House For Sale £600,000
During a complicated and challenging house move from sw to se London in 2013, we almost bought a good-sized Victorian property in Lower Sydenham - which fell through at the last minute. Somewhat bruised by the whole experience, we were shown this 1980s property in Doctors Close - which was not quite yet on the market, and we have genuinely not looked back since. As soon as we moved in it felt just right, and since then we have never felt anything but happy and safe here. There is a reason that people stay here a while, and that the houses in Doctors Close don’t come on the market very often.
The only reason we are selling and (hopefully) moving is because it’s the right time for us both to change gear and careers, and we have decided to move out of London - to pastures green, we hope. Having planned to sell & move in the spring of 2020, certain pan-global matters threw a large bag of spanners in the works, and here we are a year down the line.
Doctors Close was built in 1980, within the large back garden area of the grand Victorian villa, now known as Bolney Court, which now incorporates an nhs dentist on the ground floor, and a number of flats. Because of this location, we are away from the road and tucked behind Bolney Court, so we experience very little traffic noise at all
On our property, just behind our rear garden fence, is an angled section of the original Victorian brick boundary wall of Bolney Court. It looks over the railway tracks (if you are tall or stand on tiptoes) just south of Sydenham station - but in the 1830s you would have overlooked barges being pulled by horses along the short-lived Croydon Canal.
Lawrie Park Road and the wide, tree-lined avenues of the ‘Lawrie Park Triangle’ are full of attractive Victorian and Edwardian houses, some dating back to when Crystal Palace Park was laid out in the 1850s. Doctors Close is named after Doctor W.G. Grace, the legendary English cricketer, who lived in a property where the adjacent Cricketers Walk now sits.
In terms of maintaining and improving this house, we renovated and replaced the bathroom, and redecorated the main bedroom very soon after we moved in. We landscaped and greatly improved the front garden during the summer of 2015. Prior to this it was an unloved slope of patchy grass and rampant wild garlic, and it is now a very attractive space to sit and enjoy in the warmer months, full of colour and wildlife, and we are proud that all the hard work was worth it. The Wisteria we planted against the wall is a gift to whoever buys the house. It definitely needs a haircut now and then, but the scent of the flowers when they come in late spring is almost overwhelmingly beautiful. (fyi, the old apple tree in the front garden reliably produces a lot of fruit each year, but you will need to fight a sustained guerrilla campaign against aphids, squirrels and parakeets to get many through to harvest time).
We replaced the electrical consumer unit and upgraded the lighting circuits in 2016. We replaced the soffits, fascia boards and guttering in 2017, and installed a new Vaillant combi boiler in 2018. We redecorated the hall/stairs/landing areas in 2019, and the kitchen, utility room and back bedrooms during 2020, as well as replacing the downstairs carpet and rear garden fence.
We don’t have children, but the Close has several young families, and the property layout and the private close is clearly ideal for families, being a regular venue for ball games and bike riding lessons far from traffic. Because everyone is on friendly first name terms, and through the layout of the Close - with houses facing each other - it also feels like a very safe place, day and night. People only come down the Close if they have a good reason, and if anyone else wanders down and is lost, or for whatever reason, they tend to quickly leave.
In terms of location, we believe it’s within the best part of Sydenham, and obviously very useful to be only 3 minutes’ walk to and from Sydenham station (with regular and reliable services to London Bridge, London Victoria, East London via the Overground, and Croydon stations), and with the lovely and popular Crystal Palace Park being so close, at the other end of Lawrie Park Road.
Penge East, Penge West, and Crystal Palace stations are also within walking distance, and provide further travel options. To have all these links and amenities easily available, while also having front and back gardens, a garage and off-street parking is just great, and not common.
The area around the ‘Cobbs Corner’ roundabout – 2 minutes away on foot - has radically improved in recent years, and is now buzzing and quite cosmopolitan, with the excellent, rebuilt Greyhound pub, an equally good independent coffee shop, a wide range of good places to eat, an eclectic variety of independent shops and, of course, a Sainsbury’s Local.
Sydenham has certainly pulled itself up in recent times, but we are also a short hop on the bus (with a bus stop right in front of Bolney Court) from attractive and popular se London destinations including Crystal Palace, Dulwich, Forest Hill and Beckenham. Sydenham, like Penge, can now boast some good pubs and restaurants. They both have small independent breweries and lively art scenes, but Sydenham conclusively wins out because only it can boast ‘London’s happiest Little Comedy Club’, The Poodle Club, which is lovely and brilliant.
When we move we will really miss the warm sense of community of the Close, which really came into its own during the pandemic and all the lockdowns. We have a WhatsApp group and there have been many instances of people doing favours and looking out for one another, passing on important information, and really pulling and solving problems together during adversity. During most summers there is a Close BBQ, and in April we are having a shared (socially distanced) outdoor birthday celebration for a couple of people. These days, particularly in London, it’s very unusual to know (and get along with) all your neighbours, and we’ll be lucky if we find it elsewhere.
