All I have left are some vague memories, but they have persisted with me for nearly sixty years, and I can’t shake them.
We will have been no more than ten and maybe younger, and as we all did in those days we roamed free over our bit of south east London.
It might be east towards Blackheath and Greenwich or out beyond Peckham into Dulwich.
Back then the extent of our adventures were governed by how far we could walk, although within a few years that had become the whole of London and beyond with the help of a Red Rover and Southern Region.
On this particular day we had come across a disused railway track which I think was somewhere around Nunhead, and the game was to walk along the stone parapet of the road bridge over the line.
I chose not to do the walk of chance, but we were all so close friends that no one thought the worse of me for declining.
For a while that disused railway track became our playground and we would walk along its bed, climb up the slope of the cutting and look for discarded treasure.
But time is cruel to such hidden hideaways and within a few months it was all but forgotten and we had moved on. Partly I suspect because it was some distance from where we lived and in my case I was never quite sure how to get there on my own.
And anyway even a gang of lads in short trousers, dirty knees and torn jumpers, eventually tire of a long straight piece of ground.
Now sixty years on I have wondered where it was and so todayI roamed over google street maps, carefully scrutinized the OS map for 1872 but found nothing. Neither did an online search for the disused railway lines of south east London prove any more fruitful.
Of course the line may well post date 1872 and it may now be lost under redevelopment.
Here in Manchester many of our old abandoned tracks have become the route for the new tram network.
But I won’t give up looking and next time I am home I might try and track that adventure of sixty years ago.
And within ten minutes of posting the story, Kathy Penney wrote to me, "Try at the top of Athenlay Road. As you turn left in to Merrtins Road there are the remnants of a stone bridge and if you take the next right it leads you in to Brenchley Gardens. I think the line there ran all the way up to Crystal Palace, but sadly was axed by Beeching.
There was a time you could walk the route up to Crystal Palace but I think there are a few new developments in the way now.
I think if you look at the London, Chatham & Dover Railway or LCDR who established the Highline railway at Crystal Palace in, may have been the 1850's, you should be able to see the route it took. Good luck".
And this I will do!
Location; south east London
Picture, from the collection of Andrew Simpson
It might be east towards Blackheath and Greenwich or out beyond Peckham into Dulwich.
Back then the extent of our adventures were governed by how far we could walk, although within a few years that had become the whole of London and beyond with the help of a Red Rover and Southern Region.
On this particular day we had come across a disused railway track which I think was somewhere around Nunhead, and the game was to walk along the stone parapet of the road bridge over the line.
I chose not to do the walk of chance, but we were all so close friends that no one thought the worse of me for declining.
For a while that disused railway track became our playground and we would walk along its bed, climb up the slope of the cutting and look for discarded treasure.
But time is cruel to such hidden hideaways and within a few months it was all but forgotten and we had moved on. Partly I suspect because it was some distance from where we lived and in my case I was never quite sure how to get there on my own.
And anyway even a gang of lads in short trousers, dirty knees and torn jumpers, eventually tire of a long straight piece of ground.
Now sixty years on I have wondered where it was and so todayI roamed over google street maps, carefully scrutinized the OS map for 1872 but found nothing. Neither did an online search for the disused railway lines of south east London prove any more fruitful.
Of course the line may well post date 1872 and it may now be lost under redevelopment.
Here in Manchester many of our old abandoned tracks have become the route for the new tram network.
But I won’t give up looking and next time I am home I might try and track that adventure of sixty years ago.
And within ten minutes of posting the story, Kathy Penney wrote to me, "Try at the top of Athenlay Road. As you turn left in to Merrtins Road there are the remnants of a stone bridge and if you take the next right it leads you in to Brenchley Gardens. I think the line there ran all the way up to Crystal Palace, but sadly was axed by Beeching.
There was a time you could walk the route up to Crystal Palace but I think there are a few new developments in the way now.
I think if you look at the London, Chatham & Dover Railway or LCDR who established the Highline railway at Crystal Palace in, may have been the 1850's, you should be able to see the route it took. Good luck".
And this I will do!
Location; south east London
Picture, from the collection of Andrew Simpson
neat story good luck on your journey
ReplyDeleteSounds like the disused line that ran from Honor Oak (not Honor Oak Park). We used to explore that in the 50s (when we tired of the bomb sites). There were tunnels on the line too that were really spooky.
ReplyDeleteThat sounds like the line from Nunhead to crystal palace. If you look in this link you can see it very clearly http://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=14.435274476601732&lat=51.4610&lon=-0.0486&layers=163&b=1
ReplyDeleteYou can still see remnants of it today. It ran along brenchley gardens and then across the forest hill road, then alongside the cemetery and along the very bottom of the horniman gardens before crossing the very bottom of lordship lane where it meets the south circular. Then it continued through Dulwich Woods. You can still see the cutting if you walk there in the woods and the footbridge that went across. If you follow is path the whole way through the woods you get to the tunnel where it went through Sydenham hill. Its boarded up now and I believe there is a bat colony in there now so it's protected. Maybe this is the line you're looking for?