Joining the locals staring out into the sublime and back into the past on top of Honor Oak Park’s One Tree Hill – the hilly Londons suburb’s best viewpoint.
Dog walking and view hunting on top of One Tree Hill, SE23.
People do all sorts of things on top of One Tree Hill. They take photos. They recover from hangovers. They stand and stare. They propose. They do different things but all for the same reason: to do it in front of the view. The glorious London view that John Betjeman described as “better than Parliament Hill” (take that Hampstead!).
One Tree Hill itself is a hump of ancient woodland that divides the residential streets of Nunhead from those of Honor Oak Park. And it offers that most special thing in a city as flat as London – a natural vantage point. Perhaps it’s the extra distance from the city’s skyline or the quieter, cleaner air, but I find that it’s often London’s suburbs that deliver the best views. And the one from One Tree Hill is sublime.
Sublime in the real sense of the word (as opposed to “mmmm this crushed avocado on toast is SUBLIME). Sublime in that it has that indefinable quality of greatness and wonder, that quality that makes you feel unnervingly small in the face of something much much bigger than you (if you do feel that way eating crushed avocado on toast, I really don’t know what to say).
A Greater London View
Up on top you’ll find the proposers, the hangovers and the dog walkers all quietly pointing out landmarks to each other from an info board pockmarked with cigarette burns that sits in front of the view. The high rise blocks of Peckham Rye Estate in the foreground, the Shard and the wheel beyond, the dome of St Pauls, the BT Tower, the green roll of Hampstead Heath. On a clear day, you can even see the arches of Wembley from here. All framed by the ancient trees, grasses and London Planes that cloak One Tree Hill.
“I think I can see my house from here” – landmark spotting on top of One Tree Hill.
Royals and riots on One Tree Hill
But people have been enjoying the view from long before the Shard, and even St Paul’s, were a twinkle in an architects eye. The legend goes that in 1602 Queen Elizabeth I rested underneath an oak tree here on her way to Lewisham – the so-called “oak of honour”, which lends the hill it’s moniker and the local area it’s name, Honor Oak Park (you can find a child of the original tree near the viewpoint). Perhaps it was the sublime view that led her to rest here, perhaps she surveyed her capital or perhaps she stared up at the big sky and felt the presence of the divine. Or, as the legend goes, perhaps she went “amaying” with her beau Sir Richard Bulkeley of Beaumaris (no? me neither), courting under the dappled light of the Oak Tree’s leaves (aka having a snog up against the tree trunk).
A couple of hundred years later One Tree Hill’s sublime beauty became the backdrop of a very Victorian riot. 15,000 people pulled down a fence and stormed the hill when public access to the site was threatened by an encroaching local golf club in 1869 (some things never change). The protestors sang Rule Britannia and then promptly went home for tea, not a nicked telly in site. However, six days later between 50,000 and 100,000 protestors returned. This time they were really angry. Thankfully the Borough Council of Camberwell compulsory purchased the hill for a mere £6100, saving it for all and opening it as a public recreation ground in 1905. Hurray.
Either thinking deeply or hungover, it’s a fine line.
The future of One Tree Hill – burial plots and property booms
Since the riotous days of the turn of the century, the 7 hectare hill and it’s crowning view have been protected as a Grade 1 Site of Borough Importance for Nature Conservation. However, One Tree Hill has recently once again become a battleground, more metaphorical than actual this time though. Southwark Council’s plans to fell 60 trees in neighbouring Camberwell Old Cemetery to make room for more burial plots has met with resistance from local campaigning group Save Southwark Woods, who argue that the felling of the trees will lead to lasting damage to the One Tree Hill landscape.
But One Tree Hill might also be facing a fate much worse than death; Estate Agents. Agents Sebastian Roche have spotted the potential of that sublime view to sell houses and have plastered it over a billboard. Soon there might be a few more people joining the dog walkers, proposers and hangovers on top of One Tree Hill.
Links
Friends of One Tree Hill
OuterLimits 