A comprehensive guide to parks, gardens, woods and open spaces around southeast London

Beckenham Place Park
Beckenham Hill Road, Beckenham, Kent. Beckenham Hill rail. 


Beckenham Place Park is the largest green space in Lewisham borough, covering 98 hectares. It contains large areas – about 20 hectares – of ancient woodland, as well as wildflower meadows and community gardens. The main woodland in the middle of the park appears on Rocque’s map of 1745 as Langstead Wood. By the First Edition Ordnance Survey Map of 1863 it had become known as Summerhouse Hill Wood. Trees present include, oak, pear, beech, ash, maple, wild cherry, rowan, common whitebeam, hornbeam, sycamore, Scots pine, lime, sweet chestnut and silver birch. The park also contains London’s first purpose-built swimming lake, and there’s a cycle way, two play areas, and tennis courts. Its centrepiece is the beautiful Georgian mansion, Beckenham Place, which functions as an arts, cultural and community centre.

Blackheath

SE3. Blackheath rail.

After a long drive through London, with hardly a tree or patch of grass to be seen, reaching the top of Blackheath Hill to the large expanse of grass (170 acres in total) that is Blackheath Common is an uplifting sight. Greenwich Park is on one side, unspoilt Blackheath Village on the other. There are several ponds, and an architectural gem, The Paragon, is off South Row, SE3.

Blackheath is rich in history: for example the Danes camped there in 1011, and James I introduced golf to England here. Many people think its name derived from it being a mass burial ground for victims of the Black Death in the 1340s. However, it is more likely the name Blackheath is a corruption of ‘bleak heath’ or originates from Old English words translating as ‘dark soil’. It has a rich history: its main road, now roughly the A2, started as a Roman road stretching from Dover to London. Wat Tyler’s 100,000 anti-poll tax rebels assembled on Blackheath in 1381 (no mean feat considering they didn’t have Facebook) before marching on London and defeat, while in 1450, in opposition to higher taxes being imposed by Henry VI, Jack Cade gathered 20,000 yeomen onto the Heath to set up camp.The Heath was used to gather armies to fight abroad, including the Napoleonic wars, and a haunt of highwaymen, including Dick Turpin, especially during the 17th and 18th centuries.

Although the majority of Blackheath is level ground with mown grass, there are areas of gorse and scrub to the east of the heath by Vanbrugh Terrace. At one end, from Point Hill, on a clear day you can see the three counties of Essex, Kent and Surrey from here. There are several ponds, often attracting a variety of birds, including one near the Princess of Wales pub, another by the Hare and Billet pub, and another by the main gates of Greenwich Park between Shooters Hill Road and Charlton Way.

For many years young children could take donkey rides by the Park’s main gates. There is a bowling green near Ranger’s House and regular circuses and fairs as well as a kite festival in the spring, and a large firework display on the Saturday nearest to Guy Fawkes or Bonfire night, 5 November. Blackheath is also the starting point of the London Marathon, held in April each year.

Brockwell Park
Dulwich Road, SE23. Herne Hill rail.

Brockwell Park is a large, historic park located between Brixton, Dulwich and Herne Hill that has ornamental ponds, formal flower beds, a walled ‘Old English’ herbaceous flower garden designed by JJ Sexby, mature trees including ancient oaks and substantial lawn areas set to meadow. Not only do these areas support a variety of birds, but also bats including Pipistrelles, with frequent visits from rarer species like Daubentons, Noctule, Leisler’s and Serotine bat. With views of the skyline of the city and central London, it has some historic buildings, including Brockwell Hall, a charming 19th century clock tower and the art deco Brockwell Lido.

Brookmill Park
Brookmill Road, Deptford SE8 4JJ. St John’s rail.

Brookmill Park, formerly known as Ravensbourne Park, is a small public park and nature reserve running parallel to Brookmill Road and the River Ravensbourne. It is one of those hidden gems that you could easily walk past without noticing. Five acres in size (9 if the river is included), its facilities include a cycle route, a play area, a river and lake (the latter a former reservoir), a water feature, an ornamental garden, and a nature reserve. The lake is surrounded by mature trees, including London planes, and in the southern part of the park there is an area of native plants located on a disused railway embankment. With areas of marsh, water and grassland, some of which floods at high tides, the park is considered an important nature conservation area and bird species that have been sighted include grey heron, kingfisher and moorhen.

