Sydenham Hill

Today we've got a special guest blog from Will Mann - once online editor of Contract Journal magazine, author of a construction blog and now our guide to the history of Sydenham Hill council estate in the South London borough of Lewisham.

A disused railway, and a famous Impressionist painter: the unlikely story behind a South London council estate

See any likeness in the two images below?

On the top is a famous impressionist painting by Camille Pissarro, which now hangs in London's Courthauld Gallery. Below is a recent photograph from a second floor balcony on a South London council estate

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Well it's not obvious, but the two images were taken from roughly the same position.

The painting is Lordship Lane Station, and dates from the 1870s, when Pissarro was an exile from the Franco-Prussian war and had moved to South London - then a rural suburb of the capital.

It was painted from a footbridge over the now defunct Nunhead-Crystal Palace railway.

Built in the mid-19^th Century, the line was closed in 1954 due to lack of use. The station featured in Pissarro's painting was demolished, and replaced by the Sydenham Hill council estate.

The photograph shows the route of the line going north, as it appears today, following the line of the path through the trees.

And the photograph below shows the southerly route of the railway, now occupied by one of the blocks on the estate.

However, some of the old railway survives, including the footbridge where Pissarro presumably crossed regularly and was inspired enough by the view to sit with his easel and painted Lordship Lane Station (see photographs below).

This final photograph below shows the old track bed, looking northwards,now heavily overgrown. The Sydenham Hill estate is just visible in the distance, through the trees.

There's more about the remnants of the Nunhead-Crystal Palace line on the excellent Abandoned Stations website.