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About the Park The 'first time' or occasional visitor to BPP may not appreciate its true extent. The map (see map link or How to get there multimap link) shows the park and immediate surrounds. The railway bisects the park and the only routes joining both parts are the railway bridge north of the Ash Plantation or by leaving and re-entering the park at the Southend Lodge and Crab Hill areas. Hence the railway effectively divides the park into West and East. Beckenham Place Park is the surviving nucleus of what was once a large estate created by the Cator family. The park has a variety of habitats for wildlife and plants and is a listed Local Nature Reserve. Woodland, grassland/meadow, River and ponds. Trees include pedunculate oak, wild service tree, ash, sycamore, elm, hazel, holly, mulberry. Plants: bluebell, wood anemone, lesser cellandine, a variety of fungi.  Birds: green woodpecker, great spotted woodpecker, lesser spotted woodpecker, kestrel, sparrow hawk, kingfisher, blue tit, long tailed tit, great tit, black cap, tree creeper, nuthatch, stock dove, wood pigeon, ring necked parakeet, blue crowned parakeet. Invertibrates: stag beetle, lesser stag beetle, millipedes, butterflies, etc. Small mammals: pipistrelle bat, bank vole, wood mouse, badgers have been seen in the area, fox..the Wild About Britain Gallery     is a good place to see pictures of these species.                            The Green Chain Walk The River Ravensbourne Meadow Management The history of the park and its environs is extensive and is covered briefly in Friends publications. The Visitor Centre has extensive information about the past, present and future of the park. The park's life as a public recreation area began around 1927/29 when the park was purchased by the London County Council and some contribution from London Borough of Lewisham to satisfy a need for public open space in the area as the large housing estates of Bellingham and Downham were being developed. Ancient Trees Woodland Trust website Woodland Management The historic and 'listed' buildings in the park include The Mansion, The Stables and Homesteads (and Garden Cottage), and Southend Lodge (gatehouse). The Foxgrove Club is within the bounds of the park and is leased to a private social club. This building used to be a golf club house before golf facilities were moved to the Mansion House. In the west are the historic buildings, public golf course, major woodland areas, picnic and recreational grassland areas. In the east are the sports changing rooms and pitches (currently mostly unused), a car park, children's play area, Generations Club, river corridor (Ravensbourne) and riverside walk. The sports fields on the Common are being reinstated for amateur football leagues at weekends, but the fields provide a recreational area for walking and games. The park covers 214 acres, 94 of which accommodate the golf course. The park includes grassland, ancient woodland and water habitats, which support a wide range of wildlife. The Western part of the park can be entered by car or on foot at the northern end of the Drive, and by foot at the southern end, Beckenham Hill Road (three entrances) and also at Westgate Road in the south where some parking is available. Paths around the buildings and formal gardens are easy to follow, as are paths in Stumps Hill Wood. The main paths in Summerhouse Wood can look 'similar' and guide maps available from the visitor centre may be of most use there. There are a number of 'desire lines' or paths, which have been created by people venturing into woodland and these, are not mapped. Woodland management attempts to blocked off some of these to improve wildlife habitats or conserve flora. Unfortunately the 'desire' to venture of main paths may seem adventurous but is damaging to bluebells and other plants as well as wildlife habitat generally. The Eastern half of the park can be entered from Old Bromley Road by foot or car parking area, from Ravensbourne Avenue/Crab Hill in the south or from Beckenham Hill railway bridge. Also accessed from the western part by the railway bridge within the park. This part of the park contains one of the most natural stretches of the River Ravensbourne. The river rises from a spring at Keston Ponds (Ceasar's Well) and other springs in the Orpington area and enters Lewisham at this part of BPP. Small areas of woodland bound the river and railway. Kingfishers are regular residents of the Ravensbourne and have been seen here and as far as Ladywell Park. They feed on the sticklebacks in the river and are more likely to be seen when there are few visitors in the park. The park has been cited as being 'the only piece of natural countryside in Lewisham'. The Friends have a selection of leaflets on the nature, hydrology and geology of the park availabe at the visitor centre and they may appear here on the website in the near future. Lewisham's Unitary Development Plan recognises the importance of the river course and promotes the concept of a river corridor and walk. Once the river leaves BPP it goes under ground or is channelled in concrete until it re-emerges joining the river Pool at Catford Bridge and Ladywell Park. Mansion Stable Block Lodges Buildings The Mansion was built for John Cator circa 1770, parts of the house and the Doric columns of the portico, were taken from a house he purchased and demolished at Blackheath (Gregory Page Turner's Wricklemarsh). The family eventually sold their lands in Beckenham, much of it for housing development, as they had done with Wricklemarsh at Blackheath. The Stable Block (Homesteads) is thought be contemporary with the Mansion, the clock is said to have come from 'Clock House' Beckenham. It was made or installed in the 1730's having been overhauled in the late 18th century, perhaps on installation into the stable block, and again circa 1930, possibly this time at the take-over of the park by the London County Council. The clock is said to have only been in BPP for 100 years, so there is a bit of a mystery as to its movements (no pun intended). The stable block has many original features but much the accommodation has been remodeled and upgraded, again perhaps on the LCC take over. There are three lodges to BPP, only one remaining in possession of the Local Authority (London Borough of Lewisham. The two others at Foxgrove Road and Westgate Road are now outside the bounds the public park. Garden Cottage stands in the formal flower garden and was probably the 'Estate Managers' residence. A mound with mature trees by the Drive near Garden Cottage is thought to be the remains of an Ice Well. Land around the Mansion was laid out as landscaped "Park Land" with rolling grassland interspersed with single or groups of specimen trees as this was fashionably in the eighteenth century. There was until the introduction of the golf course, a two-acre lake in the valley at the back and to the left of the Mansion.