If you travel round London on foot like me you inevitably spend a fair amount of time trekking along some road packed with cars spewing out pollution. The consolation being that at least you are not stuck IN the cars at rush hour! The odd 'green way' is very precious. This one is no challenge to the much longer Parkland Walk in North London, but it's still a very pleasant alternative to the road, and I'm glad I discovered it, totally by accident, even though it actually turned out to be a very indirect path to where I was going!
I joined it where it starts at Dulwich Common road, right at the corner with Lordship Lane. The surface could be better: it's that horrible chewed up tarmac gritty stuff. But it makes a graceful (if challengingly steep) sweep up the hill under lovely tall trees, between allotments and golf course. Having climbed high, you get the choice of a gate through into Dulwich Wood, or heading over a picturesque old bridge (looks like an old railway bridge, though there's no railway in the cutting below). Here the path branches: I choose the right, which take you on up, through a fair amount of mud, to Sydenham Hill road.
A stiff walk due to the hill (any runners attempting it should only do it for hill work), but it's great to find these little secrets. read more