Charlton Park
Charlton Park Road, SE7. Charlton rail.

A big expanse of level open grassy parkland adjacent to the impressive Jacobean Charlton House, one of the finest remaining examples of Jacobean architecture. The house is home to a tea room and library, and around the house are an array of gardens. These include a Japanese-style herb garden and an adjoining pond garden. There is a special focus on the sensory nature of these gardens for visitors with visual or physical disabilities. To the south-east of Charlton House are two walled gardens and a formal vista. One of the gardens was opened as a Peace Garden, in conjunction with Amnesty International. The east side of the park caters for sports and fitness, with football pitches and a floodlit grass training area with changing facilities for hire.There is free to use outdoor gym equipment and table tennis tables, along with a children’s playground and skate park. Cross Charlton Park Road and you can also visit nearby leafy, wooded Maryon Wilson Park, which has a small collection of animals on display.

Crystal Palace Park
Sydenham, SE19. Crystal Palace rail.

One of the most striking features of this park is its collection of Victorian models of 29 dinosaurs. Although the sculptures are not considered accurate by modern biological understanding, they tell the story of how science is built and changes over time. There is also one of the largest mazes in the country (free), spanning a 160ft diameter and dating back to the 1870s. A new skatepark supports BMX, quad-skating, rollerblading, scootering and skateboarding, for riders of all ages and abilities. There’s a 100m x 11m curved concrete band, filled with a wide range of rideable terrains.

Also at the park is an urban farm with pigs, horses, snakes and lizards, open 12pm-4pm daily, except Wednesday. A boating lake is open at weekends, bank holidays and school holidays, between Easter and October, 10.30am-5pm, weather permitting. There’s a sports centre and a children’s play area, and a small museum telling the history of both the original Great Exhibition Hyde Park and the later Sydenham Crystal Palaces. Housed in the only surviving building constructed by the Crystal Palace Company circa 1880, the museum houses a series of unique images, large scaled models, ceramics, remnants from the original building and other items associated with the Crystal Palace. The Museum is open on Sundays 11am-4pm.

The park also has Italian terraces that help in understanding the sheer scale of the Crystal Palace and are among the few remnants that survived after the 1936 fire that destroyed it. From the grass bank on the Upper Terrace there are views over Kent. You can see the Dartford Crossing and rolling hills on a clear day.

Deptford Park
Evelyn Street, Deptford SE8. Deptford rail.

Once a market garden and part of the Evelyn Estate, this oasis of greenery in a heavily urbanised area was opened to the public in 1897 and is bordered by mature plane trees. It has a children’s playground, a play club, football pitch, non-turf cricket square and outdoor gym.

Dulwich Park
College Road, SE21. North or West Dulwich rail. 


Created in 1890, Dulwich Park started its life as farmland and a group of meadows known as Five Fields, and many of the ancient boundary oaks survive today. Queen Mary regularly visited, loving to view the American Garden, famous for its rhododendrons which are spectacular when in bloom during May. One of the park gates is named after her. A Victorian park of 76 acres packed with historic features, including Grade II-listed gates and lodges, it has a large children’s playground, a cafe, cycle hire, boating lake, a ‘dry’ garden (demonstrating the wide range of plants that can be successfully grown with little water) and a winter garden especially planted for winter colour. For sport enthusiasts, there’s a football pitch, bowling green, cricket nets, tennis courts, outdoor gym and table tennis tables.

East Greenwich Pleasaunce
Chevening Road, Greenwich, SE10. Westcombe Park rail.

Tucked away in a side road between Maze Hill and Westcombe Park railway stations, this is a tree-lined garden tucked away around some quiet residential streets. A delightful quiet spot that used to be a burial ground for around 3,000 sailors and officers, including veterans of Trafalgar and The Crimea, who spent their last days at the Royal Hospital Greenwich. A number of graves can still be seen. The tree-lined park has a small children’s playground, a toddler’s play centre run by the London Borough of Greenwich, table tennis and an excellent cafe. There is another entrance in Halstow Road.

Eltham Common
Well Hall Road, SE9. Eltham rail.

Eltham Common consists of a roughly triangular area of grassland between the junction of Well Hall Road and Shooters Hill, beyond which is secondary woodland. At one time the common and neighbouring Shooters Hill Woodlands were a notorious haunt for highwaymen and other robbers. A gibbet existed in the north-west corner of the common, where criminals were publicly hung and their bodies left to decay as a caution to others. The Green Chain Walk runs through the site.

