Northbrook Park

In the mid C18th the area that is now Grove Park Nature Reserve and the majority of the surrounding area was in agricultural use. The railway line from Charing Cross to Tonbridge opened in 1865, the railway company owning most of the land either side of the line between St Mildred's Road and Grove Park station. In the late C19th and early C20th what is now the southern end of the reserve had a row of tennis courts. The land immediately north of this was within the garden of a large house on Baring Road from the late C19th, and became wooded early in the C20th. Between 1894-99, writer and poet, Edith Nesbit lived in Three Gables, a large house on Baring Road, her garden backing up to the railway line, overlapping with what is now the southern part of Grove Park Nature Reserve. The footpath running along the southern side of the nature reserve has been named Railway Children Walk in memory of the author and her most famous book, 'The Railway Children'. Up until the 1980s, the strip of land along the east side of the railway line from St Mildred's Road in the north to Grove Park in the south was used mostly as allotments, part of the 'Dig for Victory' campaign in WWII. For many years local residents informally used the site for recreation, but in 1984 it officially became a nature reserve when Lewisham Council agreed to manage the area under licence from British Rail. In 1987 Lewisham acquired freehold of the land; initially known as Hither Green Nature Reserve, in 2007 the site's name was changed to Grove Park Nature Reserve. The Friends of Grove Park Local  Nature Reserve was set up and works alongside Lewisham Council to manage the site.

The site juxtaposes the Victorian Hither Green Cemetery and the 1950s Hither Green Crematorium, which according to Hugh Meller illustrates 'the richness of the C19th cemetery and the vacuity of its C20th counterpart'. Hither Green Cemetery opened as Lee Cemetery in 1873 on former farmland and retains the ornamental entrance gates and pair of gothic chapels although the entrance lodge was later demolished. The well-planted cemetery has meandering paths and some fine monuments. By 1948 the cemetery extended to the south but the new area is a mere grid of paths and gravestones, with few trees. Adjacent and accessible from the cemetery, separated by hedging and a row of Lombardy poplars is Hither Green Crematorium, which opened in 1956, at which time further land was used for the cemetery.

In c.1950 the site for a library was acquired by Lewisham Council from the Mercers’ Company, who had bought land as a playing field in Grove Park in 1930. Grove Park Library was opened in December 1953. The Library Gardens provides residents of this part of Grove Park with a green space with play equipment for the under 7s, recreational space and benches. It is located behind Grove Park Community Library and Little Stars pre-school building with entrance on Burnt Ash Hill. The perimeter is surrounded by established hedges of leylandii, hawthorn and ivy with several prominent trees, including oak and sycamore, particularly on the north and east sides. There is also a prominent oak in the green space. Metal fencing separates the rear entrances of the library and the pre-school building from the park. There is no public access to the Library Gardens from the library or Little Stars Pre-school.