FOREST HILL

             The name Forest Hill has its origins, as the name suggests, in the fact that it was a wooded hilly area. It is one of the highest hills in London with stunning views to central London and the North Downs The forest was used to supply timber to the nearby docks at Deptford,  when it was part of the Great North Wood and the main occupants then were charcoal burners and woodsmen. In 1809 the Croydon Canal was cut through the area; this was not a commercial success, because there were so many locks to go through. It remained sparsely inhabited right up until the middle of the nineteenth century. Then in 1839 Forest Hill railway station opened on the London and Croydon line built on the original filled-in canal. As in much of Britain, the coming of the railways brought an end to the tranquil rural idyll (if it did ever exist) and the area attracted builders and architects creating large houses and villas for the wealthy.

             An important legacy  has been left to Forest Hill by one of these wealthy ‘settlers’. The Horniman museum is a truly exciting collection of artefacts that Frederick Horniman, tea merchant, collector and Liberal MP, accumulated on his world travels. The current building opened in 1901with an adjoining 16 acres of  parkland. Horniman’s collection having outgrown his home Surrey House, which he had been opening to the public since 1890.

 

Rocque’s map 1745→     

 

←Forest Hill in 1862.

Traces of  the Croydon Canal remained  in Havelock Walk. This was later drained in 1867.