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

Green and hilly Sydenham in south-east London has a thriving community and lots of still relatively affordable homes in a variety of architectural styles.

Locals join in with everything from community gardening in Mayow Park to salsa dancing in the community centre, to organising Sydenham’s annual spooky Halloween Trail through the town centre, to campaigning to save the Bell Green gas holders.

Halfway down Sydenham Road there is a celebration of the town’s history and famous people who called it home. In a series of 11 mosaics on the outside of the community centre the story of Sydenham unfolds.

Danish-French Impressionist artist Camille Pissarro is depicted painting St Bartholomew’s Church from Lawrie Park Avenue, a scene he captured in his work The Avenue (1871); Antarctic explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton, who spent part of his childhood in Westwood Hill, is seen with his ship, The Endurance, trapped in the ice; and there is broadcasting pioneer John Logie Baird who lived in Crescent Wood Road and had his TV studio in nearby Crystal Palace.

Here also is the logo of St Christopher’s Hospice in Lawrie Park Road founded by Dame Cicely Saunders, who pioneered the hospice movement; and most curious of all is the mosaic of a cute cat in a jug, a copy of a painting by the Victorian artist Horatio Henry Couldery, who lived locally, was famous for painting cats and was admired by leading art critic of the day, John Ruskin.

Missing though, is the story of the socialist campaigner Eleanor Marx, youngest daughter of Karl Marx. Eleanor bought a house in Jews Walk in Sydenham in 1895 with money left to her by the socialist philosopher Friedrich Engels. She lived in Sydenham for three years but committed suicide aged 43 after discovering that her partner of many years, Edward Aveling, had married a young actress.

Estate agent Natasha Osunde, from the local branch of Pedder, says the area is popular with families trading up from flats to houses, while new-build homes are attracting upsizers from Forest Hill and downsizers from Dulwich. Sydenham is eight miles south-east of central London with Forest Hill to the north, Bellingham to the east, Penge to the south and Crystal Palace to the west.

Property scene

One of the attractions of Sydenham is the wide range of homes available. There are pockets of period homes including weatherboarded cottages and a pair of Regency villas in Sydenham Road, the area’s high street. The tiny cottages in Halifax Street are protected by their conservation area status and two are currently for sale — one with two bedrooms for £620,000, the other with three bedrooms for £675,000.

The “Thorpes” is a popular area of red-brick Victorian semi-detached and terrace houses between Sydenham Road and Mayow Park, where the road names include Queensthorpe, Kingsthorpe, Princethorpe and Dukesthorpe. Houses here range in price from about £800,000 to £1.1 million.

There are large semi-detached and detached Victorian houses in Newlands Park, which runs between Sydenham and Penge East stations. An unmodernised six-bedroom double-fronted Victorian house here is for sale priced £1.1 million.

There are similarly large houses in Trewsbury Road and Cator Road, and at the Dartmouth Road end of Sydenham Park Road are some fine early Victorian detached villas.

The “Lawrie Park Triangle” including Lawrie Park Road and Lawrie Park Avenue, between Westwood Hill and Crystal Palace Park, is a leafy mix of Victorian and later houses and flats.

The most expensive house currently for sale in Sydenham is in Redberry Grove, a tucked-away, almost rural road leading to Albion Millennium Green. The four-bedroom black-clad modern house, designed by local architect Ian McChesney to reflect the trees around it, is on the market for £1,695,000. Close to Penge East station, the Alexandra Cottages in Albert Road, Edward Road and Victor Road, an attractive enclave of semis arranged with the main doors at the side rather than at the front, are their own little community with a popular primary school and a garden centre with a café.

On the Dulwich side of Sydenham, the Dulwich Estate built a number of townhouses in the Sixties. Designed by Austin Vernon & Partners, all enjoy wooded, hilly views. They are at Peckarmans Wood off Crescent Wood Road, Woodsyre off Sydenham Hill and Great Brownings off College Road. A four-bedroom house in Woodsyre is for sale for £1.25 million and a four-bedroom house in Great Brownings is on the market for £865,000.

