A jaunt around Crystal Palace and Sydenham
The weather was lovely last weekend, so when my partner and I had to run some errands on Crystal Palace High Street, or the triangle as it's known locally, we decided to extend our time outdoors by going on a jaunt, it was simply too nice not to.
We recently moved to Sydenham and we were interested in exploring the surrounding area. Our route to the triangle took us through the impressive Crystal Palace Park, where we passed the grounds of The Crystal Palace, the foundation on which it stood after being moved from Hyde park after the Exhibition of 1851 is still intact. Other points of interest included 6 tennis courts, a national sports centre, a dinosaur walk, a mini F1 style racetrack for radio controlled cars, a large group of skateboarders and some recently renovated Egyptian style Sphinxes. Note to self, must buy a skateboard.
In the triangle we discovered lots of nice restaurants, cafes, and good vintage furniture shops there was even a farmers market taking place.
Heading back towards home we cut through Sydenham Hill Woods via a private road in Dulwich with some amazing houses and this really old and beautiful church.
The woods itself are much larger than I expected and the sense of peace in there was like nothing else I had experienced in London. In fact if it were not for the occasional distant murmur of traffic you would think you were out in rural countryside.
On exiting the woods we discovered the excellent Wood House pub with recently refurbished garden, we sat outside, soaked up the sun and ordered a burger and beer from the quaint burger shack.
The Burger Shack at the Wood House do a great burger and the beer garden is really nice.
Adequately refreshed we headed downhill towards Kirkdale road, passed the boyhood home of Ernest Shackleton! Where you can do a little audio tour.
On Kirkdale there was a small cluster of furniture shops, a good Japanese restaurant called Hibagon Sushi & Grill and a small rustic wine bar (which we had to try out) called 161 we stopped a gave it a go.
161 Kirkdale is a great little wine shop that also does breakfasts at the weekend.
After a refreshing glass of white on a sweltering September's evening we headed home happy and a little bit more clued up on our new neighbourhood.
