A circular walk, starting and ending at Forest Hill Station, that visits a number of buildings, streets or neighbourhoods that each tell a different story of their era and construcution.
As an area developed in the Victorian era, there are plenty of historic features, but there was also much development in the 20th century, especially for the public buildings. This was also an area that suffered bomb damage in the Second World War, and many of the sites were then developed in a variety of ways.
You will also find pioneering community development ideas that found a welcome home in the area.
So much to explore.
Distance: 3 miles
Difficulty: medium (easy, but with a few hills)
Time (length): 2+ hours
Route: open on GoJauntly
Walk details and information
1. This circular walk starts at Forest Hill station, originally opened as Dartmouth Arms station in 1839.
architects not known, but there was a station there since 1839, then rebuilt in 1883
2. The Capitol / Gambado
designed by John Stanley Coombe Beard, who did cinemas all over London but many of them have since been demolished, 1928; Egyptian Art Deco.
From the List Entry: "Rare survival of a complete 1920s cinema and the earliest complete cinema by Beard now surviving"
3. Taymount Rise (point 5 on route)
used to be referred to as Queen's Road and had large houses in generous/decent-sized plots, but none remain on Taymount Rise now (will show a map)
Taymount Grange - George Bertram Carter, 1935
Forest Croft - Arnold Andre Higuer (did lots of work in Russia, Poland, etc, including , 1937
I'll point out typical Art Deco characteristics
4. Horniman (point 8 on route)
Charles Harrison Townsend, 1902; referred to as the Modern Style, which has Arts and Crafts and Art Nouveau influences; commissioned by Frederick John Horniman who inherited and grew his father's tea business
5. Horniman Drive/Baxter House (point 13 on route)
the area developed basically in the first couple decades of the 20th century including the pseudo Arts & Crafts but leaning into Modernist No. 31; also maps of the 1887 waterworks that were in this area
6. Hamilton Lodge (point 14 on route)
Edwardian
7. Walters Way (point 16 on route)
Walter Segal, known for self-build housing; this site was made available in 1977; he was influenced by Modernist design, but wanted to make it easy to build for a normal person (almost like IKEA houses) and for there to be flexibility internally to suit the occupier; he did other buildings in London, including Symal House in Brent which is bricks and mortar, but he became most well-known for the self-build stuff.
8. Devonshire Road (point 17 on route)
Originally referred to as New Road and extended up from Forest Hill to about where Tysons Road is, then between 1879 and 1896 it was extended to Honor Oak Road AND almost completely developed with housing; I can point out different architectural elements on the Victorian buildings then obviously note where there have been later developments, such as the interwar housing; I'll bring an extract of the London Bomb Damage Map too and show how Devonshire Road got totally screwed because of being next to the railway
9. Manor Mount (point 22 on route)
varied styles