Beulah Hill Pond

Beulah Hill Pond is on a sloping site with mature trees including holly and cypress, laurel and other shrubs, and some rockery planting, with reed beds in summer. The pond came under the auspices of Croydon Parks Department in 1954, but had long existed as a watering place for horses and cattle, and locally has been known as the Big Pond and Crown Pond. In the mid C19th a pub called The Conquering Hero (shown on the 1870 OS) was built next to the pond at a time when the area was still largely undeveloped, apparently so-called in defiance of the high-class residents of Beulah Hill who were horrified that a pub was to be built here. To the north stood a large house called Grecian Villa, whose name is echoed by the nearby Grecian Crescent. In 1868 there was correspondence in the Croydon Chronicle about draining the pond and the convent nearby were worried about dirty water seeping onto the convent lands. Horses pulling horse-drawn trams up Knights Hill watered here. A railing across the middle prevented animals straying into the deeper water.

In the early 1960s it was a favourite place for skating in the winter, with barrows alongside selling baked potatoes and roast chestnuts, and ironmongers offering to put skates on for a few coppers. In 1962 the perimeter fencing was replaced by 6ft iron railings to prevent risk of accidents, particularly by children gaining access, and seating was supplied along the roadway in front, at a cost of £1506. It remains railed, with gates to the south. The name may come from Bewlys Farm and Bewly Wood, transforming into Beulah in the C19th. North Croydon Landwatch undertakes maintenance and conservation of Beulah Hill Pond, which has importance as a site for wildlife conservation with 3-spined sticklebacks, frogs, smooth newts, water fleas and diverse aquatic invertebrate fauna found here.