A while back I suggested none of my readers had ever been to Folkes Lane Woodland, a nature reserve beside the M25 in outer Havering. Alas three of you said you had, the most convincing of whom said it was on one of his occasional jogging routes. So I'm going to try again with another London location I don't think any of you have ever been to... unless you live there. Again it's peripheral, again it's a scrubby nature reserve but this time it's in Bexley, not far from Crayford station.
Somewhere you've never been: Braeburn Park
Where the Dartford-bound railway meets the A2 Rochester Way, a large dead-end wedge of land has recently become Braeburn Park. During the 20th century it was a gravel pit then landfill, so neither an attractive nor accessible spot, thus the built-up edge of Crayford ended high on Heathfield Avenue. In 1999 Taylor Wimpey submitted a planning application to build 200 houses here instead, a mighty task involving full remediation of the contaminated land, starting with the half where all the new houses were. It took until 2016 for the remaining half to be deemed safe and animal-friendly, opening up as a nature reserve overseen by the Land Trust and the London Wildlife Trust. The housing estate is Braeburn Park and the adjacent recreational SSSI is also Braeburn Park, and I'm hoping you've been to neither.
Braeburn Park - The estate
There's only one road into Braeburn Park and it starts bang on the London/Kent border at the top of Station Road. You might have been here, perhaps ratrunning through or hopping off the 492 bus, but that doesn't count. Here anachronistic pillars mark the entrance to Galloway Drive, also ULEZ cameras because no way is Sadiq letting off this dead-end enclave scot-free. The access road sweeps down in a gentle curve, so temptingly that they've had to add two chicanes to slow the traffic down. The rooftops of the estate are initially down below whereas you should perhaps be more interested in the scarp to either side because this is one of London's officially designated Geological Sites - Wansunt Pit. Here a rare exposure of gravel "has been the subject of considerable controversy since the turn of the (20th) century", so yes you might just have been here if rocks are your thing.
"The question of whether or not the Dartford Heath gravel is equivalent to any part of the Swanscombe sequence, and what its relationship is to the Thames Terraces, is one of the more burning issues in the Thames Pleistocene studies, and therefore the exposures here are of considerable importance."
The estate is very provincial millennial, all cosy detacheds and bricky semis, also minimal gardens to cram in as much housing as possible. Garages are commonplace because this is car country, while the road network consists of one wiggly loop off which poke a dozen desirable cul-de-sacs. Street names reference lesser-known types of apple including Woolbrook Road, Saltcote Close and Bascombe Grove. I had a good wander round and found zero facilities, not a corner shop nor hall, not even a postbox, so tightfisted were the developers, so residents have to do everything of community importance elsewhere. That invariably means driving out up the access road, although there is a single alleyway which acts as a convenient cut-through to the station and Crayford's shops. Oh and there's a coal tax post.
Over 200 of these survive in situ marking the former boundary across which the Metropolitan Board of Works levied imports of coal. One is at the top of Galloway Drive on the county boundary and another once stood at the entrance to the quarry. This now finds itself on the pavement outside 28 Melrose Avenue, marginally shifted a few metres north as a result of all the building works. It also once straddled the Kent boundary but in 1991 the Boundary Commission made a change, choosing to combine the entire quarry site within Bexley to aid future redevelopment. Their report says only one letter of objection was received, this from the waste company overseeing the landfill works who said they had strong objections and that detailed objections would follow, But Dougal Bros never wrote back so the change went ahead anyway, thus all the residents of Braeburn Park now find themselves marginally in Bexley rather than Kent, perhaps with apathy to thank.
Braeburn Park - The nature reserve
Now for the bit I'm really hoping you haven't been to. The nature reserve covers 20 hectares, that's 50 acres, and fills the farthest wedge as well as flanking two sides of the estate. It's all reclaimed quarry/landfill so hardly gorgeous, but also fully rewilded and extensive so a fine site to explore. From the main body of the estate there's just one entrance at the foot of Falstaff Close, securely gated from motorbikes and quadbikes else local speed demons would have a field day. Initially it looks quite tame with a little playground and a long clearing, but don't let that deceive you. I liked the look of a sharp slope beyond, very very nearly in Kent, so clambered up past piles of fox poo to a bench with an excellent view of nearby rooftops and cranes on the Dartford skyline. I am particularly confident that none of you have ever sat on this bench.
The main path continues into a former cutting with exposed sandy cliffs, admittedly shallow but an ideal environment for certain nesting birds. Beyond that it enters a thickly wooded stripe, a very different environment, suddenly tumbling down the side of a ridge packed with spindly sycamores. It's hardly rained over the summer yet this descent was already borderline muddy, so best wear sensible footwear if you come much later in the year. And don't worry about getting lost, a circular path is well waymarked on posts throughout. Each also includes a QR code which I hoped would take me to an informative page about Braeburn Park and maybe a map, but instead it led to a brief landing page hoping I'd donate to the London Wildlife Trust, ideally optimised for mobile payment.
The far end of the park is large, low and scrubby with set paths through otherwise impenetrable blocks of undergrowth. It was also gloriously empty, or so I hoped because this is precisely the kind of place I dread meeting an overexcitable dog. It ticked all the boxes - unfamiliar location, limited lines of sight, very restricted exits, far from human presence - precisely the kind of place you'd bring a bouncy hound because you'd almost certainly bump into nobody. Thankfully I really did have the place to myself, even on a Saturday morning, but that just reinforced the thought that you definitely haven't been here. Admittedly London Loop section 1 gets very close where it doubles back over the railway, but if you doglegged up to the A2 as intended you still haven't been to Braeburn Park and I now have.
Here then is a special comments box for readers who have been to Braeburn Park, either the estate or the nature reserve or ideally both. If you've nearly been, know someone there or have driven past please join everyone else in the main comments box below.
been to Braeburn Park
Damn, some people have actually been. Three visitors to the nature reserve and one former resident of the estate. As yet nobody's confirmed they've been to both. But rest assured I will keep exploring extremely niche locations on the very edge of London because one day I will go somewhere none of you have gone, it must be possible.
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