One Tree Hill is a defining feature of Honor Oak, mostly in London Borough of Southwark but parts also in the London Borough of Lewisham. It includes a 7 hectare public park, local nature reserve and Site of Borough Importance for Nature Conservation, Grade 1, [1] which is owned and managed by Southwark Council. [2] Its name, and that of the Honor Oak area, derive from the Oak of Honor, a tree on the hill which marked the southern boundary of the Norman Honour of Gloucester. [3]
One Tree Hill was once a part of a much larger landscape called the Great North Wood. [3] The London Wildlife Trust is currently working with Southwark Council and the Friends of One Tree Hill to improve the site for wildlife, as a part of its Great North Wood Project.
The hill's Oak of Honor once marked the southern boundary of the Norman Honour of Gloucester. It was later owned by the Abbots of Bermondsey, until it was confiscated by the monarchy during the Dissolution of the Monasteries. According to legend, Queen Elizabeth I rested under an oak at the summit on her way to visit Lewisham in 1602. [3] The current oak is the third on the site, planted in 1905. [4]
Before the end of the eighteenth century, the East India Company built a semaphore station on the top of the hill to signal when ships were sighted in the Channel, and it was used as a beacon point by the Admiralty during the Napoleonic Wars. [3] In 1896 the hill was fenced off by a local golf club, but this led to large scale protests, occupation and removal of the fences by local members of the Selborne Society and Society for the Protection of Birds (later the RSPB). [5] In 1905 the site was compulsorily purchased by the new Camberwell Borough Council. The church of St Augustine was built on the north-east side of the hill between 1872 and 1900. It is fenced off from the public park. In 1957 John Betjeman described the view from the top as "better than that from Parliament Hill". [4] Adjacent to the hill is the Honor Oak Reservoir, the largest underground brick reservoir in the world when finished in 1909, and it remains the largest in Europe.
The steep hill is wooded with open grassland at the top. The site has many ancient trees, but the main ones are hybrid black-poplar and London plane, the result of former landscaping. There are also wild service trees and midland hawthorns. The ground flora includes bluebells, heath grass and compact rush. [2] [1]
There is access from Honor Oak Park and Brenchley Gardens. [4]
Honor Oak is an inner suburban area principally of the London Borough of Lewisham, with part in the London Borough of Southwark. It is named after the oak tree on One Tree Hill that Elizabeth I is reputed to have picnicked under.
The London Borough of Southwark, occupying a roughly triangular area south of Tower Bridge over the River Thames, considers itself to be one of the greenest boroughs in London, with its 245 hectares of public parkland. There are more than 130 such green areas, ranging from the large areas around Dulwich and Southwark Park in Rotherhithe to the many sports grounds and squares. The main ones are:
Sydenham Hill Wood is a ten-hectare wood on the northern slopes of the Norwood Ridge in the London Borough of Southwark. It is designated as a Local Nature Reserve and Site of Metropolitan Importance for Nature Conservation. With the adjacent Dulwich Wood, Sydenham Hill Wood is the largest extant tract of the ancient Great North Wood. The two woods are formed from coppices known as Lapsewood, Old Ambrook Hill Wood and Peckarmans Wood after the relocation of The Crystal Palace in 1854 and the creation of the high level line in 1865.
Beckenham Place Park is a large park located near Beckenham in the London Borough of Lewisham. It lies close to the border with the London Borough of Bromley, and was formerly divided between the two boroughs. The Palladian-style mansion that gave the park its name now serves as a community centre and café.
Scratchwood is an extensive, mainly wooded, country park in Mill Hill in the London Borough of Barnet. The 57-hectare site is a Site of Metropolitan Importance for Nature Conservation and together with the neighbouring Moat Mount Open Space. It is a Local Nature Reserve.
Coppetts Wood and Scrublands is a 14.5-hectare (36-acre) Site of Borough Importance for Nature Conservation, Grade I, between Muswell Hill and Friern Barnet in the London Borough of Barnet. It is part of the Coppetts Wood and Glebelands Local Nature Reserve.
Oak Hill Wood is a 10-hectare Local Nature Reserve (LNR) and a Site of Borough Importance for Nature Conservation Grade I, in East Barnet, London. It is owned by the London Borough of Barnet, and part of it is a 5.5-hectare nature reserve managed by the London Wildlife Trust.
Burnt Oak Brook is a one-mile-long stream between Mill Hill and Burnt Oak in the London Borough of Barnet. It is a tributary of the Silk Stream, which is a tributary of the River Brent, which is a tributary of the River Thames.
Adelaide Local Nature Reserve is in North West London, in the area of Chalk Farm, Primrose Hill, Belsize Park and Swiss Cottage. It is managed by a local volunteer group, the Adelaide Nature Reserve Association, which works with the council to improve the site for wildlife and local community use and enjoyment. The site is a Local Nature Reserve and Site of Borough Importance for Nature Conservation, Grade 1.
Big Wood and Little Wood are two patches of woodland in Hampstead Garden Suburb in the London Borough of Barnet. They are a Site of Borough Importance for Nature Conservation, Grade 1, and a Local Nature Reserve. Big Wood is 7.3 hectares and Little Wood is 1.2 hectares.
Mayow Park, formerly known as Sydenham Recreation Ground, is a municipal park in London Borough of Lewisham. Located on Mayow Road in Sydenham, south east London, it is the borough's oldest park and its second oldest public open space after Blackheath. The park has a Green Flag Award.
Ainslie Wood is a 2.03 hectares Local Nature Reserve and a Grade I Site of Nature Conservation Interest surrounded by urban housing in Chingford in the London Borough of Waltham Forest in England. It is owned by Waltham Forest Borough Council and operated by the council with Friends of Ainslie and Larks Woods.
Dacres Wood is a small local nature reserve in Forest Hill in the London Borough of Lewisham. It is owned and managed by Lewisham Council.
Dulwich Upper Wood is a 2.4 hectare local nature reserve and Site of Borough Importance for Nature Conservation, Grade 1, in Crystal Palace in the London Borough of Southwark. It is owned by Southwark Council and managed by the Trust for Urban Ecology.
Perivale Wood is an 11.6 hectare Local Nature Reserve (LNR) and Site of Metropolitan Importance for Nature Conservation in Perivale in the London Borough of Ealing. It is one of the oldest nature reserves in Britain. The Selborne Society has managed it since 1902, at first as a bird sanctuary. In 1914 it leased the site and in 1923 it purchased it. The wood was designated an LNR in 1974.
Jubilee Wood is located in Malden Rushett in the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames in London. It is divided into two parts, separated by an electricity sub-station. They are part of the 22 hectare 'Sixty Acre Wood and Jubilee Wood' Site of Metropolitan Importance for Nature Conservation, and the two hectare eastern wood, which is the only part which is publicly accessible, is also a Local Nature Reserve.
Castle Hill is a 3.5-hectare (8.6-acre) scheduled monument, local nature reserve and Site of Borough Importance for Nature Conservation, Grade 1, in Chessington in the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, London. It is owned by Merton College, Oxford, and leased to Kingston Council. The site is managed by the Lower Mole Countryside Management Project.
Blondin Park is an 8.5-hectare (21-acre) public park in Northfields in the London Borough of Ealing. It has allotments area and sports pitches. It is owned by Ealing Council and managed by the Council together with the Friends of Blondin Park. An area of 2.3 ha in the south-west corner is a Local Nature Reserve, and the nature area and allotments are a Site of Local Importance for Nature Conservation.