SE23.com - The Official Forum for Forest Hill & Honor Oak, London SE23
Online since 2002   11,000+ members   72,000+ posts

Home | SE23 Topics | Businesses & Services | Wider Topics | Offered/Wanted/Lost/Found | About SE23.com | Advertising | Contact | |
 Armstrong & Co Solicitors



Post Reply  Post Topic 
Things to do Locally with Visitors
Author Message
Ghis


Posts: 321
Joined: Jan 2007
Post: #1
20-05-2008 10:10 AM

My parents are visiting us for a week for the first time in SE23. They do want to do things in Central London but I would also like to do something locally. Apart from the Horniman Museum. What else should I show them locally?

Find all posts by this user Quote this message in a reply
Miss Miaow


Posts: 7
Joined: Mar 2008
Post: #2
20-05-2008 10:21 AM

It depends what you mean by locally - we always take visitors to Greenwich Park - it is so beautiful & then perhaps a boat ride up to Charing Cross or just a mooch around Greenwich?

Dulwich park and then tea at Dulwich picture gallery? Very civilised & lovely cakes!

Find all posts by this user Quote this message in a reply
Applespider


Posts: 285
Joined: Feb 2006
Post: #3
20-05-2008 10:38 AM

Hmm, I've taken Mum to the Horniman and the Picture Gallery. She also enjoys the walk through Sydenham Woods and then down to Dulwich past the Mill Pond etc. Makes her forget that she's in London.

It's not particularly local but she also likes going to Borough Market to gather goodies and then come back to sit in the Horniman and munch through them if it's sunny.

Find all posts by this user Quote this message in a reply
nevermodern


Posts: 653
Joined: Feb 2007
Post: #4
20-05-2008 10:57 AM

Don't forget to walk through the Horniman and show her the view from Canonbie Road: hard not to be wowed by it Smile Agree about Borough Market: 20 minutes and you're there.

Find all posts by this user Quote this message in a reply
alisa


Posts: 84
Joined: Mar 2008
Post: #5
20-05-2008 11:29 AM

We just took both sets of parents to Eltham Palace - easiest by car probably but fairly close and parent friendly.

http://www.elthampalace.org.uk/


http://www.se23.blogspot.com/
Find all posts by this user Quote this message in a reply
Ghis


Posts: 321
Joined: Jan 2007
Post: #6
20-05-2008 11:46 AM

alisa wrote:
We just took both sets of parents to Eltham Palace - easiest by car probably but fairly close and parent friendly.

http://www.elthampalace.org.uk/


Good tip!

Find all posts by this user Quote this message in a reply
Ghis


Posts: 321
Joined: Jan 2007
Post: #7
20-05-2008 11:49 AM

We are off to both Borough market and on Friday are doing Bermondsey Market (early! My mother loves antics markets)

Find all posts by this user Quote this message in a reply
PVP


Posts: 271
Joined: Mar 2005
Post: #8
20-05-2008 12:52 PM

Bermondsey antiques market - is it still there? I cycled past yesterday and even the sign has been scrubbed off.

Find all posts by this user Quote this message in a reply
Ghis


Posts: 321
Joined: Jan 2007
Post: #9
20-05-2008 01:14 PM
Find all posts by this user Quote this message in a reply
mljay


Posts: 80
Joined: Mar 2007
Post: #10
20-05-2008 02:50 PM

Ghis - my vote is also Eltham palace. Nice day out, lovely bridge and moat and fab house.

Find all posts by this user Quote this message in a reply
baggydave


Posts: 390
Joined: May 2004
Post: #11
20-05-2008 08:44 PM

Borough Market not the same since it was Jamie Oliverfied and you can no longer get into the Market Porter. Even the Wheatsheaf has been done up. Suggest you give it a miss, or rely on films such as the Long Good Friday to remember what it was once like on the South Bank.

Need to explore the real earthy parts of SE London, starting with the mural at the old canal by Devonshire Road, which tells you alot about the area.

Then onto Wood Vale, to check out the pub that was once the Moore Park Tavern, admire the old cars outside Librettos butchers, go into Librettos, and then onto the cemetary to see where Joe Orton's film Loot was filmed. Then onto Brenchley Gardens to follow the site of the Crystal Palace High Level line, over One Tree Hill, peer at the Yurt an the allotments, and back to Honor Oak Park.

