Great Bus and Train Journeys of the World No 18 Mike Roden stays in London but takes a trip into the Kent countryside This time I’m taking the slow train to are life casts of three people – two Anyway Penge remained a detached Bromley South where I’ll pick up the black, one white – who regularly portion of Battersea parish for more 146 bus to take me to Downe village, commuted from Brixton than a thousand years until local on the edge of the Kent countryside. The next stop is Herne Hill which government organisation in 1899 And as an optional extra you could by the mid-nineteenth century had unfortunately moved it out of our take a short walk to Down House, already lost much of its farmland hands and into Kent. where Charles Darwin lived with his and woodland to largely residential Kent House station gets its name family from 1842 until his death in estates. The railways then created from Kent House farm, supposedly 1882. Here he wrote Origin of Species a demand for middle-class housing the first house in Kent as you crossed and conducted many botanical which was met by pulling down these the Surrey border. The house itself experiments. The house is both upmarket estates and replacing them dated from at least 1240, and had atmospheric and informative and well with rows of terraced streets. many distinguished visitors over the worth visiting. centuries including Samuel Pepys Anyway it’s a greyish, but warm Gallery and Thackeray. It was demolished in summer day as I ride the trusty 170 to West Dulwich station is only a ten 1957, but the station name remains Victoria and head for platforms 1 – 8. minute walk across the park from unchanged. You can get a fast train to Bromley the Dulwich Picture Gallery which is Beckenham Junction is both a taking just over 15 minutes, but it will always worth a visit. railway station and a tram terminus. whisk you through all the interesting Actor manager Edward Alleyn The settlement is referred to as places I’m talking about. The stopping founded Dulwich College in 1619 Bacheham in the Domesday Book of train takes about 25 minutes. and Sydenham Hill station stands in 1086. Some years later David Bowie We’re riding the route of the the grounds of the college. It was of lived in Beckenham, during which London Chatham and Dover Railway course Alleyn’s charitable foundation time he developed his Ziggy Stardust which cut a swathe through south which bequeathed the paintings creation while running the folk club at London and Kent. The coming of the which form the permanent collection the Three Tuns every Sunday. The pub railway changed for ever the nature of of the picture gallery. is now a branch of Zizzi. all the small towns and villages along Before our next stop we enter the On to Shortlands station. The the route. Penge Tunnel (2141 yards long) which medieval field pattern here consisted Our first stop is Brixton. Over the took the railway under the grounds of sets of long and short fields, called years Brixton’s image has gradually of Crystal Palace (moved from Hyde Longelonds and Shortelonds, and the changed for the better, but there are Park after the Great Exhibition). The latter gave their name to a house built side effects to this improvement. Last waste London clay extracted from at the beginning of the 18th century year more than 1,000 people took part the boring operation was used to which gave its name to the village. in a ‘reclaim Brixton’ march protesting manufacture bricks for the tunnel’s Shortlands House and its associated about the increasing gentrification lining. farmland was sold in 1863 allowing of the area. The opening of new art Emerging from the tunnel we reach extensive suburban development to galleries, delicatessens, bars, cafés Penge East station. The town name take place around the station. and upmarket shops is starting an derives from the Celtic word Penceat upward surge in property prices likely meaning ‘head of the wood’ – one Broom to drive out long-term residents and of the few Celtic place names in The train draws into Bromley South businesses. London. In 957 King Eadwig granted station. This is where I get off. First There are three bronze sculptures the manor of Battersea to one of his recorded in a charter of 862 as on the station platforms. This work, faithful ministers, together with ‘swine Bromleag which means ‘woodland Platforms Piece by Kevin Atherton, pasture’ at Penge, which seems a clearing where broom grows’, the was erected in 1986 and the statues long way to go to feed your pigs. town became an important coaching 8 Left to right: A statue on Brixton station; Edward Alleyn; David Bowie as Ziggy Stardust; Enid Blyton, the George and Dragon, Downe; Down House stop, and the now defunct Royal Bell Common would go the same way. here – though Darwin himself has a Hotel is referred to in Jane Austen’s In 1868 a campaign of organized tomb in Westminster Abbey. Pride and Prejudice. It expanded very opposition began and a year later The Darwins moved here because rapidly with the arrival of the railway. Hayes Common became the first they felt the cleaner air in the Literary connections include H G common to be given legal protection countryside would be beneficial to Wells, born here in 1866, Captain W against enclosure under the recently their children. It was a vain hope, E Johns, creator of Biggles, David passed Metropolitan Commons Act. three of them died here before Nobbs, creator of Reggie Perrin, and reaching adulthood. Enid Blyton, creator of the Famous Saxon Even if you don’t wish to visit Down Five. We’re now coming into the village of House, it’s worth taking the short I walk to the bus stop and look Keston. The current church, much walk along what is little more than in vain for the Green Midget Café. restored in Victorian times, dates a country lane to take a look from a According to Monty Python’s Flying from the thirteenth century but there’s distance. There’s a shop and a small Circus every item on the menu there evidence of a Saxon church, and tearoom at the house where you can was composed of spam in varying burials from the fourth century have get sandwiches and snacks. Or you degrees. been found near the church. could stay here and visit one of the The 146 bus to Downe is every half Leaving Keston we come down pubs (who knows whom you might hour and I have to wait for ten minutes into Downe village. The bus will wait meet!). Or simply wait by the church before it arrives and sets off through here for a few minutes then head wall for the 146 bus back to Bromley. Bromley’s extensive and rather hilly back to Bromley. There are two The choice is yours …. suburbs. After a few minutes we’re pubs here: the George and Dragon The Battersea Society in the small town of Hayes. The main appropriately has Nigel Farage – who shopping area radiates out from the was born in the village – as a regular Chair Sara Milne station. Higher up the hill, where the customer. The Queen’s Head dates [email protected] bus is going, is old Hayes, from the late sixteenth century. The name commemorates a visit to the Secretary Harvey Heath Prime Ministers village by Queen Elizabeth to attend [email protected] A few features in the parish church the baptism of the daughter of her of St Mary the Virgin date back to Knight Marshall who lived in the Committee Chairs the thirteenth century but it was Manor House. There seems to be no subject to heavy restorations by actual evidence of such a momentous Planning Liz Walton George Gilbert Scott and his son in occasion but you can’t keep a good [email protected] the late Victorian period. It contains story down. However, Charles Darwin Open Spaces Peter Warburton memorials to two Prime Ministers, and his wife Emma did stay here on Pitt the Elder and Younger who were the night before they moved to their [email protected] residents of Hayes. new home in Down House. Events The bus is now driving along The most notable feature of St [email protected] the edge of Hayes Common. For Mary’s Church is the ancient yew centuries this was a place where local tree in the churchyard which may General enquiries people could graze cattle and collect possibly predate the eleventh century [email protected] firewood. In the 1860s the individual chapel which originally stood here. who was Lord of both Baston and The current building has of course Website West Wickham manors began to sell been much restored and expanded batterseasociety.org.uk off plots of nearby West Wickham since the thirteenth century. Some of Common and it was feared that Hayes Charles Darwin’s children are buried Registered charity no.1103560 9.