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Work began after WWII to provide the new public space that eventually became Burgess Park. It was the result of initiatives such as the Abercrombie Plan of 1943 and was created by demolishing numerous houses, streets, churches and factories, and infilling the disused Grand Surrey Canal. Existing green spaces were incorporated into the new North Camberwell Open Space, which by 1965 covered c.16 hectares. It was named Burgess Park in 1973 after Alderman Jessie Burgess, first lady Mayor of Camberwell. The fragmented open spaces were consolidated from 1982 onwards and in 1985/6 Southwark Council took over responsibility and began purchasing remaining properties and clearing the site, a process completed in 1995. Numerous projects have been undertaken, including planting 1000s of trees, provision of sports facilities, greening the canal route and creation of the lake. Within the park are the former Chumleigh Gardens Almshouses, which now house a café, meeting rooms as well as a World Garden and an English Garden.

Camberwell was a rural village until the late C18th, and Camberwell Fair was held in August on Camberwell Green for the Feast of St Giles, patron saint of Camberwell, from 1279 until 1855 when it was suppressed as a nuisance to the local residents. In 1856 four local dignitaries purchased exclusive rights for holding the fair on the Green from the Lords of the Manor on a 1,000 year lease with an annual rent of one peppercorn. They sold it to Camberwell Vestry in September 1857 and the Green re-opened as a public open space in 1859. The Green was previously dominated by elm trees and had a pond in the south.

Camberwell New Cemetery opened in 1927 after many years in the planning, when the growth in population necessitated increased burial facilities to those provided at Camberwell Old Cemetery. Part of the site was consecrated in 1927 before the cemetery buildings were built in 1928-30. Honor Oak Crematorium was built in the cemetery in 1939. An additional area was consecrated in 1992, the occasion commemorated by planting of a tree.

Camberwell Cemetery was opened in 1856 by Camberwell Burial Board, at that time the area was surrounded by fields. The cemetery originally had 3 chapels, none of which remains although the gothic entrance lodge still stands. Its layout was planned on picturesque principles with winding paths. It was enlarged in 1874 but there was a great shortage of burial space and by the late C19th it was in a deplorable and neglected state. It was renamed Camberwell Old Cemetery when the Camberwell New Cemetery was opened in 1927 and the majority of burials now take place there.

The Licensed Victuallers Asylum opened in 1833, initially designed to provide 43 homes for retired victuallers, but over the next decades demand for accommodation was such that it expanded considerably, becoming the largest almshouse complex in London. The first range is on 3 sides of a quadrangle overlooking a large expanse of garden, with railings to the road. By the 1870s there were 205 residents in 176 units. The Society had been incorporated by Royal Charter in 1843 and had ongoing connections with royalty, the Prince of Wales its first patron. In 1959 the Society moved to new Almshouses in Denham and in 1960 Camberwell Borough Council acquired the property for council housing. It was renamed Caroline Gardens after a former resident.

Christ Church Garden is the former churchyard of Christ Church built here in 1671, which was rebuilt in the C18th and added to in the 1890s but destroyed by bombing in WWII. The current church dates from 1960. The churchyard was enlarged a number of times but closed to burial in 1856. It was converted into a public garden by the MPGA and opened in 1900. A drinking fountain was donated by John Passmore Edwards. When the church was bombed, the cross fell into the churchyard scorching the ground, its position now marked by a stone cross in the grass. The garden was redesigned in 2000.

Court Lane is on land that continues to be owned by The Dulwich Estate, the successor to the charitable foundation established by Edward Alleyn in 1619. It was laid out over the site of a manor farm called Dulwich Court Farm, at which time the Estates Governors also donated five fields to the MBW for the creation of Dulwich Park. The name also recalls the court where the Estates steward would adjudicate on local affairs. The area of communal gardens was reserved as a permanent open space by the Estates Governors who were keen to preserve and maintain open spaces on their land. Set behind neat iron railings, the private gardens have lawns, trees and shrubs.

Cox's Walk is a rare survival of an C18th public walk. It was created by publican John Cox as a public path through the Fifty Acre Wood opposite his inn, The Green Man. With trees on either side, it became a short cut to the spa at Sydenham Wells, one of a number of fashionable spas in the area. In 1739 Cox's son discovered a mineral stream in the grounds of the inn and opened pleasure gardens. Cox's Walk was acquired by Camberwell Vestry in 1898 and since 1965 is owned by London Borough of Southwark. Today it leads from Dulwich to Sydenham Hill, running adjacent to Dulwich Golf Course and Dulwich Woods.

Crossbones Memorial Garden commemorates the former burial ground for 'single women' of Bankside, also known as 'Winchester Geese' for being licensed to work by the Bishop of Winchester. Not permitted to be buried in hallowed ground, it is believed that the unconsecrated plot designated as their burial ground was on this site, with references to its existence from at least 1598. The burial ground closed in 1853 and the site remained vacant but had various uses over the years. In the 1990s, when it was partly excavated for the Jubilee Line extension, 148 skeletons were uncovered, reputedly less than 1% of the total burials. Between 2006-2012 the Friends of Crossbones created a secret guerrilla garden on the site, and since 2015 it has been transformed into a memorial garden, in collaboration with Bankside Open Spaces.

David Copperfield Gardens were created on the site of the former private garden of County Terrace and is overlooked by the footbridge over New Kent Road to the south. In 1928 the neglected, irregularly shaped garden, at the time owned by the Trustees of Messrs. H C & M D Smith, was in the process of being sold to Southwark Borough Council for public open space. The houses of County Terrace were replaced by a local authority housing estate although the garden remained and was laid out with lawn, various ornamental trees, flower beds and shrubs and a statue erected by the Dickens Fellowship referring to a passage in Charles Dickens' 'David Copperfield'. The garden has been completely re-landscaped.

Dickens’ Fields, formerly known as Dickens Square Park is a local park located off Falmouth Road, close to the Rockingham, Lawson and Trinity Newington housing estates. The LCC Rockingham Estate was built in the 1930s and included Dickens Square, although this road pre-dates the LCC estate and is shown on maps from the mid-C19th as Union Square. A number of the streets and terraces of housing here were cleared in the early 1970s and part of the area was laid out as public open space with Dickens Park dating from the 1980s. The need to improve the park, which had become overgrown and was felt to be unsafe, was under discussion for many years and it was eventually re-landscaped and re-opened on 1 September 2021 when it was renamed Dickens’ Fields. Within the park is the Anne Keane playground, named after a local resident who had campaigned for the development of the park. 

 

John Walter, Clerk of the Drapers' Company from 1616-56, set up almshouses in Southwark and Newington Butts, including those on the current site, which were built in 1820 when earlier almshouses were relocated. The original almshouses were established by St George's Field in 1650. The new Almshouses accommodated 16 men, women or spinsters, and consisted of a row of 5 houses of 2 storeys, in front of which were ornamental gardens with fuel stores and wash houses to the rear. A plaque in the centre has the words: 'The Drapers almshouses Rebuilt AD1820 William Gibbs, William Pugh Church Wardens Joseph Kesterton of this parish'. The Drapers' Company relocated the residents in c.1973 and the almshouses were sold, but remain as private residencies with a communal front garden.