The River Beck Short Walk

9.5 km/5.9 mi

Ascent/Descent: 86/110m

Time: 2 hours

Hayes (Kent) Station is the terminus of the Hayes Line (historically: Mid-Kent Line), branching off at Lewisham from the North Kent Line. It is typically served by four trains per hour from Charing Cross or Cannon Street, with a journey time from 42 minutes (33 from London Bridge) and in Travelzone 5. Beckenham Junction is a stop on the Chatham Mainline from London Victoria and one of the termini of the London Tramlink, linking to East Croydon and Wimbledon stations, and in Travelzone 4.

After a part-suburban, part-rural walk from Hayes station through West Wickham, this Outer London route follows the River Beck from its sources in woodlands on high ground in Spring Park to Beckenham’s Town Centre as closely as sensible. In the upper reaches, the Beck forms the Borough Boundary between Bromley and Croydon (i.e. formerly Kent and Surrey), and the very most of the route runs through Bromley.

The route through the Beck Corridor itself is a healthy mixture of mature and younger woodlands where the river meanders naturally and some landscaped parks with lakes dammed from the river, featuring a couple of ‘waterfalls’, mainly linked-up by quiet residential roads, but not without about 1 kilometre of busy roads to walk along. The Beck is crossed many a times, including once on stepping stones.

Beckenham’s town centre features the ‘Cathedral of North West Kent’ with England’s oldest lychgate.

The route does not cover the stretch of the Beck from Beckenham’s High Street to Cator Park, where it meets the Chaffinch Brook, as the river is either built over, or out of view in private gardens or culverted.

Note: Kelsey Park at the Beckenham end of the route gets locked in the evenings (check timings before commencing the walk here: https://www.kelseyparkbeckenham.co.uk/).

The walk is written up in both directions. Walking upstream enables getting through Kelsey Park early.

Shortcuts

- Eden Park and West Wickham stations as well as Addington Village tram stop are close enough to the walk route to encourage part-route outings (map-led).

- Buses are never far from the route.

Refreshments: Numerous options at the Beckenham end (some covered on an optional loop) and more than a handful each in Coney Hall and in Hayes. See the walk directions for more detail.

Hayes

Hayes is a suburban area of outer southeast London and part of the London Borough of Bromley. It is located 18 km south-east of Charing Cross, south of Bromley town centre, and east of West Wickham and an ancient parish in the county of Kent that became part of Greater London in 1965.

The name is recorded from 1177 as hoese, meaning "a settlement in open land overgrown with shrubs and rough bushes".

William Pitt the Elder and the Younger lived at Hayes Place (now demolished).

Hayes Station forms the suburban terminus for trains on the Mid-Kent line and is, for historical reasons and to avoid confusion with Hayes & Harlington, referred to as "Hayes (Kent)".

The River Beck

The River Beck (formerly Hawk’s Brook) is one of the tributaries of the River Ravensbourne. Its furthest sources are in woodlands in Spring Park, where Shirley and West Wickham meet. Much of its water stems from the East Beck tributary though, which drains Langley Park and joins the Beck halfway along.

On its upper stretch it forms the border between the London Boroughs of Croydon and Bromley, i.e. – historically – between Surrey and Kent.

The name of the river is likely a backformation from the town of Beckenham (‘Beohha's homestead’ in Old English), as the usage of ‘beck’ for stream is not common in Southern England.

The Beck joins the Chaffinch Brook in Cator Park, Beckenham to form the Pool River, with all three rivers disappointingly culverted in straight lines in the park. The Pool flows north through Sydenham to Catford where it joins the Ravensbourne and thence the Thames as Deptford Creek.

Kelsey Park

Kelsey Park is a public park close to the centre of Beckenham and historically formed the landscaped Kelsey Manor Estate (from the 15^th century onwards). It was acquired by Beckenham in 1911 and opened in 1913. The manor house was demolished in 1921.

The park is dominated by lakes formed by damming the River Beck. The upper lake serves as a silt trap in its southerly part and it overflows as a waterfall into the lower lake, which again empties over a waterfall and continues as the Beck. The park also features two areas of woodland (with over 100 types of trees), a heronry on an island in the upper lake, a 19^th century ice house in the southerly woodland and a café.

Opening times and all other information can be found here: https://www.kelseyparkbeckenham.co.uk/

Dogs are excluded from the area west of the lakes!

Note: De-silting works in the upper lake have commenced in November 2024 and will last well into 2025, resulting in rolling closures of areas east of the lakes.

Beckenham/David Bowie

Beckenham is a suburban area of outer southeast London and part of the London Borough of Bromley. It is located 13.5 km south-east of Charing Cross, west of Bromley town centre, north east of Croydon and an ancient parish in the county of Kent that became part of Greater London in 1965.

The place-name 'Beckenham' is first attested in a Saxon charter of 862 as Biohhahema mearc and is referred to as Bacheham in the Domesday Book of 1086, and as Becceham in the Textus Roffensis. The name is thought to derive from Beohha's homestead (Beohha + ham in Old English).

Former residents include Prime Minister John Major, writer Enid Blyton, comedian Bob Monkhouse and actress Julie Andrews plus musicians Bill Wyman (The Rolling Stones), Peter Frampton, David Sylvian (Japan), Anne Dudley (The Art of Noise) and - most famously - David Bowie.

Bowie (1947-2016) was born as David Robert Jones in Brixton but moved out to Bickley, then Bromley and Sundridge Park at an early age. He lived in Foxgrove Road, Beckenham from 1969 to 1973, a few years after starting his career as a professional musician, but during his commercial breakthrough: from the ‘Space Oddity’ single to the Ziggy Stardust alter ego period.

He co-ran a folk club on Sunday nights at the Three Tuns pub in the High Street (now a Zizzi Restaurant), passes on an optional loop towards the end of the (downstream) walk. A brown plaque commemorates this fact on the outside wall of the building.

The club was influenced by the Arts Lab movement, developing into the Beckenham Arts Lab and became extremely popular. It hosted a free festival in the Croydon Road Recreation Ground (a bit off-route) on 16 August 1969, the subject of his song "Memory of a Free Festival". The Grade II-listed bandstand in the park has been re-christened ‘The Bowie Bandstand’.

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You can also upload photos to the SWC Group on Flickr (upload your photos) and videos to Youtube. This walk's tags are:

National Rail: 03457 48 49 50 • Traveline (bus times): 0871 200 22 33 (12p/min) • TFL (London) : 0343 222 1234

Nov-24 Thomas G