Location & Access
It is on the established Green Chain Walk, a long distance walking route which covers 65km through Greater London. It can also be accessed from Reigate Road on the Downham side of the Railway Bridge, via the railway bridge from Hither Green Cemetery.
History
The land now known as the Grove Park Nature Reserve (GPNR) is part of a wider and longer green corridor running from south circular (St Mildred’s Road) to Grove Park station and beyond. It has a complex history. The woodland at the southern end was once the garden of a large house known as The Three Gables where writer Edith Nesbit lived in the late 1890s.
Most of the reserve was allotments, which largely came about as part of the Dig for Victory campaign in WWII, although there were parts which were allotments long before. A hollow beside the main path marks the site of a former pond which has now dried up. This may have been the site of an anti-aircraft battery during WWII.
The land has been managed as a nature reserve since 1984, when it was managed by Lewisham Council, under license from British Rail. The reserve was gifted to Lewisham Borough Council in 1986 as part of the planning inquiry outcome, which saw the development of part of the green corridor just north of the nature reserve (which became Bramdean Village). The community continue to campaign to bring together all parcels of land to create a united District Park resource for Grove Park. In October 2020, the Grove Park Nature Reserve became a Statutory Nature Reserve, thanks to the persistent campaigning by residence to have it formally recognised for its rich contribution to biodiversity in the area, under the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949.