We will miss old friends and new friends all around Sydenham and Penge. This is a very welcoming part of se London, and if you are not familiar with it already, we definitely recommend it.
The only reason we are selling and (hopefully) moving is because it’s the right time for us both to change gear and careers, and we have decided to move out of London - to pastures green, we hope. Having planned to sell & move in the spring of 2020, certain pan-global matters threw a large bag of spanners in the works, and here we are a year down the line.
Doctors Close was built in 1980, within the large back garden area of the grand Victorian villa, now known as Bolney Court, which now incorporates an nhs dentist on the ground floor, and a number of flats. Because of this location, we are away from the road and tucked behind Bolney Court, so we experience very little traffic noise at all
On our property, just behind our rear garden fence, is an angled section of the original Victorian brick boundary wall of Bolney Court. It looks over the railway tracks (if you are tall or stand on tiptoes) just south of Sydenham station - but in the 1830s you would have overlooked barges being pulled by horses along the short-lived Croydon Canal.
Lawrie Park Road and the wide, tree-lined avenues of the ‘Lawrie Park Triangle’ are full of attractive Victorian and Edwardian houses, some dating back to when Crystal Palace Park was laid out in the 1850s. Doctors Close is named after Doctor W.G. Grace, the legendary English cricketer, who lived in a property where the adjacent Cricketers Walk now sits.
In terms of maintaining and improving this house, we renovated and replaced the bathroom, and redecorated the main bedroom very soon after we moved in. We landscaped and greatly improved the front garden during the summer of 2015. Prior to this it was an unloved slope of patchy grass and rampant wild garlic, and it is now a very attractive space to sit and enjoy in the warmer months, full of colour and wildlife, and we are proud that all the hard work was worth it. The Wisteria we planted against the wall is a gift to whoever buys the house. It definitely needs a haircut now and then, but the scent of the flowers when they come in late spring is almost overwhelmingly beautiful. (fyi, the old apple tree in the front garden reliably produces a lot of fruit each year, but you will need to fight a sustained guerrilla campaign against aphids, squirrels and parakeets to get many through to harvest time).
We replaced the electrical consumer unit and upgraded the lighting circuits in 2016. We replaced the soffits, fascia boards and guttering in 2017, and installed a new Vaillant combi boiler in 2018. We redecorated the hall/stairs/landing areas in 2019, and the kitchen, utility room and back bedrooms during 2020, as well as replacing the downstairs carpet and rear garden fence.
We don’t have children, but the Close has several young families, and the property layout and the private close is clearly ideal for families, being a regular venue for ball games and bike riding lessons far from traffic. Because everyone is on friendly first name terms, and through the layout of the Close - with houses facing each other - it also feels like a very safe place, day and night. People only come down the Close if they have a good reason, and if anyone else wanders down and is lost, or for whatever reason, they tend to quickly leave.
In terms of location, we believe it’s within the best part of Sydenham, and obviously very useful to be only 3 minutes’ walk to and from Sydenham station (with regular and reliable services to London Bridge, London Victoria, East London via the Overground, and Croydon stations), and with the lovely and popular Crystal Palace Park being so close, at the other end of Lawrie Park Road.
Penge East, Penge West, and Crystal Palace stations are also within walking distance, and provide further travel options. To have all these links and amenities easily available, while also having front and back gardens, a garage and off-street parking is just great, and not common.
The area around the ‘Cobbs Corner’ roundabout – 2 minutes away on foot - has radically improved in recent years, and is now buzzing and quite cosmopolitan, with the excellent, rebuilt Greyhound pub, an equally good independent coffee shop, a wide range of good places to eat, an eclectic variety of independent shops and, of course, a Sainsbury’s Local.
Sydenham has certainly pulled itself up in recent times, but we are also a short hop on the bus (with a bus stop right in front of Bolney Court) from attractive and popular se London destinations including Crystal Palace, Dulwich, Forest Hill and Beckenham. Sydenham, like Penge, can now boast some good pubs and restaurants. They both have small independent breweries and lively art scenes, but Sydenham conclusively wins out because only it can boast ‘London’s happiest Little Comedy Club’, The Poodle Club, which is lovely and brilliant.
When we move we will really miss the warm sense of community of the Close, which really came into its own during the pandemic and all the lockdowns. We have a WhatsApp group and there have been many instances of people doing favours and looking out for one another, passing on important information, and really pulling and solving problems together during adversity. During most summers there is a Close BBQ, and in April we are having a shared (socially distanced) outdoor birthday celebration for a couple of people. These days, particularly in London, it’s very unusual to know (and get along with) all your neighbours, and we’ll be lucky if we find it elsewhere.
We will miss old friends and new friends all around Sydenham and Penge. This is a very welcoming part of se London, and if you are not familiar with it already, we definitely recommend it.
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