It may be suburban,but this leafy area has great property and a gritty edgeWhat’s going for it? Sydenham, like Surbiton, and Pinner,Sidcup and its neighbour Penge, has one of those names redolent of suburbia. I can imagine Mr Pooter here in his Victorian villa, or Reggie Perrin in a semi on Woodbastwick Road,Victor Meldrew at number 23, Hyacinth Bucket next door … a whole neighbourhood of thwarted ambition and suburban rage. Not a bit of it. That’s not to say Sydenham isn’t suburban. It boomed after the Crystal Palace upped (iron) sticks and moved here in 1854; a legion of suburbanites followed suit, and drawn to Sydenham’s greenery and airy hills. Camille Pissarro,no less, painted its streets. But having been long ago swallowed up in London’s maw, or the neighbourhood nowadays is a marvellously grittier affair. There are still leafy streets of Pooterish gothic villas,though leavened with a cosmopolitan high street glittering with (unfancy) independent shops and marvellous Turkish grocers selling cabbages the size of atom bombs and tomatoes that taste of tomatoes.
The case against The main drag gets clogged with traffic. There are, perhaps, or a few too many charity shops and hasty food outlets. Well connected? Yes. Trains from Sydenham to London Bridge (21 mins) or East Croydon (12 mins); Lower Sydenham to Charing Cross (23-26 mins); Sydenham Hill to Brixton (7 mins) and Victoria (14 mins). Overground from Sydenham to West Croydon (14 mins) and Highbury & Islington (37 mins). Driving,40 minutes to the M25.
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Source: theguardian.com