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Southeast England - A Selection of Places in South London

by WSB

The parts of what is now London which lie south of the Thames and a small enclave north of the river in West London were once part of Kent or Surrey, so can properly be thought of as being in the South-East. Here is a small selection of the highlights.

Links are given in the text below to maps on the Multimap website; this will initially display an extract from the local Ordnance Survey map zoomed in to the place of interest; you can zoom in and out, see other local points of interest and also switch to other map formats if you prefer; there are also links on the map to Wikipedia articles on other nearby places.

Key

Places where members of certain organisations get free or reduced price admission:

NT: National Trust property
EH: English Heritage property
HHA: member of Historic Houses Association (Note: because they are privately owned, HHA houses often have a lived-in atmosphere that is lacking in the more impersonal NT and EH properties)
AF: membership of the Art Fund allows free or reduced-price admission

Star-ratings in prominent guide books:

J: star rating (***** is top-rating) in England’s 1000 Best Churches or England’s 1000 Best Houses by Simon Jenkins
F: star rating (***** is top-rating) in Britain’s Best Museums & Galleries by Mark Fisher
GG: star rating (** is top-rating) in Good Gardens Guide

South London Highlights

Down House (EH) (J**) (Multimap)
Charles Darwin’s home, with a homely feel; follow Darwin’s footsteps on the famous Sand Walk.

Dulwich Picture Gallery (AF) (F*****) (Multimap)
The first purpose-built picture gallery, with a top-quality collection of Old Masters.

Eltham Palace (J****) (Multimap)
The great hammer-beam roofed hall remains of the medieval royal palace; otherwise it is notable for the very fine Art Deco interiors in the house.

Art Deco living at Eltham Palace

Greenwich: Queen's House (J***, F**), National Maritime Museum (F****), Royal Observatory (F**) and Royal Naval Hospital (J**) (Multimap)
The first classical Italianate house in England, a great museum featuring Britain’s naval history, the site of the Greenwich Meridian, and Christopher Wren’s great home for old sailors containing great murals by Thornhill, all in an ideal riverside setting in East London.

Chiswick House (EH) (J****, GG**) (Multimap)
Important in architectural history as a pioneering recreation of a Palladian villa; set in a pioneering landscape garden.

Ham House (NT) (J****, G*) (Multimap)
One of the greatest 17th century houses in England, beside the Thames; richly furnished with a fine art collection and notable early embroidery

Hampton Court (J*****, F****, G**) (Multimap)
Tudor palace built by Cardinal Wolsey, taken over by Henry VIII and modernised in the time of William & Mary (about 1690); great royal art collection, including Mantegna’s Triumphs of the Caesars in the Orangery. The garden is an exciting mixture of tastes and styles, including the spacious Great Fountain garden; the Great Vine may be the oldest in the world.

Kew Gardens (F*****, GG**) (Multimap)
The Royal Botanic Gardens; extensive vistas of trees and shrubs, a Chinese pagoda, a miniature royal palace, flower beds of course, a cactus house, giant water-lilies and fabulous glass houses.

Wernher Collection, Ranger’s House, Blackheath (EH) (J***, F***) (Multimap)
Ranger’s House, Blackheath houses a fabulous art collection assembled by a diamond magnate a century ago.

Syon House (HHA) (J*****, G*) (Multimap)
This has been the seat of the Dukes of Northumberland for centuries; its stern exterior belies the opulence of the interior which was re-modelled by Robert Adam in the 1760s.