Living in Nunhead: area guide to homes, schools and transport

Sandwiched between the yummy mummies of East Dulwich and the hipsters of Peckham, the south London neighbourhood of Nunhead has at its heart a village green and a shopping street where many new shops, bars, cafés and restaurants have opened in recent years.

Young families are drawn to Nunhead by the good schools and the village-style atmosphere, along with the green spaces of nearby Peckham Rye and the local nature reserve that is Nunhead Cemetery.

With its spooky overgrown gravestones and mausoleums, this was one of London’s “Magnificent Seven” Victorian cemeteries built on the outskirts of the capital. Nunhead has three pubs with interesting stories to tell.

A plaque outside The Old Nun’s Head on Nunhead Green claims both pub and neighbourhood were named for a Mother Superior who was beheaded after Henry VIII dissolved her nunnery. It’s a gripping tale, though it appears to be false.

While there is evidence of a nunnery in the area at the time of the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1536-41, there is no record of a nun having been executed.

However, the tale has inspired the Dulwich Outdoor Gallery, a collective of street artists who reinterpret classical paintings from the Dulwich Picture Gallery, to mount three images of a tragic nun on the pub’s outside walls, based on a 1665 painting of Saint Catherine of Siena by Carlo Dolci.

Also at Nunhead Green, The Pyrotechnists Arms — known locally as “The Pyro” — was named for the Brock’s firework factory which was based nearby from 1868 up until 1875, when it moved to West Norwood.

The firm was famous for its firework displays at Crystal Palace which became known as Brock’s Benefits. Lastly, The Ivy House in Stuart Road, SE15, made history when it was rescued by local people and became London’s first co-operatively owned pub.

When the pub closed in April 2012 and was sold to a developer who wanted to turn it into flats, the community sprang into action.

They got the building listed, then used new powers under the Localism Act 2011 to have the pub registered as an Asset of Community Value, before going on to raise £1 million to buy and renovate it. Six years later the pub is still going strong, with beers from independent London breweries, plus food, quiz nights and folk music concerts.

Estate agent Luke Bishop from Wooster & Stock based at Nunhead Green describes Nunhead as one of the most attractive areas in south London.

“It retains its village vibe and has a close-knit community with beautiful architecture, plenty of amenities, good schools and lots of green space, and it attracts families who can’t afford to trade up in Brixton or East Dulwich.”

It is an arty place, too, with an annual art trail, this year running on the weekend of September 29-30. Nunhead is four miles south-east of central London with Peckham to the north and west, Brockley to the east and East Dulwich to the south.

The property scene

Nunhead has streets of mainly Victorian and Edwardian houses although there are also Victorian almshouses and flat-fronted Regency villas in St Mary’s Road.

The most expensive house currently for sale in the neighbourhood is in Carden Road. With four bedrooms, a square bow front and attractive brickwork detailing, it is priced at £1,175,000.

Farriers Mews is an interesting live-work development off Machell Road, converted from a former farriers stables. A three-bedroom house is for sale here, priced £900,000.

Two-bedroom garden flats are popular, says Wooster & Stock agent Luke Bishop. An example in Surrey Road is on the market for £525,000. Bishop calculates that the price per square foot in Nunhead ranges from about £700 for a four- or five-bedroom apartment to £800 for a two-bedroom garden flat or a three-bedroom house.

What's new?

Nunhead Green is a development of eight three- and four-bedroom houses and six one- and two-bedroom flats in Nunhead Lane from developer Citystyle, part of One Housing Group. The flats are set to go on sale soon, for completion in May next year. Contact Site Sales on 020 8502 5758 for more information.

Renting

There isn’t a large supply of rental homes in Nunhead. Indeed, there are three times as many homes available to buy as there are to rent.

Rental costs range from £995 a month for a newly refurbished one-bedroom flat above commercial premises in Cheltenham Road, to £3,300 a month for a five-bedroom, double-fronted Victorian house in Tresco Road.

Staying power

Local Wooster & Stock agent Luke Bishop says many of the houses in Nunhead still offer the opportunity to extend into the loft or the side return, so many families are deciding to stay in the area and put down roots.

Postcode

Nunhead is in the large SE15 Peckham postcode.

