I've been meaning to start a series of blog posts about places where you can walk across the boundaries of Croydon through or between green spaces. As I collect lists of bird species for the Croydon RSPB, it is important to me to know where the borough boundaries are, and being something of a geography nerd I already do know a lot of them and there are quite a few pretty places on the boundaries.
When I was a young child, I lived in Lambeth, not far from Streatham Common. I have memories of crisp winter walks around Christmas and picking blackberries in the summer holidays.
These days I live in Croydon, but the 468 bus connects me with familiar places from my childhood. If you get off at the stop Biggin Hill (not to be confused with the airport in Kent), you can cross the road and take a look at Beulah Hill Pond. It's quite small and it's got a metal fence around it but I saw four mallards and two moorhens there. It was apparently used historically for horses and cattle to drink from and in the winter was popular for skating.
Cross back over the road and walk towards St Joseph's College, a Catholic boys' school which was originally established in Clapham in 1855 but moved to the
Grecian Villa building in 1904. Just next to the college is Gibson's Hill, a residential road which leads to Norwood Grove. This area has extensive views over South London including Croydon town centre.
Norwood Grove is mainly grass and trees, with a white-painted mansion in the middle of it and a small area of formal gardens. The mansion was built in the early 19th century and now seems to house a pre-school. Croydon Council's online history of the site states that the mansion used to be bigger but suffered damage in World War II.
A plaque on the side of the mansion at Norwood Grove details the history of the site. It reads:
This park with the mansion house, in the seventeenth century
the site of a shooting box presented to the 1st Earl of Portland by King Charles
II, and in the nineteenth century for many years the home of Arthur Anderson, joint
founder of the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company and donor to Norwood
of the Working Men's Institute, who represented in Parliament the Shetland
islanders to whose interests he was devoted, was purchased as an open space in 1926
by the Croydon Corporation, assisted by the London County Council, many public
bodies and by Mr. Stenton Covington of Gibson's Hill, who raised a large part
of the cost by local subscriptions. The park was opened by HRH the Prince of Wales
on the 16th November 1926.
The photo above shows the mansion in December 2020.
In recent years, my visits to Norwood Grove seem to have been during the winter, when there are small liminal ponds and drainage channels in parts of the grass. Closer to the mansion, there are some trees and bushes which are popular with a range of birds. I spotted a nuthatch, great spotted woodpecker, goldcrest, long-tailed tits, great tits and blue tits all in a small group of trees. The woodpecker spent a lot of time upside down pecking at an oak tree, they're very agile birds.
The photos above show some general views of the park and autumn colours.
There is a footpath at the top of the park leading into Streatham Common. The brick gate posts in the photo below show the boundary between Croydon and Lambeth. At the time I took the photo it was quite muddy, so you may want to wear boots for this walk in winter.
Once you get through the gate, there's an area of woodland on the right and the bottom of the Rookery Gardens to the left. I prefer to enter from the top terrace and walk down personally, which means following the path for about 10 minutes from Norwood Grove.
The photo above shows the view down into the Rookery area of Streatham Common
(click here to read more about it on Lambeth Council website). There are several distinct areas within the Rookery, including cascading water gardens with stepping stones and fish ponds, formal gardens with a small pond featuring a fountain, and the white-themed garden. It's a lovely, peaceful place to visit. Note that dogs aren't allowed, except for on the top terrace.
The photos below show the water gardens. Like many public formal gardens these days, the Rookery is carefully gardened by volunteers and there is also a community garden which is open on certain days.
A crow was taking a bath in the water gardens. Having water available year-round is important to insects, birds and mammals, as well as the creatures that spend their lives in the water.
Even in November, bumblebees are busy collecting nectar when they can. Having plants that flower at different times of year is vital for insects, one of the reason that gardens can be so effective for biodiversity.
The photo below shows the formal English gardens.
The White Garden is apparently the only one of its kind in London parks, and was designed to feature white-flowering plants. I really like the tree below, which I believe is known as Colletia paradoxa, or Anchor Plant. It's native to South America and produces small white flowers in autumn, hence its inclusion in the themed garden. But the amazing thing about it is that what at first appear to be leaves are apparently extensions of its stem called cladodes, which contain chlorophyll so can photosynthesise.
This article from San Francisco Botanical Garden explains more.
The cladodes are triangular and grow perpendicular to each other, as seen in the photo below. It's a fascinating looking plant and apparently they grow slowly so it must have been there a long time.
There's an orchard and a closed off nature garden below the White Garden. You can either walk back through Norwood Grove or walk the other way and explore Streatham Common. At the far end of the Common, on Streatham High Road, there are a range of buses back to Croydon. If you are driving, there seems to be free parking on a range of residential streets around Norwood Grove and there's a free car park on Streatham Common, although on sunny days it may be very busy.
Comments
Post a Comment