“Mid 1960s terraced housing, Little Brownings, Dulwich Estate, Forest Hill, London, SE23, England UK architects Austin Vernon and Partners – built according to Radburn planning principles”
This set of images is from an urban trail – led my my son, his wife, their baby, and dog!- around the Sydenham Hill area of south London. I had no part in deciding the route, that was down to favourite dog walks, health clinic and, bizarrely a dog cafe.
In the late 1980s I worked as Education Officer at at Urban Studies centre in Swindon. The basic thrust of that was to try to get children to LOOK at the urban environment around them. What did they notice? What did they like and dislike? How could it be improved? One strategy was to create a route ( with safety constraints according to age) so they didn’t know where they would be going and would react in a fresh new way to what they encountered.
I have always loved this sort of thing, wandering around a new area and getting a feeling of its ‘sense of place’. As a stock photographer I remain nothing much more than a geographer who points his camera at subjects of interest. And on return nowadays AI helps enormously in providing information about the photos I then process, caption, keyword, and distribute to stock photo agencies for publishers to license.
These are a few of the images from walking around the Sydenham Hill area.
“Long row of Victorian terraced houses with cars parked on street in front, Mount Ash Road, Lewisham, London, SE16, England, UK built from 1868 onwards in compliance with local bye-law rules. The road is considered a “unique example” of Victorian byelaw housing because of its identical three-storey terraces that enclose the road on both sides, creating a highly regulated and uniform urban “set piece””
“Forest, formerly HumanForest, dockless e-bike and residential Bikehangar, Rowland Grove, Sydenham, London, SE26, England, UK”
“Block of flats, split-level maisonettes mid-20th century housing, Dallas Road Estate, Lewisham, London SE26, England, UK”
“Snuffle dog cafe wine bar, Wells Park Road, Sydenham, Lewisham, London, SE26, England, UK former The Talma pub”
“Exeter Place modern mixed tenure housing development by Crest Nicholson, 2019, Wells Park Road, Lewisham, London SE26, England, UK”
“Nissan Leaf electric car connected to a white “Char.gy” bollard-style charger charging station, Sydenham Hill, London, SE26, England, UK”
“Bean Tree Court, newly constructed social housing blocks of flats, Sydenham Hill, London SE26, England, UK architects HBA Architects with CZWG”
“Conversion into residential flats of Victorian villa mansion house, 34 Sydenham Hill, London SE26, England, UK built c 1894 for Charles Ash Body”
There are 51 images from this short urban trail demonstrating the variety and interest that exists in such a small urban area. They have all been added to my 2026 gallery on Geography Photos which currently contains around 600 images.
Spring sunshine has finally arrived so I hope to add new images regularly from now on, also to write brief blog posts about my various photo trips. Please subscribe to follow my progress.