Lovers of fine architecture make a beeline for Camberwell in south-east London. This Zone 2 neighbourhood has more than its fair share of period homes, in particular in Camberwell Grove, off the busy high street, a long, tree-lined road of Georgian houses on the slopes of Denmark Hill.
This is an arty neighbourhood, too. It is home to Camberwell College of Arts, now part of the University of the Arts London, and the South London Gallery in Peckham Road — one of the capital’s leading contemporary art galleries, which recently extended into a former sausage factory on the opposite side of the road.
The Camberwell Arts Festival, which this year celebrates its 25th anniversary, will run a festival of arty events around the neighbourhood from June 15-23 and is raising funds with the sale of Colour in Camberwell, a colouring book containing 25 scenes of Camberwell life by different artists.
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Denmark Hill is Camberwell’s station. There are Overground trains to Shoreditch High Street for the City and Canada Water, one stop away from Canary Wharf on the Docklands Light Railway. There are also trains to Victoria, London Bridge, Blackfriars and St Pancras International.
Nearby Loughborough Junction station has Thameslink trains to Blackfriars, Farringdon and St Pancras International. Both stations are in Zone 2 and an annual travelcard to Zone 1 costs £1,404.
There are nine commuter buses: Nos 12, 35, 36, 40, 45, 68, 171, 176 and 185, serving all central London locations.
Primary school
Two state primary schools get the Ofsted “outstanding” rating: Crawford in Crawford Road and John Ruskin in John Ruskin Street. With the exception of Oliver Goldsmith in Peckham Road and Brunswick Park in Picton Street, which are judged to “require improvement”, all the other local primary schools are rated “good”. Lyndhurst in Grove Lane; Dog Kennel Hill in Dog Kennel Hill and Bessemer Grange in Dylways are popular.
Comprehensive
Camberwell’s “outstanding” comprehensive school is the Catholic Sacred Heart (co-ed, ages 11 to 18) in Camberwell New Road. The nearby “outstanding” comprehensive schools, many of which have small catchment areas, are The Charter School North Dulwich in Red Post Hill; St Saviour’s & St Olave’s CofE (girls, ages 11 to 18) in New Kent Road; Lilian Baylis (co-ed, ages 11 to 18) in Kennington Lane in Vauxhall; and Notre Dame RC (girls, ages 11 to 16) in St George’s Road in Kennington. The following are judged to be “good”: The Charter School East Dulwich (co-ed, ages 11 to 18) a free school which moved in January to its permanent new home on the Dulwich Hospital site in Jarvis Road; Ark All Saints Academy (co-ed, ages 11 to18) in Wyndham Road, and Harris Academy Peckham in Peckham Road. King’s College London Mathematics College (co-ed ages 16 to 18) in Kennington Road is a selective sixth form college.
Private
The Villa (co-ed, ages two to seven) is a private nursery and pre-school in Lyndhurst Grove in Peckham and the private Dulwich schools are nearby: James Allen’s Girls (co-ed, ages four to 18) in East Dulwich Road; Alleyn’s (co-ed, ages four to 18) in Townley Road and Dulwich College (boys, ages six months to 18, with girls in the nursery and pre-prep ages six months to seven) in Dulwich Common.
In Camberwell Church Street or off it, there is a choice of coffee shops including Daily Goods, the Pigeon Hole and Lumberjack, a social enterprise which supports young people into work, and then there is Fowlds in Addington Square, a small place occupying the front of an upholstery workshop, and Love Café in Denmark Hill which celebrates the poet Robert Browning, who grew up and lived in the area, with a quote about Camberwell on the underside of its awning. The Camberwell Arms reputedly has the best food in Camberwell.
Tasty, cheaper choices include Silk Road, a locally renowned Sichuan restaurant; The Crooked Well gastropub in Grove Lane; Vineyard, a long-standing Greek restaurant at the bottom of Camberwell Grove; FM Mangal, popular for kebabs; and Good Neighbour, a wine bar with cheese and charcuterie sharing plates.
There are two pubs run by the Antic group: The Tiger on Camberwell Green and The Sun in Camberwell in Coldharbour Lane. Other pubs include The Bear and The Old Dispensary in Camberwell New Road and the huge Wetherspoons pub The Fox on the Hill in Denmark Hill.
There is farmers’ market on Camberwell Green every Saturday from 10am to 2pm.
This is an arty neighbourhood, too. It is home to Camberwell College of Arts, now part of the University of the Arts London, and the South London Gallery in Peckham Road — one of the capital’s leading contemporary art galleries, which recently extended into a former fire-station on the opposite side of the road.
The Camberwell Arts Festival, which this year celebrates its 25th anniversary, will run a festival of arty events around the neighbourhood from June 15-23 and is raising funds with the sale of Colour in Camberwell, a colouring book containing 25 scenes of Camberwell life by different artists.
Contrary to popular belief it was Camberwell and not New Cross which nurtured the generation of Young British Artists such as Damien Hirst, Sarah Lucas, Gary Hume and Mat Collishaw who studied at Goldsmiths in the Eighties.
Camberwell Green, an open space and children’s playground in the town centre, recently had a facelift. Burgess Park, which borders Camberwell, Peckham and Walworth, is Southwark council’s largest park. At its centre is Chumleigh Gardens, historic almshouses where there is a café and a world garden.
Elsewhere in the park there are wild flower meadows as well as more formal plantings; a BMX track, fishing lake, children’s playgrounds with summer water play; sports pitches; a community food growing project and, unusually for a London park, fixed barbecue areas.
Myatt’s Fields Park is a 14-acre community-run park in Knatchbull Road. There is a children’s playground and one o’clock club; a bandstand; a community greenhouse which grows plants for local food growing projects, and a wildlife garden.
Ruskin Park, named after the 19th-century art critic John Ruskin, who lived on Denmark Hill until he opposed the arrival of the railway and moved away, has a children’s playground with a popular children’s paddling pool which is kept open and paid for by the local community.
There’s also a bandstand, a wildlife area with an orchard, plus sports pitches.
