Durham Hill

The extensive Downham Estate was built by the  LCC between 1924-38, designed on 'garden city' principles and named after Lord Downham, Chairman of LCC in 1919-20. An earlier scheme of 1920 by Lewisham, Deptford and Bermondsey Councils for a 4,500-house garden suburb here came to nothing. The LCC bought two farms, Shrofield Farm and Holloway Farm, owned by the Earl of Northbrook, and the houses were laid out on long winding roads that originally had trees and grass verges, now largely lost to the pressures of car parking. The road names recalled Arthurian legends as well as English resorts and villages such as Ilfracombe, Bideford. The estate was built to provide c.7,000 homes as part of the action to cope with housing shortages and inner city slum clearance after WWI. However, the rents proved too high for some of the early residents, many of whom were from the East End who had to move elsewhere, finding 12 shillings a week for a one-bedroomed house too expensive. A resident of the estate was Richard Harrow, at 40 stone one of the heaviest men in the world. Since 2007 Downham Estate itself has been managed by Phoenix Community Housing, a not-for-profit, resident-led Housing Association.

The estate incorporated and preserved an existing tract of woodland from Whitefoot Terrace to Bromley Road. Now named Downham Woodland Walk (q.v.) this runs between the houses for over 1.5 km, and part of it is almost certainly ancient woodland. Also preserved as open land was the highest point in the centre of the estate and fields to north-west and south-west. Initially called Downham Fields, this site was renamed Durham Hill in the 1990s, as it was locally known and referred to on old maps. In the 1920s the area was known as Seven Fields and was a popular place for weekend outings. From Durham Hill there are fine views across to Beckenham Place Park (q.v.), to Crystal Palace ridge, and to Croydon and beyond. There are a few scattered trees on the open grassland, some exotic species and some fine crack-willows and white willows. South of Whitefoot Lane, Whitefoot Recreation Ground (q.v.), former agricultural land that was once part of the estate of Southend Hall, was also preserved when the estate was built and its southern boundary abuts Downham Woodland Walk.

Adjacent to Durham Hill, Downham Health and Leisure Centre was built and opened in 2006, part of a regeneration initiative to improve council estates country-wide. Downham received a £10m grant to ‘restore focus and pride to the entire Downham area’ in a project named ‘Downham Lifestyles’. The leisure centre, run by a private company, comprises a swimming pool, fitness studio, gym, library, community room, music and drama studio, crèche and two GP surgeries.