South London is full of parks, with many of them having formerly been a completely different site (perhaps used for industry, as in the case of one here), but now instead being open to the public so long as the sun is up. Many of these parks are all too often forgotten about, so here is a selection of parks and ponds in the borough of Croydon. Some are just off main roads, whereas others are linked to side streets by footpaths, but they're all united by having water.
Beulah Hill Pond
You wouldn't notice this one if you were walking down Beulah Hill, unless you happened to look to your left as the road starts to bend away from Crown Point. It's only one and a half acres large and is hidden behind a fence, so you can't access the pond at all. Once the pond was a place for horses to drink water, and was apparently even became a small ice rink when it froze over - so it hasn't always been inaccessible.
This pond isn't probably one to take lots of time out of your day to visit, so if you happen to be visiting Crown Point (for some inexplicable reason), take some time to look at it. There is one great story about the pond, however, and it's this blogpost from Elsewhere about a man who decided to finally visit the pond after noticing it many years in a London AZ. I was surprised to even find such a post on a pond which has almost perfectly blended into the landscape of the area, albeit unintentionally.
Whitehorse Meadow
There's a Whitehorse Road (the main road nearest to this pocket of Thornton Heath), a Whitehorse Lane not too far away, and the area used to be in the Whitehorse Manor ward which made up Croydon before being replaced in part by newer wards in Thornton Heath. That's not even mentioning the not-too-distant Blackhorse Lane, also in the borough. Whitehorse is actually a reference to a person who lived in the 14th century, Walter Whitehorse (a shield-bearer to King Edward III), who owned the land in the area at the time. Yet the name Whitehorse now only persists through a school, a series of bus stops, and some roadsigns.
Whitehorse Meadow is another area with this name, but it came many years after Whitehorse died. The land (only a hectare large) used to be filled with allotments, but after the soil was found to be contaminated, it was turned into a very small park with some benches.
I found it when looking at a map near Selhurst Park and headed there, the meadow hidden from Whitehorse Lane, and that's when I spotted the pond. It's near the main entrance and I couldn't spot any species were advertised on an information board next to it. Whilst it's not anything particularly special, it's still a rather lovely, secluded area to be in. I later headed off through the meadow, spotting a solitary person exercising before I walked off the footpath to take a photo of the ever-developing Croydon skyline. This place could be a slab of concrete, after all.
Norbury Brook at Heavers Meadow
This river is in Selhurst, not too far from the station, and is hidden behind a fence, flowing in a conduit built to reduce the risk of flooding. We're near the river's source at this point, hence the rather shallow channel, but if you were to walk downstream, via Thornton Heath and Norbury, the river grows in size, and you'd soon be following the River Graveney (the same river, different names), walking via Tooting until you reach a confluence with the Wandle near Haydons Road station. I've happened to write about this confluence before without realising the Graveney was there in my blogpost on Colliers Wood and Haydons Road, but getting back on track:
Heavers Meadow is another park which finds itself along a main road. It used to be part of a larger wood, once Dragnet Wood and then Selhurst Wood in the 1800s, before the railway broke up the wood and Selhurst started to grow in size. Come 1935 the current land was transferred to Croydon to be used as an open space for recreation or allotments. And the railways remain ever-present in the area.
It's hard to ignore Selhurst Depot when walking through Heavers Meadow (about three and a half hectares). It's owned by Southern and is where trains stand before setting off to Brighton and back to London, and borders this park on one side (Norbury Brook separating the two), with a series of trees and shrubs on the other side, along with a pool of water (image above). Apparently this land was once where Crystal Palace used to play, in a stadium commonly called The Nest. The meadow has a footpath which follows the depot for most of its length, but not the river, which eventually bends and flows beneath the depot, not to be seen again if Google Maps is to be trusted. Should you decide to carry on walking anyways, you'd emerge past graffiti-laden fences to an open area featuring a school and then an exit.
As an aside, there is one other interesting thing you'll find here - a large vandalised boulder with a plaque on it. This is near the entrance of the park and is a Stone of Croydon, one of many which attempt to herald Croydon's fifty-year anniversary, with one boulder in each original Croydon ward. This one's in honour of the Whitehorse Manor ward, in fact. You might wonder where the boulders came from, and the answer is that they're from New Addington, originally used as a deterrent to parking on the town's high street and then removed when residents were annoyed by them. A very suitable way to celebrate an anniversary, you'll agree.
Brickfields Meadow
This meadow (about four and a half hectares) was formed as a result of a former brickworks closing before Croydon council took over the land in the 1990s. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it's also hidden from the main roads and finds its home next to residential streets - I accessed it by walking through a footpath (designated Footpath 655) off the side of Tennison Road, and I was greeted by quite a bit of rubbish, including a radiator. There's a substation in the background, and it's not the most cheerful-looking place to be, especially on an overcast morning. Thankfully, though, the large pond is nearby, and it's the best waterway in this blog so far.
It's the largest so far in this blog too, with a series of flowers along its bank, the unkempt footpath to the side and a row of houses not too far away the only obstacles potentially disrupting the nice view, and all I heard amongst the quiet was the calling of birds (though this it was probably so quiet as I went there on a Sunday morning). There's a small footbridge which splits the pond in two, though the second, much smaller part wasn't as appealing as the other side.
Beyond the pond, there's nothing to add as the meadow becomes another regular park with an unexciting children's play area and an open green space. By the exit on the opposite end of the meadow, which had an abundant supply of polystyrene beads littering the footpath, there's another school, and I wonder why there are so many schools built just next to parks. I suppose there isn't any other space for them.
Epilogue
Walking away from the meadow along a series of side streets would eventually get you back onto a main road, this time near Woodside, with the small triangular Woodside Green waiting for you. But it's not particularly a place to go and rest, with no footpath to mention and only a few trees making the area look more pleasant. But then again it could always be a slab of concrete.
And that's the thing I'd like to take away from all of these places, hemmed in by an ever urbanising Croydon. These places could be derelict and neglected, but instead they're (albeit underused) ponds and parks, which I find to be a thing London should be proud of in a way.
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