Greenwich Park
Greenwich SE10, Blackheath SE3. Greenwich/Maze Hill/Blackheath rail.

Greenwich Park, London’s oldest enclosed Royal Park, is situated on a hilltop with panoramic views of the River Thames, Canary Wharf, The O2, the City of London and, on a clear day, Tower Bridge and St Paul’s Cathedral beyond. The land on which the park sits was inherited in 1427 by the Duke of Gloucester, brother of Henry V, and the park was enclosed in 1433 by order of Henry VI. It was a favourite spot for Henry VIII (who introduced deer to the park), his daughters Mary I and Elizabeth I, and son Edward VI. Some trees from that time remain today. Queen Anne was given the park by her husband, James I, and she commissioned Inigo Jones to design the stunning building at the bottom of the hill in the park that became known as the Queen’s House. During World War II anti-aircraft guns were placed in the Flower Garden, and the park hosted the Olympic and Paralympic Equestrian Events and elements of the Modern Pentathlon during the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The 183-acre park is home to the Royal Observatory, designed by Sir Christopher Wren, and also the Meridian line of zero longitude passing through it, that marks Greenwich Mean Time, as well as the Georgian villa Ranger’s House. Features of the park include a children’s playground and boating lake, bandstand with Sunday concerts during the summer, rose and flower gardens, a pond with wildfowl, and a 13-acre wilderness inaccessible to visitors that has a herd of red and fallow deer – which were initially introduced in 1515 to the park – that can be seen at a couple of locations. When sufficient snow falls, hundreds of people toboggan down hills in the park. There are six tennis courts, a putting green, and a rugby and cricket pitch, as well as four cafes: one at the top of the hill close to the Royal Observatory, a couple at the Observatory, and one by the main entrance at the bottom of the same hill.

Greenwich Peninsula Ecology Park
Thames Path, John Harrison Way, Greenwich Peninsula, SE10.

Once consisting of agricultural fields, marshes and a millpond, the peninsular was originally known as Greenwich Marsh. Most of the fields and marshland were gradually destroyed by industrialisation from the 1880s onwards. In 1997 a huge 121-hectare regeneration project began, which saw the building of the Millennium Dome, now the 23,000-capacity 02 Arena. One scheme here saw the restoration of sections of riverbank and creation of this park as a wildlife-rich freshwater habitat. Its lakes (the outer one is accessible at all times) contain frogs, toads and newts and numerous different species of bird can be spotted from the bird hides. Spring and summer see dragonflies, damselflies and butterflies and look out for butterflies over the meadow areas. Organised activities include evening bat walks and summer family fun days.

Hilly Fields
Hilly Fields Crescent, Brockley, SE4 1QA. Brockley rail.

The summit of Hilly Fields stands 175 feet above sea level and offers excellent views over Lewisham and the City of London. This open space has a cafe, picnic area, dog exercise area, football and cricket pitches, tennis and basketball courts and a play area. There is a stone circle of twelve large granite stones and two tall shadow-casting stones, which were put up to mark the new millennium in 2000. Hilly Fields supports good populations of butterfly, including speckled woods, meadow browns and small tortoiseshells. Birds include robins, blackbirds and mistle thrush. Tall hawthorns form a woodland canopy, with an understorey of blackthorn and an occasional elder. The ground flora consists of bramble, nettles and cleavers, with a few clumps of stinking iris. At the foot of the hill, alongside Adelaide Avenue, there is a meadow, which contains at least 12 species of grasses including meadow barley, smaller cat’s-tail and tall fescue, and wild flowers flourishing here include autumn hawkbit, smooth hawk’s beard and white clover. You can access Hilly Fields from Hilly Fields Crescent, Vicars Hill, Adelaide Avenue and Montague Avenue.

Hornfair Park
Shooters Hill Road, Charlton SE18 4LX. Charlton rail.

Named after the Charlton Hornfair, which was held on Charlton village green from medieval times until 1816, this park has formal gardens and plenty of areas for different activities. It is home to Charlton Lido as well as floodlit tennis and gym facilities. There is a multi-use games area, a children’s playground, and a paddling pool during the summer holiday period. There are also football and basketball pitches and a BMX track. Next to the park is an old pet cemetery and memorial garden, on Shooters Hill Road near to the pedestrian footbridge. Until recently the park was unusual in having a canogie pitch for women’s Gaelic football.

