Crystal Palace — Beckenham Junction
Crybec one
Verified Slow Way
Verified by 100.00% of reviewers
Verified Slow Way
Verified by 100.00% of reviewers
By Daisy C on 16 Feb 2024
Description
Liked dinosaurs as a kid? Or as an adult? This is the Slow Way for you. To begin with you follow the Green Chain Walk and Capital Ring signs past the Crystal Palace Park's Victorian dinosaur statues to Penge East Station. Don't follow the signs over the footbridge but continue round, going past the “Royal Naval Asylum”, the Alexandra Pub and the Alexandra (plant) Nursery on some quieter residential streets. (Edit: This is to avoid the footbridge which I had forgotten to mention, but quieter roads and a very nice pub don't hurt). 500m on slightly busy Lennard Road takes you to Cator Park and then it's a mile or so through leafy Beckenham, past Waitrose and you're at the station.
In the middle third there are 3 buses to jump onto, you pass Penge East Station and you could get to 2 others with a short walk. Plus Penge West Station in the first third, and more buses. The route avoids the stairs over the train tracks, but isn't entirely step free as oddly there didn't seem to be a kerb free route out of Crystal Palace Park to the south. There's also one very steep path inside the park, buggy pushers don't seem to be put off although there's a gentler slope beside the almost-parallel access road for the stadium
Liked dinosaurs as a kid? Or as an adult? This is the Slow Way for you. To begin with you follow the Green Chain Walk and Capital Ring signs past the Crystal Palace Park's Victorian dinosaur statues to Penge East Station. Don't follow the signs over the footbridge but continue round, going past the “Royal Naval Asylum”, the Alexandra Pub and the Alexandra (plant) Nursery on some quieter residential streets. (Edit: This is to avoid the footbridge which I had forgotten to mention, but quieter roads and a very nice pub don't hurt). 500m on slightly busy Lennard Road takes you to Cator Park and then it's a mile or so through leafy Beckenham, past Waitrose and you're at the station.
In the middle third there are 3 buses to jump onto, you pass Penge East Station and you could get to 2 others with a short walk. Plus Penge West Station in the first third, and more buses. The route avoids the stairs over the train tracks, but isn't entirely step free as oddly there didn't seem to be a kerb free route out of Crystal Palace Park to the south. There's also one very steep path inside the park, buggy pushers don't seem to be put off although there's a gentler slope beside the almost-parallel access road for the stadium
Status
This route has been reviewed by 3 people.
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Information
Route status - Live
Reviews - 3
Average rating -
Is this route good enough? - Yes (3)
There are currently no problems reported with this route.
Downloads - 1
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Geography information system (GIS) data
Total length
Maximum elevation
Minimum elevation
Start and end points
Crystal Palace
Grid Ref
TQ3409270532
Lat / Lon
51.41795° / -0.07299°
Easting / Northing
534,092E / 170,532N
What3Words
spell.track.acting
Beckenham Junction
Grid Ref
Lat / Lon
51.41047° / -0.02512°
Easting / Northing
0E / 0N
What3Words
brains.scores.spends
| Crystal Palace | |
|---|---|
| Grid Ref | TQ3409270532 |
| Lat / Lon | 51.41795° / -0.07299° |
| Easting / Northing | 534,092E / 170,532N |
| What3Words | spell.track.acting |
| Beckenham Junction | |
|---|---|
| Grid Ref | |
| Lat / Lon | 51.41047° / -0.02512° |
| Easting / Northing | 0E / 0N |
| What3Words | brains.scores.spends |
Sorry Land Cover data is not currently available for this route. Please check back later.
reviews
Daisy C
16 Feb 2024It's an enjoyable and short route with two parks and mostly low-traffic residential streets. There are a couple of busier roads it's never for very long. The dinosaurs in Crystal Palace Park are awesome, perhaps even terrific, but the rest of the park is worth exploring if you have time. Cator Park isn't on the same scale but it's a decent neighbourhood park.
I walked this in two parts during winter 2023/24. The first time I was actually walking CryCat 2 which has a big overlap, and the second time I was there for a little while testing different road combinations before uploading the new route. This was definitely (ahem, subjectively) the best and yet I forgot to actually write my review until reminded by reading Jane's review.
It's easy to envisage a faster version, first by crossing the footbridge at Penge East, and later staying on Lennard Road to join Park Road, but this way has less traffic, more greenery, a bit more interest, is stair-free and very nearly kerb-free. Using Copers Cope Road instead of Park Road would mean you didn't have to get across the C C Rd traffic, but I preferred that to walking beside it.
Jane Taylor
15 Feb 2024Walked Crystal Palace to Beckenham Junction.
Enjoyable route with plenty of green. There were a couple of places where I wondered why the route detoured a bit, but I decided this is to keep it step free, which is a bonus.
Highlight the Crystal Palace dinosaurs!.
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JohnMyerson
11 Jan 2024I enjoyed this route in spite of the road walking. Crystal Palace park is lovely and there are toilets and a café at the southern entrance near Penge West Station. If you don't mind steps, it's shorter to use the footbridge at Penge East Station to get to Lennard Road and you get a view of Holy Trinity Church too. Cator Park is pleasant. Some of this walk follows the Capital Ring and the Green Chain Walk (both of which I had done some years ago). Crossing Copers Cope Road was a bit tricky but most sections are fine. Toilets in Waitrose and Beckenham Junction Station. I used the tram to get home.
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Daisy C
13 Jan 2024Thanks for pointing out about the Penge Station shortcut John. The plan was that one of the overlapping routes shows the steps-free alternative but I hadn't explained in the route overview.
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