Six Pillars in Crescent Wood Road is a one-off listed house by Thirties modernist architect Berthold Lubetkin, the designer of the penguin pool at London Zoo. Designed in 1932, Six Pillars was built in 1934 for Jack Leakey and his wife, when Leakey was head of the nearby Dulwich College Preparatory School. It was last sold in 2016, when it was marketed at £1,675,000.

New-build homes

Crest Nicholson has two current developments in Sydenham — Dylon Works and Wells Park Place.

Dylon Works in Station Approach in Lower Sydenham offers 223 one-, two- and three-bedroom flats, with retail space, a café and a crèche, on the site of a former dye works. The two-bedroom flats start at £279,995 and three-bedroom flats at £564,995. Call 020 3437 1262.

Wells Park Place off Wells Park Road is a development of 46 flats and townhouses on one of the highest points in south London. Two-bedroom flats remain, priced £599,000. Call 020 3437 0472. Edward Milner Terrace in Fountain Drive is a scheme of six five-storey houses with a communal garden. They stand on the site of the former home of Edward Milner, the Victorian-era landscape architect who had a hand in the design of Hyde Park and Crystal Palace Park. From developer Lightbox, the houses will be ready in April and prices start at £1.75 million. Contact Hamptons on 020 7738 7622.

Lawrie Park Place (lawrieparkplace.co.uk) is a gated development from Kitewood of 27 four- and five-bedroom detached houses in Lawrie Park Crescent. Prices range from £999,995 to £1,415,000. Call Pedder New Homes (020 8702 9999).

Knighton Park Road is a development of a pair of two-bedroom houses with retail on the ground floor in Sydenham Road. The price of these homes is £495,000. Contact Pedder New Homes (as before).

First-time buyers

Crest Nicholson is offering Help to Buy at Dylon Works, where So Resi, part of Metropolitan Thames Valley housing association, is also selling shared-ownership flats. The two-bedroom flats start at £131,250 for a 25 per cent share of a home with a market value of £525,000. Three-bedroom flats start at £150,000 for a 25 per cent share of a home with a market value of £600,000. Call 020 8607 0550 for details.

Rental homes

Sydenham is not a particularly popular area for rentals, which is partly due to a lack of supply. Rents range from around £975 a month for a one-bedroom flat in a modern block to £2,450 a month for a three-bedroom Victorian terrace house in Tredown Road.

Travel

Sydenham isn’t on the Tube but it is served by railway and Overground. From Sydenham station there are trains to London Bridge that take around 20 minutes and Overground trains to Shoreditch High Street for the City, stopping at Canada Water where commuters change for Canary Wharf.

Sydenham Hill station has trains to Victoria which take 14 minutes and services to Blackfriars which take 20 minutes. Lower Sydenham has trains to Cannon Street (29 minutes) and Charing Cross (28 minutes) that stop at London Bridge.

Sydenham Hill and Sydenham are in Zone 3 and an annual travelcard to Zone 1 costs £1,648; Lower Sydenham and Penge East are in Zone 4 and an annual travelcard costs £2,020.

The No 176 bus goes to Tottenham Court Road via Dulwich and Waterloo.

Staying power

The wide variety of homes in Sydenham makes trading up and down easy, so once hooked on Sydenham’s community spirit, people do tend to stay.

Postcode

SE26 is the Sydenham postcode.

Best roads

The “Thorpes”, between Sydenham Road and Mayow Park.

Up and coming

Local Pedder estate agent Natasha Osunde says there are small Victorian terrace houses in Lower Sydenham in roads such as Elderton Road and Larkbere Road which sell for between £550,000 and £575,000.

Council

Lewisham council is Labour controlled. Band D council tax for 2018/2019 is £1,498.10.

Shops and restaurants

Sydenham’s main shopping street is along Sydenham Road but the area’s first shopping street was up the hill in Kirkdale where interesting shops today include a piano workshop; Behind the Boxes, specialising in furniture from the Thirties to the Seventies; retro clothing and accessories store Mabel’s Five & Dime, and Dulwich Reclamation — a reclamation yard which also makes Shaker-style kitchens.

