Blackthorn at Sydenham Hill Wood Daniel Greenwood

Sydenham Hill Wood Fungi credit Daniel Greenwood

Purple hairstreak, Cox's Walk credit Daniel Greenwood

Sydenham Hill Wood and Cox's Walk

A unique mix of new and ancient woodland in Dulwich, with remnants of Victorian gardens, can be found at the Trust’s oldest nature reserve.

Location

Crescent Wood Road

Sydenham Hill

SE26 6LS

Know before you go

Size

11 hectares

Access

Enter Sydenham Hill Wood via Crescent Wood Road (opposite Countisbury House) or via Dulwich Wood. Cox’s Walk can be joined from Sydenham Hill, or the junction of Lordship Lane and Dulwich Common. Bus services 356 and 363 stop along Sydenham Hill, while the 176, 185, 197, P4 and P13 buses stop near the Cox’s Walk entrance in London Road. Sydenham Hill Railway Station is a five-minute walk from Crescent Wood Road.

Gates prohibit access by wheelchair users. Footpaths are uneven and there are many steps because of the Wood’s inclines. The Green Chain Walk goes through SHW and Cox’s Walk. Numbered fingerposts denote points of the nature trail. Benches are placed around the reserve. Street parking is available in Crescent Wood Road.

Dogs

On a lead

When to visit

Opening times

Open at all times

Best time to visit

April to July, September to November

About the reserve

Sydenham Hill Wood forms part of the largest remaining tract of the old Great North Wood, a vast area of worked coppices and wooded commons that once stretched from Deptford to Selhurst. The wood is home to more than 200 species of trees and plants as well as rare fungi, insects, birds and woodland mammals.

The Nunhead to Crystal Palace (High Level) railway once passed through the Wood, and you can follow the track bed to a disused and closed tunnel, now a registered bat roost. There is also a Victorian folly, once a garden ornament, hidden in the wood. Cox's Walk is an 18th Century oak-lined avenue that crosses the wood by an ornamental footbridge over the old railway track.

History of Sydenham Hill Wood

The reserve was once part of Ambrook Hill Wood, Lapsewood and the Peckarmans Coppices of the extensive Dulwich Woods. Large Victorian villas with extensive gardens were established in Sydenham Hill In the 1850s in response to the development of the Crystal Palace in 1854, and there was further disruption with a railway cutting to the Palace, opened 1865, requiring diversion of the adjacent Cox’s Walk (an avenue through the woods created in 1742 by publican Francis Cox) over a footbridge. The railway closed in 1954 following the Palace's destruction by fire and most of the villas were also demolished, allowing the Wood to expand.

In the 1980s, Sydenham Hill Wood was saved from development threats, a testament to the determination of local people to safeguard nature. It became the Trust’s first nature reserve in 1982. Cox’s Walk came under Trust management in 1998, and Beechgrove (named after the last villa to be demolished in 1982), was incorporated in 2016 as a final part of the reserve’s ‘jigsaw’.

Management of Sydenham Hill Wood

We maintain the woodland diversity by selective coppicing and the removal of invasive shrubs. As a popular site we encourage visitors to keep to pathways away from the sensitive, ancient woodland flora.

Status of Sydenham Hill Wood

Part of a Site of Metropolitan Importance, Metropolitan Open Land, Conservation Area. Local Nature Reserve (Sydenham Hill Wood), Protected London Square (Cox’s Walk)

Get involved at Sydenham Hill Wood

Record species you've spotted at Sydenham Hill Wood

Book a school trip to Sydenham Hill Wood

Volunteer with Sydenham Hill Wood's team

We hold volunteering days from 10.30am to 3.30pm on Wednesdays, Thursdays and the second and fourth Sundays of the month. Join for the whole day or come along to the morning or afternoon session (10:30 - 12:30 / 1:30 - 3:30).

To find out more call Rachel Dowse on 020 3897 6151 or email rdowse@wildlondon.org.uk.