End. Further stations were added in 1855 at Enfield Lock (Royal Small Arms Factory) and 1884 at Brimsdown. A branch line from Water Lane to Enfield Town was opened in 1849 serving Edmonton Low Level and Enfield Town. A further station was added in 1880 at Bush Hill Park. The direct line from London to Enfield Town was opened in 1872 with stations at Silver Street and Lower Edmonton (now called Edmonton Green). In 1891, a loop from Edmonton serving Southbury (Churchbury) and Turkey Street (Forty Hill) to Cheshunt on the main line was added. The Cheshunt and Enfield Town services are currently served by London Overground.

In 1871 the Great Northern Railway opened its station on Windmill Hill. This was later replaced in 1910 when the line was extended to Cuffley. This section of railway is now part of the line commonly known as the Hertford Loop.

Enfield is served by the Piccadilly line of the London Underground with stations at Arnos Grove, Southgate, Oakwood (named as Enfield West when it first opened) and Cockfosters (where the line terminates). Suburban London Overground and National Rail Great Northern services also run within the borough.

There are numerous bus services throughout the borough run by Transport for London.

The main roads running through the borough include the North Circular Road, the M25, Green Lanes, the A10 and the old Hertford Road (A1010).

In March 2011, the main forms of transport that residents used to travel to work were: driving a car or van, 26.1% of all residents aged 16–74; underground, metro, light rail, tram, 8.2%; bus, minibus or coach, 8.2%; train, 7.3%; on foot, 4.0%; work mainly at or from home, 2.7%; passenger in a car or van, 1.6%.

Town twinning
Enfield is twinned with:
 * 🇫🇷 Courbevoie, Hauts-de-Seine, Île-de-France, France
 * 🇩🇪 Gladbeck, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
 * 🇬🇷 Halandri, Greece
 * 🇹🇷 Sarıyer, Turkey
 * 🇦🇹 Schwechat, Lower Austria, Austria
 * 🇩🇪 Wandlitz, Brandenburg, Germany
 * 🇩🇪 Freudenstadt, Baden-Württemberg, Germany

title: London Borough of Enfield


text:
Thornton Heath

Thornton Heath is a district of South London, England, within the London Borough of Croydon. It is around 1.5 mi north of the town of Croydon, and 7.2 mi south of Charing Cross. Prior to the creation of Greater London in 1965, Thornton Heath was in the County Borough of Croydon.

History
Until the arrival of the railway in 1862, Thornton Heath was focused on an area 1.5 mi southwest of the Whitehorse manor house (now a school), at the locality on the main London–Sussex road known as Thornton Heath Pond in the parish of Croydon St John the Baptist. Between the manor house and pond was an isolated farmhouse. Eventually, it became the site for the railway station and the main expansion hub.

In the 50-year period from 1861 to 1911, Thornton Heath saw a complete transformation from an isolated rural outpost to an integrated metropolitan suburb. In its infancy, a new railway station in the eastern farmlands enabled the immediate area to evolve around a central point. In the late 19th century, the western part of Thornton Heath, which lay directly on the main London–Sussex road, demonstrated a classic form of suburban ribbon development. In the process, it became the final piece in an urban chain linking two major centres, London and Croydon, completing the greatest metropolitan expansion in the world at that time which cost £112 million in today's money.

Geography
The nearest places are Mitcham, Croydon, South Norwood, Norbury, Pollards Hill, Selhurst, Upper Norwood, and Eastfields.

Geologically, some areas have clay-heavy soil, including Norbury and South Norwood. There is the gravelly, fertile soil in parts of the Thornton Heath area, which explains why market gardening and gravel extraction were major industries.

Bus
Thornton Heath is served by London Buses routes 50, 60, 64, 109, 130, 198, 250, 289, 450, 468 and SL6, plus night routes N68, N109, and N250 and school route 663. Thornton Heath bus garage, owned by Arriva London, is at the junction of London Road and Thornton Road, known as Thornton Heath Pond.

Rail
Thornton Heath railway station is on the London Victoria branch of the Brighton Main Line, and is operated by Southern. Other stations nearby are Selhurst, the next station down, and Norwood Junction, on the East London line of the London Overground.

Culture and architecture
Architecturally, Thornton Heath is predominantly Victorian in both its residential and commercial sectors. There are a number of imposing, even grand, buildings surviving from this period.

Two examples are St Paul's Church and St Alban's Church. St Alban's is an Anglican church and is listed as Grade II. Built in 1889, it was the first church designed by the late Victorian architect Sir Ninian Comper. It is situated on the busy junction of Grange Road and the High Street. It is described as being of a red-brick perpendicular style with stone dressing.

At the junction of the High Street and Parchmore Road, on a site previously called Walker's Green, stands the Clocktower, which was built in 1900, and financed partly by public subscription.

However, the Victorian baths did not survive, and were replaced by a modern sports and leisure centre in 2004. It cost £8 million with £2.8 million from the British National Lottery Good Causes Fund through Sport England.