Best roads

Carden Road is a street of semi-detached Victorian houses with square ground-floor bow windows and interesting brick detailing; Tresco Road has some double-fronted Victorian houses.

Up and coming

There are some three-bedroom Twenties houses bearing a resemblance to those built in London County Council garden estates in Lanbury Road. A house in this road is for sale for £650,000.

Travel

Trains from Nunhead station to Victoria and Blackfriars take around 18 minutes, with services from Nunhead to St Pancras via Farringdon taking about 27 minutes.

The No 78 bus, which runs along Evelina Road, is a useful commuter service travelling to Shoreditch via Tower Hill. Nunhead is in Zone 2 and an annual travelcard to Zone 1 costs £1,364.

Council

Southwark council is Labour controlled. Band D council tax in 2018/2019 is £1,329.54.

Shops and restaurants

Shops, pubs, bars, cafés and restaurants are clustered around Nunhead Green, along Evelina Road and Nunhead Lane.

Almost all the shops are independent and include fishmonger FC Soper, which dates from the end of the 19th century and attracts customers from all over south London.

There’s also HA Smith the butcher; greengrocer R Beaumont, and Ayres, an old-fashioned baker.

More recent arrivals include The Good Cup, a coffee shop and brunch and lunchtime bistro; modern British bistro The Habit; sourdough pizzeria Four Hundred Rabbits; El Vermut tapas and wine bar, specialising in Spanish Vermouth; Bambuni Wine & Grocery, and Portuguese restaurant Napura.

The Old Nun’s Head pub has a revolving menu of street food including burgers, Nigerian and Mexican with roasts on Sunday; Babette, in the former Edinburgh Castle pub in Nunhead Lane, serves sharing boards and small plates.

Open space

Peckham Rye Park combines a park, including a Victorian formal garden, with the wilder open spaces of a common. There are 113 acres in total. The park has two children’s playgrounds, an adventure playground and a café; it has enjoyed Green Flag status since 2007.

Nunhead Cemetery, one of the Magnificent Seven cemeteries the Victorians built in a ring around London, is now a nature reserve. This hauntingly beautiful place with its crumbling mausoleums and gravestones is a favourite with dog walkers and is open for guided tours on the last Sunday of the month.

Leisure and the arts

The Ivy House pub in Stuart Road has its own little theatre which plays host to music events. The Peckham & Nunhead Free Film Festival ran this year from August 31 to September 16 — the last event was a showing of Charlie Chaplin’s The Circus in the Big Top at Zippo’s Circus on Peckham Rye Common.

Primary school

All but one of Nunhead’s state primary schools are rated “good” or “outstanding” by the Government’s education watchdog Ofsted.

The “outstanding” school is John Donne in Wood’s Road; the “good” schools are: Rye Oak in Whorlton Road; St Mary Magdalene CofE in Brayards Road; Hollydale in Hollydale Road; Bellenden in Dewar Street.

The Belham in Bellenden Road opened in September 2015 and has not yet been inspected by Ofsted.

Comprehensive

The following state comprehensives are rated “outstanding”:

St Thomas The Apostle RC (co-ed, ages 11 to 18) in Hollydale Road; Harris Girls’ Academy East Dulwich (ages 11 to 18) in Homestall Road; Harris Boys’ Academy East Dulwich (boys, ages 11 to 18) in Peckham Rye; Haberdashers’ Aske’s Hatcham College (co-ed, ages three to 18) in Pepys Road in New Cross, and The Charter School (co-ed, ages 11 to 18) in Red Post Hill in North Dulwich.

The Charter School East Dulwich, a new Free School which opened in September 2016 in temporary accommodation in Southampton Way in Peckham, is due to move to new premises in East Dulwich Grove in January next year.

Private

The Villa (co-ed, ages two to seven) is a nursery and pre-preparatory private school in Lyndhurst Grove in Peckham.

The Dulwich private schools are nearby; they are: Alleyn’s (co-ed, ages four to 18) in Townley Road; James Allen’s Girls’ (four to 18) in East Dulwich Grove and Dulwich College (co-ed, ages 0 to seven; boys ages seven to 18) in Dulwich Common.