Pinewood

Shirley was previously a hamlet of Croydon parish, but became a separate parish in 1846. The land for Shirley Church Recreation Ground was purchased in 1928 by the local Council in order to preserve an area of open space among the suburban housing estates that were rapidly developing in the area. The area was once wooded and some of the trees along Shirley Church Road are marked on a map of 1868. A bowling green and tennis courts were later provided and the park is opposite Shirley Parish Church of St John.

The gardens of Hall Grange and The Old Vicarage, now the site of a home for the elderly, the current vicarage and other houses, are important for their connection with Revd William Wilks. He was vicar of St John's Church Shirley, Secretary of the RHS and a well-respected horticulturalist, ahead of his time in his ecological approach to gardening. The habitats he developed here contained numerous plant experiments and introductions, such as his selective breeding of the Shirley Poppy. Wilks' house, The Wilderness, was renamed Hall Grange after 1958 when it became a home for the elderly; a bungalow, also called The Wilderness, was built in its grounds. The garden remained one unit, the part belonging to the bungalow occupants demarcated by a short row of azalea bushes.

Shirley was previously a hamlet of Croydon parish, but became a separate parish in 1846. Prior to the construction of St John's Church in 1854-6 there was a Mission chapel here with a school room, playground, cottages and burial ground, and garden for the poor. From 1879-1912 the vicar of St John's was Revd William Wilkes, an important figure in horticulture, Secretary of the RHS and responsible for developing the Shirley Poppy. The large churchyard has a number of fine mature trees and monuments, including that of John Ruskin's parents, the Preston family tomb in the form of a classical temple, and a memorial to Arthur Lloyd, brother of Frank Lloyd after whom Lloyd Park is named.