IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Spinney Gardens, LONDON, SE19 1LL

On the site of the Crystal Palace High Level station, these award-winning houses built in the early 1980s set a trend in energy efficiency by using orientation and passive solar gain https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/insight/insight/back-to-the-future3-14253

The view is from a bus on Crystal Palace Parade. The site of the Crystal Palace itself is behind the camera. The High Level station is reported to have closed in 1954. Redevelopment did not take place until the period 1985-1993, according to old OS maps. In the background are the trees of Dulwich Upper Wood Nature Park.

The road follows the line of the old railway, which emerged from a tunnel below the camera. The brick wall to the left rises to Crystal Palace Parade, on the other side of which was the Palace itself. Behind the trees to the right is modern housing which now occupies the site of the high level station and its associated sidings. Crystal Palace High Level station was built by the London, Chatham and Dover Railway, competing with the earlier Low Level station built by the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway; it was at the terminus of a branch line from Nunhead and Peckham Rye. The line was closed in the early 1950s.

A view from above the mouth of Paxton Tunnel of the site of the approaches to the terminal station. The retaining wall on the left extends all the way from the tunnel to the site of the station, where its design changes. The area is now a housing estate, the houses hidden by the trees on the right.

Behind the camera is the tunnel mouth from which excursion trains emerged into the Crystal Palace High Level station Image Visitors reached the Crystal Palace exhibitions through a subway below the Parade Image The station site is now occupied by housing, right, and Image and a rehabilitation centre.

Spinney Gardens is a residential cul de sac built on an old rail track. The impressive arched retaining wall is a reminder of those days. This is pretty much an identical shot to Image, even down to the wheely bins, but with winter branches allowing a longer view of the structure.

Coming soon! More biodiversity!

This runs from Paxton Tunnel, behind the camera, as far as the site of the station building, where the design changes.

The southern of two tunnels on the Crystal Palace High Level branch, which closed in 1954. This one was immediately north of the terminal station and its sidings, which now are built over with housing.

Signs explain that the wood is a fragment of the Great North Wood (likely origin of the name Norwood for this general area of south London). Helped by its LNR status, its persistence can be attributed to natural resilience in the face of human history. Easiest access is from Farquhar Road.