Hilly Fields is located in Ladywell ward in Lewisham, South East London, and is managed by the London Borough of Lewisham. Preserved as a park through the efforts of Octavia Hill, the park was opened in 1896.
Hilly Fields is located in Ladywell ward in Lewisham, South East London, and is managed by the London Borough of Lewisham. Preserved as a park through the efforts of Octavia Hill, the park was opened in 1896.
By the late 19th century, Deptford Common had been lost to developers. The philanthropist Octavia Hill was active in Deptford, and learnt of building proposals in the Hilly Fields area. Supported by the Commons Preservation Society, the Kyrle Society and the Metropolitan Public Gardens Association Hill formed a committee in 1889 to secure the preservation of the area as a public park. [1]
Hill's committee succeeded in getting the London County Council to open the park in 1896, [2] the same year that the National Trust acquired its first property, Alfriston Clergy House; Hill was one of the three co-founders of the Trust. One of her co-founders, Robert Hunter, was the chairman of the committee to save Hilly Fields. [2]
The park was laid out to a design by Lt Col JJ Sexby, the Chief Officer of Parks for the LCC. [1]
Responsibility for the park transferred from the LCC to the LB of Lewisham in 1971. [2]
Within the park there are a number of facilities. The Francis Drake Bowls Club was opened in 1906. [3] Other facilities include three tennis courts, a cricket pitch, a basketball court, a football pitch, a dog exercise area and a monthly farmers’ market. [4]
For the Millennium in 2000, a stone circle was erected. [1] [5] The circle received a mention in the Civic Trust’s Awards in 2002. [6]
A nature reserve was established in 1992. [1]
The park has a café, called Pistachios in the Park. [7]
The park hosts a 5 km Parkrun on Saturday mornings [8] and a 2 km Junior Parkrun on Sunday mornings. [9]
One of the features of Sexby’s original design for the park was a bandstand. [10] This was still in place in 1924. The Bandstand is now long-gone, but it is featured in a modern mural on the park café. [11]
The summit of the park is 175 feet above sea level, from where views of central London can be obtained. [2]
There is an active Friends Group. [12]
Hilly Fields is within the Brockley Conservation Area, and has views of Blythe Hill Fields which can be seen to the south of the park.
In the centre of the park, and pre-dating it, is a secondary school. Built in 1884-5 as West Kent Grammar School, it later became Brockley County Secondary School. It is now Prendergast School. [1] The school is listed (under its former name of Hillyfields Sixth Form Centre) Grade II* but only for the ‘exceptional’ mural paintings, executed between 1933 and 1936, in the school hall, by four painters connected with the Royal College of Art: Charles Mahoney, Evelyn Dunbar, Mildred Eldridge and Violet Martin. [13]
Edith Nesbit referred to Hilly Fields in her 1913 non-fiction work The Wings and the Child. [2]
The Brockley-born novelist Henry Williamson referred to the campaign to save Hilly Fields in his 1952 novel Donkey Boy. [1]
The poet David Jones used Hilly Fields as inspiration for his 1961 poem The Tutelar of the Place. [14]
In 1982, musician Nick Nicely, who lived in Brockley at the time, released the single "Hilly Fields (1892)" inspired by the park. [15]
Bellingham is an area of South East London, England, within the London Borough of Lewisham. It lies south of Catford, east of Sydenham and north of Beckenham, and is part of the Catford postal district (SE6).
Brockley is a district and an electoral ward of south London, England, in the London Borough of Lewisham 5 miles (8 km) south-east of Charing Cross.
Crofton Park is a mainly residential suburb and electoral ward in the London Borough of Lewisham.
Lewisham is a London borough in south-east London; it forms part of Inner London. The principal settlement of the borough is Lewisham. The local authority is Lewisham London Borough Council, based in Catford. The Prime Meridian passes through Lewisham. Blackheath, Goldsmiths, University of London and Millwall F.C. are located within the borough.
Lewisham Deptford is a parliamentary constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2015 by Vicky Foxcroft of the Labour Party.
Lewisham is an area of southeast London, England, six miles south of Charing Cross. It is the principal area of the London Borough of Lewisham, and was within the historic county of Kent until 1889. It is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London, with a large shopping centre and street market. Lewisham had a population of 60,573 in 2011.
The River Ravensbourne is a tributary of the River Thames in south London, England. It flows into the tidal River Thames at Deptford, where its tidal reach is known as Deptford Creek.
The Metropolitan Borough of Lewisham was a metropolitan borough in the County of London between 1900 and 1965, when it became part of the London Borough of Lewisham along with the Metropolitan Borough of Deptford.
Darren Paul Johnson is a former English politician who was a prominent member of the Green Party of England and Wales. He represented the Green Party on the London Assembly from 2000 to 2016 and was a Green councillor in the London Borough of Lewisham. He is now a writer and has had several rock music biographies published.
Lewisham parks and open spaces are part of the "green lung" of London and include a diverse range of sites, from small urban parks and gardens to one of the most historic natural landscapes in Greater London at Blackheath. While overall control rests with London Borough of Lewisham, management of borough-owned parks and their facilities is contracted out to Glendale Grounds Management.
Ladywell is a locale in Lewisham in South East London, England, and a ward in the London Borough of Lewisham between Brockley, Crofton Park and Lewisham proper. It has ample green space including Ladywell Fields and Hilly Fields which borders Brockley. Ladywell Village, the main shopping area along Ladywell Road, was given a facelift in 2013 with £800,000 of Transport for London funding. The pavements were widened, short stay bays created to help local businesses and shoppers, and trees were added. Ladywell Village has a range of retail outlets including a number of cafes, a patisserie and a delicatessen.
Prendergast School is a girls' secondary school and sixth form located on Hilly Fields, Brockley, in the London Borough of Lewisham. It has an independent board of governors. The school motto is from Chaucer's Prologue to The Canterbury Tales: "Trouthe and Honour, Fredom and Curteisye".
Lewisham North was a parliamentary constituency in Lewisham, London which returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1950 until it was abolished for the February 1974 general election.
Brockley and Ladywell Cemeteries were opened within one month of each other in 1858 and are sited on adjacent plots of previously open land. The two component parts are characteristic examples of the first wave of Victorian public cemeteries and are now part of the Brockley Conservation Area.
Deptford Park is a public park in Deptford south-east London. It is owned by London Borough of Lewisham.
Sayes Court was a manor house and garden in Deptford, in the London Borough of Lewisham on the Thames Path and in the former parish of St Nicholas. Sayes Court once attracted throngs to visit its celebrated garden created by the seventeenth century diarist John Evelyn. Now completely buried beneath Convoys Wharf and Sayes Court Park, the area shows little sign of its former glory, despite having been a key factor in the creation of the National Trust.
Ladywell Fields, originally Ladywell Recreation Ground is a public park in the London Borough of Lewisham created from three historic fields. It is located near Ladywell railway station at the northern end of the park, and Catford Bridge at the southern end.
John James Sexby VD was a British civil servant who served as the first Chief Officer for Parks for the London County Council from 1892 to 1909, and was responsible for the creation of many of London's late Victorian and Edwardian parks. He is invariably described as Lt-Col JJ Sexby, although all of his military service was in the Volunteer Force and Lt-Col was an honorary title as his substantive rank was that of a Major.