Get a bus to check out Penge Market, up the hill to Crystal Palace Park and then you can go over to Sydenham Hill and join some of the other suggested routes. You can visit the most beautiful station and cutting in London, Sydenham Hill Station, and then onto Dulwich School to see the toll road, and then chant some anti-Thatcher songs at the gated estate where she used to live. Cross over to see the yummy mummies in Dulwich Park, which will be enough to put you off both the Village and Lordship Lane. Catch a number 12 to Peckham (free) whilst muttering about routemasters and taunting the driver that Boris will be getting rid of him soon. And then onto the joys of Peckham (see the other thread), onto the Rye (much more interesting than Dulwich Park) where you can return to Horniman Heights or Honor Oak

Take stout walking shoes, a Bivvie bag, food, some charcoal, a compass, whistle, fluorescent vest, GPS and remember to tell people that you are gone so they can send a search party out if you are late returning, and your wireless laptop so you can e-mail or better still facebook (or even have an on-going thread here) and impress your friends

Find all posts by this user Quote this message in a reply
roz


Posts: 1,796
Joined: Mar 2005
Post: #12
20-05-2008 09:42 PM

This is my shortlist in addition to those listed above;

Brockwell Park and Lido
Nunhead Cemetary.
Chislehurst Caves.
Peckham Rye Park.
Crystal Palace Park Dinosaur Park.
Battersea Park inc Childrens Zoo
The Red House, Bexleyheath.
Thames Barrier.
Belair Park.
Camberwell New Cemetary, Forest Hill Road ( some interesting Romany graves)
Battersea Dogs Home
(kid ye not- its world famous, and Battersea Park still a 25 minute direct train ride away which makes it pretty local for us)

Re Greenwich Park- if you walk east along the Thames Path , beyond the Trafalgar Pub, or west from Maze Hill station, or diagonally east across the park itself and cross over the main road ) you will pass many interesting buildings along the river including an old hospital/care home and some disused industrial plant, and of course some interesting pubs.
I can also recommend getting a boat down the river to the Thames Barrier, which passes many new developments and gives a good flavour (literally) of the industrial past and present of the river.

Find all posts by this user Quote this message in a reply
psyche9


Posts: 73
Joined: May 2008
Post: #13
21-05-2008 06:22 AM

Great suggestions above.

I took my in-laws dancing at the Rivoli - they loved it.

I also regularly take visitors on a brockley footpath walk to Nunhead cemetery.

Food-lovers i take to Lewisham market, Gennaro's and Turkish Food Centre in Lewisham, walking there through Ladywell Fields.

Find all posts by this user Quote this message in a reply
baggydave


Posts: 390
Joined: May 2004
Post: #14
21-05-2008 06:28 PM

Good list Roz, two I suggested, another two I could have incorporated in my walk. But as for Chislehurst caves, going into redneck territory there (get your banjo and check shirt out).

Find all posts by this user Quote this message in a reply
Toffeejim


Posts: 84
Joined: Nov 2004
Post: #15
21-05-2008 10:21 PM

Bermondsey Market. Unfortunately, since the ancient custom of marche ouvert was outlawed in 1995, there are no longer quite the bargains to be picked up there used to be.

If your parents haven't been much in London before Peckham and Brixton could offer interesting flavours of our diverse community.

Find all posts by this user Quote this message in a reply
baggydave


Posts: 390
Joined: May 2004
Post: #16
22-05-2008 09:19 PM

Very front line of you TJ. I bet you were there in the 80s agitatating. And I always imagined you as a Borough Market kind of guy!

Find all posts by this user Quote this message in a reply
MissD


Posts: 5
Joined: Jan 2008
Post: #17
05-06-2008 02:55 PM

Ow Wow I really didnt know about all these nice places in the area ("only" a year here).
Now I have a great plan for the weekend (if it doesnt rain) and for when my parents come over...
last time they came I dragged them through Oxford Street Blush and they were not very happy...

Find all posts by this user Quote this message in a reply

Friends of Blythe Hill Fields