A fair number of the club were away for the weekend in the New Forest so I offered this at short notice, hoping it might appeal to those at a loose end. Unfortunately, engineering works meant that there were very few trains to Crystal Palace, so all credit to Melida and Rob for keeping Sandra and myself company.

At 5.4 miles, it’s a short walk but passes through some quite hilly parts of South London and so it is not a stroll. It follows much of the route of a disused railway which ran from Nunhead to Crystal Palace, which opened in 1865 to serve the Great Exhibition building after it was relocated in 1854. The building was destroyed by fire in 1936.

The route is easy to follow, with regular signposts. You can also follow it on Go Jauntly which has useful historical information.

We started off walking the length of the Exhibition Hall. There are only low sections of wall that survive but one is still impressed by the scale of the building. Passing the athletics stadium and the amphitheatre we exited the park and after a bit of road walking got to the attractive Sydenham Wells park. In Crescent Wood Road, we passed a substantial house where John Logie Baird stayed during his experiments on an early TV system in the 1920’s. 

We descended on to the route of the old railway, now in dense wood, soon crossing London Road, to enter the Horniman Museum and Gardens. For those of you unfamiliar with this, it’s worth a visit in itself. Apart from the restored museum, which won the Art Fund’s museum of the year in 2022, there are extensive gardens. From the terrace you can see Dawson’s Heights, a large social housing project dating from the 1960’s occupying a ridge to the north. It was designed by a young architect Kate Macintosh with the purpose of giving most of the flats, views in two directions.

We were soon passing through Camberwell Old Cemetery then a final lung busting climb to One Tree Hill with its famous view across to the north. Descending to Camberwell New Cemetery, a level stretch through Victorian terraced housing took us to  Nunhead Cemetery, one of the Magnificent Seven and a train back to London.

Thanks to Melida for most of the photos. 

I’ve added one or two of my recent trip to Sikkim India, subject to the Editor’s say so. [Ed – that’s ok I will put the Indian photos at the end]

Mike C

Photos by Melida and Mike C