Several small and large blocks of flats have been built in the area, in a similar style. A large one is Crystal Court, adjacent to the Leisure Centre. There was an intense fire there. Although the building had passed safety checks, residents were concerned about the role of the cladding. This is being replaced.

Architects have posted about their project in the Library with a Council remit to refurbish and extend the Edwardian building, in particular, to improve access. There was also work as part of the regeneration project of the High Street to the Library on Brigstock Road.

In 2019, there was a contest organised by the Thornton Heath Community Action team for a planned redesign of the central area; it was won by architecture students.

Demography and economics
Thornton Heath has a high degree of ethnic diversity with a large proportion of people from a BAME background. In the 2011 census, Thornton Heath (comprising the wards of Bensham Manor, Thornton Heath, and West Thornton) was Black or Black British (36.4%), White or White British (27.4%), Asian or Asian British (25.9%), mixed/multiple ethnic groups (7.1%), and other ethnic groups (6.6%). The largest single ethnicity is White British (20.2%) followed by British African-Caribbean people (17.6%). The average house price from sales in March 2023 was £421,433.

Sport and leisure
Thornton Heath gained a new leisure centre in May 2004. Its popularity was such that turnstiles had to be fitted to improve security. The centre is owned by Croydon Council, but was originally run by Parkwood Leisure, and now run by Fusion Lifestyle in partnership with the council.

Thornton Heath is one of the railway stations used by visitors to Selhurst Park stadium, home of Premier League club Crystal Palace.

Thornton Heath formerly had a Non-League football club, Croydon Athletic, which played at the Keith Tuckey Stadium; the club ceased to exist at the end of the 2010–11 season. In 2012, fans of the club formed AFC Croydon Athletic, which plays at the Mayfield Stadium. In 2015, the club competed in the Southern Counties East League. The reformed 5-time FA Cup winners Wanderers FC currently play at Thornton Heath.

Thornton Heath is also home to the historic rugby club Streatham-Croydon RFC founded in 1871. Their grounds and clubhouse are located in Frant Road off Brigstock Road.

There are three parks in Thornton Heath: Grangewood Park, Thornton Heath Recreation Ground, and Trumble Gardens.

The 2012 Olympic torch was taken along the High Street and Brigstock Road.

Health
Thornton Heath healthcare is part of Croydon Health Services NHS Trust. GP practices are independent and receive NHS funding. The Council covers some health services such as public health. It has sole responsibility for social services.

The local hospital is Croydon University Hospital (formerly Mayday Hospital). It was assessed in 2021 by the Care Quality Commission as "requiring improvement" overall. However, some specific services were rated as "good".

Community
Thornton Heath Community Action Team was formed in 2014 by a group of residents and businesses. Its aim is to deliver projects and to improve the area, such as organising litter picks, planting new plants, and a community Christmas tree. Members of the community have a garden in part of a local park and are maintain the planting area in the Ambassadors House forecourt. They also lobby and campaign on relevant local issues.

Sustainable Thornton Heath is a group of local people concerned about the environment.

Friends of Grangewood Park organise events and projects to improve the park, and encourage people to use it.

Facebook groups include Thornton Heath Community Action Team and Thornton Heath Local, a more general group. Both are private but easy for local people to join. In 2021, a Thornton Heath app, We are Thornton Heath, was created.

There is local news in the 'Thornton Heath Chronicle'.

There were Thornton Heath festivals for several years up to 2019.

The council had a regeneration plan for Thornton Heath. "Since 2016 we have been involving local people in an improvement programme, making the High Street and Brigstock Road more attractive, with funding from the GLA. This included new pavements and road improvements, upgrades to shop fronts, wall art by local artists along the high street, and improvements to the forecourt of Ambassador House." Unfortunately, there were quality problems with some of the work.

In addition to the murals in the improvement programme, there are other artworks, such as a mosaic and mural at the station. An 'Art Trail' map was compiled as a guide.

Notable residents

 * Eric Barker, actor
 * Alfred J. Bennett, artist
 * Mary Berkeley, athlete
 * Martin Butcher, cricketer
 * Ashley Chin, actor
 * Desmond Dekker, musician
 * Del Dettmar, musician
 * Jane Drew, architect
 * Mickey Finn, musician
 * Frankmusik, musician
 * W. H. Greenleaf, political scientist
 * D. J. B. Hawkins, philosopher
 * Beth Hazel, swimmer
 * Anne Hocking, writer
 * London Hughes, comedian
 * Christopher Louis McIntosh Johnson, journalist
 * Wizz Jones, musician
 * Simon Jordan, businessman
 * Peter Ling, television writer
 * Edward Lloyd, publisher
 * David Payne, footballer
 * Dickie Pride, musician
 * Martyn Rooney, athlete
 * Flora Sandes, soldier
 * Steve James Sherlock, composer
 * John Shuter, cricketer
 * Paul Simonon, musician
 * Emile Smith Rowe, footballer
 * Stormzy, musician
 * Don Weller, musician
 * Wilfried Zaha, footballer
 * SL, rapper

title: Thornton Heath