Wescry one

Verified Slow Way

Verified by 75.00% of reviewers

Enjoyed this on a cold bright weekday afternoon starting at West Dulwich station. Very leafy
thanks in part to Dulwich College and their vast grounds (to look but not enter) and two good parks. The autumn leaves looked great in the sunshine and enough had fallen to have better views than in summer.

The bit on the South Circular ain't great, but it's unavoidable, short and green. College Rd, next, has a toll gate so light traffic, and goes past the spectacular Dulwich College main buildings and expansive playing fields to either side. A gradual climb past expensive homes to Sydenham Hill station (access by stairs only) then up a steep, tree-lined path to the top of the hill. Popular pub with garden here. And two bus routes go past.

It's steep going down the other side too, first on roads, then through pretty Sydenham Wells Park. As others have mentioned the route line is sub-par here, common in so many parks. Here is better than most as 1) the line is pretty close to paths 2) unusually maps here show all the paths and 3) the Green Chain Walk crosses the park in the same way. GCW has good signs with two small snags, a wing has been snapped off the cast iron fingerpost closest to the cafe (keep straight on) and near the top of the hill a yellow arrow suggests using a terribly cambered (13%) steep (17%) short slope instead of a more respectable stairway the other side of a tree, neither has a handrail. I'll ignore that slope for the survey.

Pretty straightforward to get up (again) to Crystal Palace Park (diversion needed here to avoid the only undropped kerb). Minor blip as the route overshoots the entrance taking you halfway to the campsite (yes, an inner London campsite!) entrance. Another very steep path near the gate there. The small valley with the open air stage looked particularly gorgeous and has a tempting café. And a familiar problem: a hazy route line fixed by using the Green Chain Walk signs and/or surprisingly good paths on maps.

Beware following GCW signs outside the parks, there are two branches both linking C Palace Pk to the top of Sydenham Hill.

Both parks are locked at night, see Lewisham Council website for S Wells, Bromley for C Palace. Train stations at each end.

Park sections are nice; might be worth avoiding the South Circular section.

The route is excellent plotted and easy to follow.

However, it is not especially scenic. The section along Bowen Drive involves a lot of 1950s council housing — not unattractive, but even so — and warehouse-like schools. As an alternative, following Alleyn Park (and potentially Dulwich Wood Ave before joining Farquhar Road further up) would yield far nicer houses to gaze at, if also a little more traffic. The main downside of that is that you'd miss out on seeing the utterly-incongruous, Grade II listed Kingswood House (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingswood_House) amid all that council housing, but I'd still say it's preferable.

While climbing up Farquhar Road, I'd strongly suggest detouring via a loop through the Dulwich Upper Wood nature reserve (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dulwich_Upper_Wood), following paths close to the road. This only adds on a few minutes and is decidedly pleasant. Information boards detail the flora and fauna.

I don't have the tech know-how to suggest a better route, so please forgive my just doing so via comments.

Firstly, the route name seems misleading as my GPX had it starting from Crystal Palace.

As far as a route between two London stations, this seems to me as lovely, rangy and interesting as it's possible to be. You get two great parks (Crystal Palace and Sydenham Wells), beautiful buildings (Dulwich College in particular), history and nice houses. The last section, down College Road and along the South Circular, tends to be busy with walkers and cyclists in any sort of nice weather, but there's no better alternative way in the same sort of timeframe.

The GPS routing is plotted with insufficient precision, particularly in CP Park, the exit from CP Park and the climb through Sydenham Wells Park - but it's easy enough to work out the way

One potential shortcut involves turning off Westwood Hill earlier, down High Level Drive, following Vigilant Close to its end, then climbing up through Hillcrest Wood via a footpath (Google Maps shows it as Canbury Mews Walk). It's steeper and wilder than the more manicured Sydenham Wells Park, but pretty and you get to see one end of the closed Paxton Tunnel, once used for the lost Crystal Palace (High Level) branch railway line.

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