Living in Blackheath: area guide to homes, schools and transport links

Get your work-life balance right and relish the community feeling in London’s little country town.
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Anthea Masey28 March 2018

A wild and windy heath lined with Georgian houses and Regency villas, plus a village with a conservatoire, Blackheath, perched above south-east London, has the feel of a small country town rather than a commuter suburb.

It’s a place of neighbourliness and civic pride.

The Blackheath Society was founded 81 years ago to protect the heath and architecture, and to run such events as December’s annual Village Day when the Christmas lights are turned on.

London house hunters buy here for the village feel, sense of community and the green spaces, many seeking a better work-life balance.

Daniel Lynch

The heath hosts one of London’s best firework displays and is a starting point for London Marathon runners each April.

Travis and The Libertines headlined last September at OnBlackheath music and food festival.

The heath is also where locals fly kites or walk dogs, and where 20,000 people rode to meet Henry V on his return from Agincourt in 1415.

In the centenary year of women getting the vote, Blackheath remembers local suffragette Emily Davison, fatally injured when a horse owned by George V knocked her down at the Epsom Derby in 1913.

Suffragist Millicent Fawcett and her sister Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, Britain’s first qualified female doctor, were educated in Blackheath, at the College of Grey Ladies.

Blackheath is on the busy A2 London to Dover road. It is six-and-a-half miles from central London with Greenwich to the north, Charlton to the east, Lee to the south and Lewisham to the west.

Property scene

Elegant Regency and Georgian villas and houses overlook the heath and are found nearby. In The Paragon, a Grade I-listed Georgian terrace of seven semi-detached pavilion houses linked by a colonnade, a one-bedroom flat is for sale at £575,000.

There are large detached Georgian, Regency, Twenties and later family houses on the Cator Estate, a leafy enclave in walking distance of Blackheath Village.

Homes here sell for £1.2 million to £3.5 million. The most expensive house currently for sale in Blackheath is a five-bedroom white stucco detached Regency villa in Pond Road on the Cator Estate, at £3.35 million.

There are Victorian cottages and terraces, too, and on the Greenwich side of the heath, the area known as Blackheath Royal Standard has large Victorian houses mostly converted into spacious flats.

Blackheath is also famous for its mid-century developments. The architect developer Eric Lyons at Span built small estates on the Cator Estate, mostly flats but there are two three-bedroom houses for sale in Priory Park, one for £699,995, the other at £875,000.

In Sixties-built Vanbrugh Park overlooking the heath, a five-bedroom house created from two flats is for sale for £1,575,000 and in Westcombe Court, part of the estate by Barbican architects Chamberlin, Powell and Bon, a two-bedroom flat is for sale at £380,000.

New-build homes

In Kidbrooke Village, Berkeley Group’s £1 billion redevelopment of the Ferrier Estate, nearly 4,800 new homes will be built, including 35 per cent affordable.

The 270-acre site includes 136 acres of green space.

Over 1,450 homes, including 667 affordable, are already built and there will be four neighbourhoods — the Village, near Kidbrooke station, with a Sainsbury’s Local, a coffee shop and a GP surgery; Meridian Gate between new Cator Park and established Sutcliffe Park; Blackheath Quarter across Cator Park from the Village, and City Point to the south.

Homes are currently available off-plan at Birch House and Centrum Court in the Village and already completed at The Crescent at Meridian Gate.

One-bedroom flats start at £425,000; two-bedroom flats at £567,500 and three-bedroom houses at £810,000. Call 020 8150 5151 for more details.

In nearby Lee Terrace, Berkeley is also building Forbury, with 14 one-, two- and three-bedroom flats and 10 four-bedroom houses.

One-bedroom flats start at £530,000, with three-bedroom flats at £890,000 and four-bedroom houses at £1.85 million. Call 020 8108 1238.

Transport

Blackheath in Zone 3 has 25-minute trains to Charing Cross via London Bridge and Waterloo East; to Cannon Street via Lewisham for the DLR to Canary Wharf and London Bridge; and to Victoria. A year’s travelcard costs £1,600.

Affordable homes

Moat Homes has two- and three-bedroom flats in Noble House and Perkins House in Meridian Gate at smart Kidbrooke Village, the rebuilt and renamed Ferrier housing estate, starting at £108,750 for a 25 per cent share of a two-bedroom flat with a market price of £435,000. Call 0845 359 6387.

Help to Buy is available on the last remaining one-bedroom flat at No 7 River Quaggy Apartments, a development of eight one-bedroom flats in Lee Road.

The price is £377,000, through jdm (020 8463 0091).

Who rents here?

Lettings manager Shelley Matczak at Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward says her renters are families and professional couples who like the local period conversions.

Most Blackheath landlords are former owners who have traded up, although Kidbrooke Village is attracting buy-to-let investors.

