London Districts: Forest Hill
The district of Forest Hill falls under the Lewisham Borough in south east London.
In 1890, some guy called Fred started collecting strange things in his home and invited strangers to look at them. He built a larger property for his rapidly expanding collection and called it the Horniman Museum, one of the free museums in London.
It houses a huge and varied range of tangible taxidermy, musical instruments and numerous other historical artefacts. It’s makes a great attraction for a kids day out the children have lots of animal activity to experience in the free zoo like gardens behind the museum and free aquarium underneath the building.
Ted Christmas was considered a notable architect in the area. He made the initial letter of house names running consecutively along the street spell out his full name. These ‘Christmas houses’ were also often designed with bespoke features. There’s also this art street place in Forest Hill called Havelock Walk full of interesting things to see.
The current franchisees of the Ferfect Fried Chicken shop were quoted a fee of £5000 to retain use of the original fast food chain’s branded sign above the shop. Instead, they simply removed the first letter and replaced it with a scrabble-styled letter F for £2000 to avoid the premium.
There’s this rare survival of a 1920s art deco cinema called The Capitol. For the last few years, and for the time-being at least, it’s the social hub of Forest Hill in the form of a Wetherspoons pub currently with a 3.5 TripAdvisor rating, currently.
Here are some of the other best places to drink in Forest Hill: Blythe Hill Tavern was officially voted the best pub in London and offers an brilliant choice of ales. An alternative pub can be found in The Signal with stand-up comedy, live music and pub quizzes.
Here are some of the best restaurants in Forest Hill : Babur is considered to be the best Indian restaurant in London. The Dartmouth Arms is one of the nicer places to eat in Forest Hill and will serve you a classic Sunday Roast. Canvas & Cream is a mix of a restaurant and art gallery with nearby parking which is free for up to two hours.
Both the Forest Hill Library and the Forest Hill Pools are great community activities for all the family along with the St George’s Players theatre.
Another one of the good things in Forest Hill is the shopping area. You’ll find a useful Sainsbury’s not far from the station. It is one of the few places for pay and display car parking in Forest hill although there are some spots where you’ll find free parking aswell. There’s a Tesco Express and a new butchers aptly named, The Butchery which has become very popular with the locals who seek meat of a certain quality.
As you can see, there are quite a few things to do in Forest Hill and hopefully this episode of the London Districts tour guide video series will help if you’re thinking about living in Forest Hill or planning a day out with the family or just a nice walk around.