There is a fish and chip shop; sushi at Hibagon, and 161 Food + Drink, an organic wine bar and off-licence. Freight, which has branched out from its original store in Lewes, East Sussex, sells clothing, interior accessories, gifts and food, all mainly produced or designed in the UK.

Down the hill the main shopping street starts in the Cobb’s Corner conservation area. It has been much improved with the rebuilding and reopening of The Greyhound pub, which is now surrounded by a development of new flats and a branch of Sainsbury’s.

Sydenham celebrated the opening of Nando’s in the former Walter Cobb department store building and now rejoices in the opening of a new branch of sourdough pizza restaurant Mama Dough.

Sugahill is a long-standing coffee shop and vinyl record store in Kirkdale. On the opposite side of the road, the Kirkdale Bookshop is still going strong after many years although the Blue Mountain Café is now Cobb’s Corner Café.

Beyond the station in Sydenham Road, the high street is only just holding its own. There is a popular butcher and fishmonger, Billings; branches of Boots, Superdrug and Lidl, and gastropub The Dolphin, which has a lovely landscaped garden.

The other high spot is Ignition Brewery and Taproom, a local brewery which trains people with learning difficulties, in part of the community centre.

The one silver lining for declining high streets such as Sydenham is lower rents allowing interesting new enterprises to take root. The Lovely Gallery is an artist-led gallery with a full programme of art classes, and The Poodle Club describes itself as “London’s happiest little comedy club”.

There is a large Sainsbury’s at Bell Green with branches of Curry’s/PC World and B&Q in the Bell Green Retail Park.

Open space

Sydenham has two great parks: Mayow Park on Silverdale and Mayow Road, and Sydenham Wells Park on Wells Park Road. Mayow Park has a café run by local chain Brown & Green next to Grow Mayow Community Garden.

There is also an outdoor gym, tennis court and cricket pitch. Sydenham Wells Park has a children’s playground and water play area, tennis courts and a multi-sports ball court. Both parks have active friends groups.

Leisure and the arts

Spontaneous Productions is the local theatre company and the Kirkdale Bookshop runs a monthly book group and book launch events. The nearest council-owned swimming pool is in the recently reopened Forest Hill Pools in Dartmouth Road.

Primary

All the state primary schools in Sydenham are judged to be “good” by the Government’s education watchdog Ofsted, although none get the “outstanding” rating.

Comprehensive

When it comes to state comprehensive schools, this is one corner of London which is dominated by Harris academies, the chain started by carpet magnate Lord Harris of Peckham. Those rated “outstanding” are: Harris City Academy Crystal Palace (co-ed, ages 11 to 18) in Maberley Road; Harris Academy Beckenham (co-ed, ages 11 to 18) in Manor Way; Harris Academy South Norwood (co-ed, ages 11 to 18) in Cumberlow Avenue; Harris Girls’ Academy East Dulwich (ages 11 to 18) in Homestall Road; and Harris Boys’ Academy East Dulwich (ages 11 to 18) in Peckham Rye.

The other nearby “outstanding” comprehensives are Kingsdale (co-ed, ages 11 to 18) in Alleyn Park in Dulwich, and Bonus Pastor RC (co-ed, ages 11 to 16) in Winlaton Road in Bromley.

The following comprehensives are judged to be “good”: Harris Girls’ Academy Bromley (ages 11 to 18) in Lennard Road in Beckenham; Sydenham (girls, ages 11 to 18) in Dartmouth Road; Virgo Fidelis RC (girls, ages 11 to 18) in Central Hill, and Norwood School (co-ed, ages 11 to 18) in Crown Dale, both in Norwood.

Private

There are no private schools in Sydenham. The nearest are Dulwich Prep (boys, ages two to 13) in Alleyn Park; St Dunstan’s College in Stanstead Road in Catford; Bishop Challoner RC (co-ed, ages three to 18) in Bromley Road in Bromley, and the three well-known Dulwich all-through schools — Dulwich College (boys, ages two to 18) in Dulwich Common; James Allen’s Girls’ (ages four to 18) in East Dulwich Grove and Alleyn’s (co-ed, ages four to 18) in Townley Road.