Staying power

Families stay in Blackheath for generations which can lead to a shortage of large family houses for sale, says estate agent Patricia Urwin-Brown of KFH.

Postcode

SE5 is the Blackheath postcode.

Best roads

Roads on the Cator Estate, anything with a view of the heath, and the likes of Wemyss Road, Bennett Park, St Germans Place and Blackheath Vale which are close to the village.

Up and coming

Patricia Urwin-Brown says families are moving to nearby Charlton where house prices are lower. Rectory Fields conservation area, for example, has roads of semi-detached Victorian villas and terrace house, some flat-fronted and some bow-fronted.

Local council

Most of Blackheath is in Labour-controlled Lewisham, where Band D council tax for 2018/2019 is set at £1,498.10. The east side including the Cator Estate and Kidbrooke Village is in Labour-controlled Greenwich, with Band D council tax for the 2018/2019 year set at £1,429.33

Lifestyle

SHOPS AND RESTAURANTS

Blackheath’s shopping is concentrated around the station in Blackheath Village and the triangle formed by Tranquil Vale, Montpelier Vale and Royal Parade, where there is a mix of high street women’s fashion brands such as Jigsaw, Whistles and Phase Eight and independent shops, cafés and restaurants.

A branch of The Ivy Café has opened recently and there are two steakhouses – Buenos Aires Café and CAU.

John Charles is the local butcher and the team at Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward are fans of independent café Madeleine’s Creperie.

There’s a Waterstones for new books and The Bookshop on the Heath for second-hand ones.

Home improvers make for paint specialist Farrow & Ball and kitchen designer John Lewis of Hungerford.

There is a popular Sunday farmers’ market in the station car park.

On the other side of the heath in Blackheath Royal Standard there are local shops, a branch of M&S Simply Food, and in Old Dover Road is award-winning modern toyshop Ottie and the Bea.

OPEN SPACE

Blackheath is blessed with green space, with the heath and Greenwich Park on the doorstep.

Sutcliffe Park in Kidbrooke Park Road has the River Quaggy running through it, a running track and a sports centre; it is linked to Cator Park, the new park created as part of Kidbrooke Village.

LEISURE AND THE ARTS

Blackheath is a social and cultural hub for south-east London.

The Conservatoire, which is part of Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, puts on music, art and drama courses for children.

Next door, also in Lee Road, Blackheath Halls is part of the oldest surviving purpose-built cultural complex in London.

It puts on everything from classical and folk music concerts to comedy, spoken word and literary events, to exhibitions and children’s theatre.

Ranger’s House in Chesterfield Walk is a Palladian-style house owned by English Heritage which houses the art collection of diamond magnate Sir Julius Wernher (1850 to 1912).

Blackheath Sports Club has its ground at Rectory Field in Charlton.

This is home to the historic Blackheath Rugby Club, founded in 1858 and the first rugby club in the world without a restricted membership.

The first team now plays in the National League Division 1 and matches are played at its Well Hall ground in Eltham.

The sport club also hosts separate cricket, tennis and squash clubs.

The nearest council swimming pools are at Glass Mill Leisure Centre in Loampit Vale in Lewisham town centre and the Charlton Lido and Lifestyle Club in Shooters Hill Road where there is a heated outdoor pool.

Schools

Blackheath’s state primary schools and its private schools are what bring families to the area.

Primary schools

All the state primaries are rated “good” or better by Ofsted. Rated “outstanding” are: John Ball in Southvale Road; All Saints’ CofE in Blackheath Vale; Brooklands in Medebourne Close; St Margaret’s Lee CofE in Lee Church Street, and Invicta in Invicta Road.

Comprehensive schools

The “outstanding” comprehensive school is St Ursula’s RC Convent School (girls, ages 11 to 16) in Crooms Hill.

The following comprehensive schools are rated “good”: The John Roan (co-ed, ages 11 to 18) in Maze Hill and Thomas Tallis (co-ed, ages 11 to 18) in Kidbrooke Park Road.

The International Academy of Greenwich (co-ed ages 11 to 18) in Meadowcourt Road in Lee opened in September 2016 and has not yet been inspected by the government schools watchdog.

Trinity CofE (co-ed, ages four to 16) in Taunton Road, Lee, is an all-through state school and Christ the King RC (co-ed, 16+) in Belmont Grove in Lewisham is the local sixth form college; both are rated “good”.

Private

The private primary and preparatory schools are: Heath House (co-ed, ages three to 11) in Wemyss Road; Blackheath Preparatory (co-ed, ages three to 11) in St Germans Place; The Pointer School (co-ed, three to 11 in Stratheden Road and Greenwich Steiner (co-ed, ages three to 14) in Woodlands, Mycenae Road.

Colfe’s School (co-ed, ages three to 18) in Horn Park Lane in Lee and Blackheath High (girls, ages three to 18) in Vanbrugh Park are two all-through private schools.