Norwood

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Grange Road

The first edition of the 6" Ordnance Survey Map gives the layout of the private estate. The Mansion, stood in the middle of the estate with stables between it and the main entrance which was at the junction of Wharncliffe Road and Grange Road. The Mansion looked out onto quite extensive gardens which ran south from the house to the southern point of the property, and near Grange Road there was a small pond crossed by a rustic bridge. The northern end remained natural woodland with trees down both sides of garden.The mansion was a two storey building of Victorian style with bay windows, veranda and a conservatory on the south east corner.  Following the purchase of the park by the Corporation the mansion was used as a Museum which housed a fine collection of minerals, corals, shells and local Roman antiquities. One room in the Mansion was known as the Veterans Club for the use of the male pensioners of the district where they played cards and other various games or sat and talked. Visitors to the park and museum could obtain refreshments from the tea-room in the house. The Mansion was used during the First World War for billeting Canadian troops and in the Second World War both the house and grounds were badly damaged. The Mansion fell into disrepair and in 1960 was pulled down. The foundations were retained and laid out as a formal garden with the bay windows as flower beds.

The Lawns

Was bewleys coppice

Spa Hill

Smugglers led back into the woods. Used to be Leather Bottle Lane.

The Lawns Recreation Centre with stunning views. The site of Beulah Spa opened in 1831. Spring discovered by a stray sick horse.  Buildings designed by Decimus Burton. Octagonal reading room, terrace, maze, orchestra, camera obscura, archery, band, gypsies, wigwam and well. Coaches from Charing Cross, Tivoli. Croydon Council. 

Tivoli Lodge to Beulah Spa at the fork with Spa Hill. The earlier stuccoed, with some quatrefoil decoration and pretty bargeboarding, although much altered, is one of the buildings designed for the spa by Decimus Burton. Originally called Rustic Lodge.

Lodge for the spa. The later one, Tudor red brick, dated 1864, was built after the spa had closed in 1855, unable to compete with the Crystal Palace.

Beulah Spa. At the top of the hill immediately opposite a pleasant public house of that name.  The faintest outlines of Decimus Burton's buildings and gardens can be imagined.   The grounds are now maintained by the Parks Department of Croydon Council which contoured the slopes and replanted trees to maintain the rural illusion which is so delightful as one walks through the woods, but even the famous spring lies buried and forgotten beneath the slopes which fall away from the woodland footpath

23 Rising Sun pub

Spurgeon Street

Spurgeon lived at Westwood, site of school. House there is named M.C.Marsh. 1


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