We are trying to gather together ideas of what people love and what people hate about SE23. Positive and constructive ideas please!

For starters, here are my top 3 and bottom 3 things:

I love > the Horniman Museum; the trees along London Road; the views from the hills

I hate > the underpass; Forest Hill Station building; that I (mostly) can't buy food in the town centre apart from in Sainsbury's;

There is a Co-op food shop quite near the town centre.

3 favs:

- Horniman Museum and its green space
- The historic Victorian buildings (which are poorly made of)
- The drinking venues

3 dislikes:

- The state of the retail units on Dartmouth Road - too many 'barbers'
- The Underpass
- The Station building

My list is currently on http://www.lewisham.gov.uk/inmyarea/neig...fault.aspx

You can submit your own and become the monthly 'guest editor'.

3 favs:

1. My partner and I always feel safe in the area
2. Plenty of decent pubs and several excellent restaurants
3. Lots of green space

4 dislikes:
1. Empty retail units
2. Too many fast food joints
3. ummm?

+
Green spaces
Impressed with the litter clearing of pavements
The general hilliness

-
decent late pub/bar for dancing and making new 'friends'
weatherspoons - waste of a great building
long way from the river

Love
1. Horniman Museum and Gardens
2. The independent shops
3. The re-development of the Pools


Hate
1. Lack of Parking on the Streets (esp. Dartmouth Road)
2. The Old Cinema building being a Wetherspoons
3. Not being able to buy quality meat or fish from a local local butchers/ fishmongers

Good quality;

meat - W. Bunting (Peckham Park Road)

fish - or Sopers Nunhead Lane or Moxon's Lordship Lane

LONG way to go for good meat/veg/fish if you live in the southern part of Forest Hill eg. Dartmouth Rd like me! Shame though

I use Buntings practically every week, can really recommend them, it's worth the trip, I go from Honor Oak. The 78 bus goes past their front door.

- Transport links
- Community Spirit
- The good shops


- The neglected shops
- Faded banners advertising who knows what
- the stretch from Dartmouth Arms to Blue Mountain Cafe

Pros
Green spaces, transport links, reasonable by London standard house prices.

Cons
Poor choice of GOOD pubs. Blythe Hill Tavern & All Inn One being the exceptions. Underpass and alleyways. Litter and dog poo .

what is this green space everyone is talking about? If I look at a map of SE23 I see very little, and myself live in a place (Honor Oak Park) officially recognised by Lewisham as having a lack of parks.

Green spaces in SE23:
Horniman Gardens, Horniman Triangle, Horniman Nature Trail, Blythe Hill, Mayow Park, Devonshire Road Nature Reserve, Garthorne Road Nature Reserve, Dacres Wood Nature Reserve, One Tree Hill, Honor Oak Rec, Honor Oak Road Nature.

Just over the borders:
Sydenham and Dulwich Woods, Baxters Field, Wells Park, Albion Millennium Green, Water Link Way, Brenchley Gardens, Camberwell Old Cemetery.

It is not quite like Hampstead or even neighbouring Dulwich, but SE23 (particularly SE23 3) contains a lot of easily accessible green spaces. Currently loads of money is being spent improving the Horniman Gardens and it is going to look splendid once finished. It is the quality of the green space that is at least as important as the quantity and we have two green flags and one green pendant in the area, recognising the quality of some of the parks and nature reserves.

ok, I guess I'm just thinking of places where you could go for a nice long jog, or spend hours wandering with a small child - and for those it's really only Dulwich Park or Peckham Rye Park outside of SE23.

I spend hours with a very small child in Horniman Triangle, Horniman Museum and Gardens, (and Dulwich Park and Crystal Palace).

I would recommend Waterlink Way for a nice long jog, but you won't catch me doing anything so energetic. I would have thought that Dulwich Park and Crystal Palace are also a good distance for a jog to get to, or is that too long?

One Tree Hill's a lot bigger than it looks and if you've got the right shoes on could be great as part of a nice long jog - a lot of the green spaces link up to each other with minimal contact with roads - so, you can start in One Tree Hill, make your way through Brenchley gardens - cut up through some quiet resi (but hilly) streets and then through the Horniman Gardens and across into Dulwich and Sydenham Woods.


Equally, I suspect most of us mean proximity to decent green space (at least, I consider Dulwich Park, Peckham Rye Park and Chrystal Palace Park to be local to me even though I live a mile or two away from all three).

And let's not forget the absolutely brilliant Waterlink Way which runs behind the Bell Green Sainsburys (although possibly not SE23). Have spotted several herons there over the summer. Some great brambling to be had and there are a number of plum trees along the way but I'm not telling you where or there'll be none left for me next year (all gone this year). And there is the most gloriously fruit laden apple tree at Lower Sydenham Station with every single apple tantalisingly beyond reach.

Crystal Palace Park even...

Glad you mention Waterlink Way Michael (I didn't see your post before I sent mine) - it's one of my favourite walks in the area - the bit between Bell Green and the allotments down near Beckenham isn't exactly picturesque but I quite like that juxtaposition of pretty and light industrial.

Friendly neighbours
varied and interesting architecture
the views!

Difficulty in getting a decent GP (in my bit of FH at least)
lack of good fruit and veg shop
Too many fast food takaways

Wish I had a nice, considerate neighbour!! Problem of buying an ex local place I think...