This walk through the leafy village of Dulwich begins just a few minutes from London Bridge, a thirteen minute journey with several trains an hour. A dawdling walk with plenty to see will bring you to the Dulwch Picture Gallery in about 20 minutes, with shops, cafes, and a lovely old pub on the way.
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1. North Dulwich Station was built at the height of the railway boom in the 1860's, in the splendour of the British Empire. A few remnants of that grandeur are still visible, the new paint highlighting the filigree woodwork. |
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2. Just to the right of the station entrance is the station-master's house, with a water-garden filled with animal statuettes. |
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3. On the other side of the street from the station, on the railway bridge, we see the first Alleyn crest (right). Edward Alleyn was a superstar actor from the 1590's, who made so much money that he effectively owned the entire Dulwich area. We will see this crest many more times in our stroll. On the left is a crest of the railway company that built the bridge, made up from crests of the towns connected by the railway, including the City of London (the red cross and dagger). |
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4. Turn left from the station and after a few steps, at the traffic lights, you see the first finger post. These are characteristic of Dulwich, rescued from decay a few years ago. |
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5. Looking to the right, you see the beautifully-preserved Pond House. No sign of a pond though. |
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6. Continue in the same direction along Dulwich Village Boulevard. There are some pretty old houses along here. |
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7. Soon you come to the small parade of village shops. Thirty years ago, these shops sold staples such as greengroceries, meat and bread. Now they are more like boutiques, three estate agents, maternity clothes, and patisseries. The Art Stationers and the Chemist shop are I think the only ones that have successfully withstood the transition. On sunny days, the delicatessen has tables and coffee outside. |
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8. Just around the corner to the left, is this stone instruction dated 1760: "It is a Sport to a Fool to do Mischief to One's Own: Wickedness shall correct thee". The stone is at the site of the village stocks, where offenders were locked into a frame and people would throw rotten fruit and ordure. |
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9. Keep walking to the next traffic light. On your right is the infants and junior school. Cross the road. On your right is a pretty Edwardian house and another finger post. |
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10. Take a look at the village cemetary. It was full some 200 years ago, so no fresh burials happen. Actually, most of the space was already filled by the plague victims of the late 1600's. Perhaps it is them that fertilise the profusion of flowers that grow there in the spring. |
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11. Many of the trees in Dulwich are horse-chestnuts. In the autumn, they bear glossy brown fruit, known in Britain as "conkers". There is a game that British schoolchildren play with these. You drill a hole through a conker and put a string through, terminated with a knot. Each player uses their conker as a weapon to bash the other player's conker. The first to disintegrate is the loser. There are ways to make conkers much stronger, such as soaking in vinegar or baking, but these are thought to be the last refuge of the unscrupulous. |
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12. This beautiful eighteenth century house is a Dulwich classic, with its coach house now converted to garages. |
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13. In contrast, on the other side of the street is the smallest house in Dulwich. |
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14. The Crown & Greyhound is what a British pub should be, colloquially called "The Dog", as in "going down the Dog for a quick one". Not a bar in the American sense, but a place for the community to meet, a place to meet old friends. Originally there were two separate establishments: the Crown for the lower classes, and the Greyhound for the well-to-do, both very old. |
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15. There is a good selection of delicious beer, with horse brasses and etched glass. My particularly favourite place is the bench shown here, inscribed "When You Bee Wearie Rest". Also I like the traditional British Roast Lunch on Sundays. |
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16. Le Piaf Cafe, a nice place for coffee and croissant and French Lunch. Across the street is a pizza restaurant and a pasta restaurant, so you could have Italian Lunch. |
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17. Beautiful Georgian houses behind a curtain of conker trees. |
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18. This building is a bank, it is at a roundabout where College Road, Gallery Road and Burbage Road meet Dulwich Village Boulevard. Many banks these days are being shoe-horned into coffee bars and turning cyber, so it is nice to see one that still has columns around the front door. |
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19. The Old Grammar School. It was not built in 1619 as one might assume from its name and the date on the door, but rather in Victorian times. |
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20. The Crest of Alleyn is on the elaborate wrought-iron gates at the entrance to the Chapel Close. In the foreground is a war memorial. |
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21. Christs Chapel is where Edward Alleyn is buried. At the end of every term, the schoolchildren would be marched down here to sing "Jerusalem", a hymn that is ostensibly Christian, yet contains phrases dear to a schoolboy's heart "Bring me my arrows of desire" and "Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand". Of course it was written by William Blake, one of Britain's renegades. |
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22. The entrance to the Chapel, with a huge Alleyn crest above the door. Unfortunately, the chapel is not generally open to the public. However, if you are lucky, and you are a smooth talker, there may be proper English ladies arranging flowers, or you could go a few paces to the Estates office (turn left at the war memorial). |
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23. The Chapel is filled with beautiful wood carving. Here is a dragon on the attack, climbing to the pulpit. |
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24. The font in the chapel is marble with a copper cover. Engraved around the cover is some Greek, which is palindromic (the letters read the same forward as backward). |
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25. The entrance to the Gallery. Check out My pictures of the Gallery, or the official web site. |