Beckenham Place Park
I recently moved three miles down the road. But it feels a world away. I’m used to having multiple shops and restaurants within a short walk. All that is next to us here is a station and a park. I worried when I moved that I’d feel isolated, but I’ve found that the benefits of the park far outweigh anything I had before.
The largest green space in southeast London, Beckenham Place Park was used as a golf course for over a century until 2016. Thanks to a National Lottery grant, the park has thrived since the closure of the golf course (something that understandably caused a lot of upset at the time). The Georgian swimming lake has been reinstated (I haven’t been brave enough to try it yet mind you), and the original stable blocks have been turned into a lovely cafe serving not only coffee and cake but pizza and booze! There’s a huge play area and stunning formal gardens. The centrepiece is a grand Georgian mansion—currently managed by the people behind Peckham’s Copeland Park & The Bussey Building—hosting regular markets and events, plus another cafe, basement bar, record shop, yoga studio and sewing school.
Really though, my favourite things about the park are all-natural: the bluebells starting to sprout, the maze of muddy paths, the bats that skim the lake as it gets dark, the frosty grass, the sound of the woodpeckers working away in the ancient woodland, the way the Ravensbourne River rages after a night of heavy rain and then seamlessly calms the next day and the surprising flash of bright green as the parakeets come in to roost at sunset, which I like to think of as south London’s answer to the Northern Lights.
If you like dogs, this is the place for you. My other half calls Beckenham Place Park a “dog safari”—you’ll spot every type of dog imaginable if you visit at the weekend. You might even stumble on a meetup—a grumble of pugs or a shout of schnauzers (yes those are semi-legitimate collective nouns). And yet, as busy as the park can get at the weekend, I very often find myself completely alone, listening to bird sounds and leaves crunching underfoot. How lucky I am to live this close to something so peaceful. It does my mental health wonders.
When I first visited—dog-free—I was amazed by the number of people in the park who said “good morning” to me. People interacting with strangers voluntarily in public? This wasn’t the London I knew! I need not have worried about feeling isolated. The park and the dog mean I talk to far more people in a day than I ever did before... Even if I only know their dogs’ names.
If you’re thinking of visiting, Beckenham Place Park is only half an hour from Blackfriars on the train. Alight at Beckenham Hill. Find out what events are happening at Beckenham Place Mansion here.