Horniman Gardens
100 London Road, Forest Hill, SE23. Forest Hill rail. 


With stunning views across London, the 16-acre Horniman Gardens feature a Grade II-listed conservatory from 1894, a bandstand from 1912, a small animals’ enclosure, a nature trail, meadows with a play area, an ornamental garden and a hands-on sound garden with large world musical instruments for playing. There’s also a Prehistoric Garden, a display of ‘living fossils’ filled with plant species that have been around for thousands of years. These include a ginko tree, tree ferns, cycads, a monkey puzzle tree and a wollemi pine.

Ladywell Fields
Ewhurst Road, Ladywell, SE4 1SD. Ladywell/Catford rail.

Around a mile long, this 22-hectare park is made up of of three historic water meadow fields with a river running through them. A popular cycling, jogging and walking route, it has play areas, an adventure playground, ball courts, a skate park, bowling green, tennis courts, football pitch, cafe, cycle route, nature reserve and river. In the northern field, the river has been diverted to create a natural space, and river dipping and paddling is popular in the summer months. In the middle and southern fields, the river has been opened up for use so you can see the wildlife living here, which can include kingfishers and herons. A variety of mature trees are present, including black poplar, field maple and elm. The site was mentioned in the Domesday Book, as meadows in the manor of Lewisham.

Lesnes Abbey Woods
Abbey Road, Belvedere, Kent. Abbey Wood rail. 


Named after the 12th century abbey whose ruins are within this 200-acre ancient woodland and surrounding parkland, there’s a wealth of plants and wild flowers, a diverse range of wildlife habitats, and a fossil bed. Bostall Heath and Woods is adjoining, adding an extra 150 acres of green space. Sometimes known as Abbey Wood, it is a site of metropolitan importance for nature conservation, a nature reserve and metropolitan open land. The woods have a fine display of wild bluebells and daffodils in the Spring.

Manor House Gardens
Old Road, Lee. Lee rail.

This attractive park features a walled flower garden, an ornamental pond featuring a small island and fountain, an ice-house, cafeteria, children’s playground, community garden, dog-walking area, wild flower area, tennis courts/ and multi-purpose sports pitches. The River Quaggy flows from east to west across the southern part of the park. The gardens date from the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries and much of the original layout remains. There’s a large central lawn with a peripheral path with trees and shrubbery. The gardens feature London plane, oak, cypress, weeping willow and horse chestnut trees and birds here include pigeons, wrens, kingfishers, great tits and rose-ringed parakeets. An abundance of ox-eye daisy, common mallow and meadow buttercup has attracted a number of butterflies, including painted lady, gatekeeper butterfly, admiral and small white, while heron, coot, moorhen and Canada goose and goldfish can be seen at the lake. The gardens can be reached from several local roads: Old Road, Brightfield Road, Manor Lane and Taunton Road.

Maryon Park
Maryon Road, Charlton SE7. Charlton rail.

With access from Woolwich Road, Charlton Lane and Thorntree Road, like Maryon Wilson Park it was originally part of the estate of the Maryon Wilson family, former Lords of the Manor of Charlton. It had been a chalk pit and part of an area known as Hanging Wood, reputedly a haunt of highwaymen. A wild wooded area, it formed an ideal retreat for highwaymen who robbed travellers on Blackheath and Shooters Hill. Though it is widely assumed that the wood was used for hanging those who were caught, a more likely explanation for the name is the wood’s location on steep slopes, with the trees appearing to hang from the slope. The park contains grassland, with gorse, broom and hawkweed. One feature is Cox’s Mount, which was used by the Romans as a hill fort.

The park has a children’s play area, hard tennis courts and a basketball court. The Green Chain Walk passes through the park. It features in key scenes in the classic 1966 film Blow Up directed by Michelangelo Antonioni and starring David Hemmings, Sarah Miles and Vanessa Redgrave. Park users have created a community food growing area on what used to be a small nursery.

Maryon Wilson Park
Thorntree Road, Charlton SE7. Charlton Rail

This tranquil park (it never seems to get the crowds of anything like, say, Greenwich Park) is a remnant of ancient forest once known as Hanging Wood, reputedly a haunt of highwaymen. A road, Hanging Wood Lane, ran through the area that later formed the park. The woodland here was formerly part of the estate of Charlton Manor, owned by the Maryon Wilson family from 1767 until 1925. Sir Spencer Maryon Wilson had provided land for the creation of nearby Maryon Park in 1890, and in 1925 the family donated further land to Greenwich Borough Council, and the park opened a year later. A short walk from Charlton Village, this beautifully landscaped park contains both informal open grassland and woodlands – all in a valley setting. It has a series of animal enclosures with ducks, geese, chickens, goats, pigs, and deer. Together with the neighbouring Maryon Park and Gilbert’s Pit, it is a local nature reserve and forms part of the South East London Green Chain.

Mycenae Gardens and Woodlands Dell
90 Mycenae Road, Blackheath, SE3 Westcombe Park rail.

The spacious, mature gardens and dell here are often gloriously empty. The gardens were originally part of the estate laid out by Russian-born successful Lloyds underwriter John Julius Angerstein (1735-1823) for his house, Woodlands, built in 1776 and now called Mycenae House. The original gardens featured a lake, ice house and conservatory, and today large London plane trees, planted in the late 18th century, remain. The area is listed as a Site of Importance for Nature Conservation and contains oak, redwood, pine, maple, lime, cherry and larch. An undergrowth of holly, elder and bramble provides a good habitat for birds (more than 25 species have been observed) and insects .

Shooters Hill Woodlands: Oxleas Woods, Castle Wood, Shepherdleas Wood and Jack Wood
Shooters Hill, Eltham/Plumstead SE9/SE18. Falconwood rail.

A site of special scientific interest (SSSI) and one of Britain’s few remaining ancient deciduous woodland sites, Oxleas Woods covers 77 hectares and is at least 8,000 years old. Oak, silver birch, hornbeam and coppice hazel are all present, and the Green Chain Walk, Capital Ring Walk and nature trails run through the site. There’s a cafe at the top of the hill in the meadow, with an outdoor gym nearby it.

Oxleas merges into Castle Wood, which is the location of the Gothic tower and folly Severndroog Castle, built in 1784 as a memorial to William James of the East India Company. In 2014 it reopened its doors to visitors, and as well as a viewing platform with splendid views across London, it has a tea room.

Jack Wood, next to Castle Wood, has a terrace garden and rose garden. That these woods are adjacent to Eltham and Woolwich Commons, Falconwood Field and Eltham and Avery Hill Parks means that this part of southeast London enjoys a massive area of green space.

Well Hall Pleasaunce
Well Hall Road, Eltham, SE9

Well Hall Pleasaunce consists of formal gardens, ponds and woodland dating back to the thirteenth century. Edith Nesbit, author of The Railway Children, lived in a house in the grounds from 1899 to 1921. It has a 16th century Tudor Barn, a fully restored Grade II* listed building built by the family of Sir Thomas More, which now has a cafe. It is connected historically with the Tudor monarchs’ residence at nearby Eltham Palace. The park has a number of different themed gardens such as an Italian garden, rose garden, heather garden and floral shield garden. It also has a bowling green, play area and several water features.

Westow Park
Westow Street, Crystal Palace, SE19 3AH. Crystal Palace rail.

Originally a small recreation ground acquired in the 1890s by the local authority for a children’s playground, augmented by the purchase in the 1960s of the gardens of two demolished 19th century villas, the park includes the remains of garden terraces created for the blind (a college for the blind used to be here) and an ornamental archway. Within the park are horse chestnuts planted in the original gardens, a mature sweet chestnut tree, and four yew trees along one of the terraces. The park now has a children’s playground, and there are entrances from Church Road, College Green and Bedwardine Road as well as Westow Street.

Woolwich Common
Woolwich Common, Woolwich, SE18 4DF. Woolwich Arsenal rail.

Woolwich Common is a mixture of managed and unmanaged neutral grassland interspersed with numerous bramble patches and with areas of woodland and copses of thorn, covering approximately 38 hectares. It lies on the northern slope of Shooter’s Hill, near Woolwich town centre. Less than half of it is used as military land, the rest being an urban park. It is a conservation area and part of the South East London Green Chain. Birdlife includes skylark, meadow pipit, dunnock, song thrush, whitethroat, chiffchaff and willow warbler.