Canary Cafe

Crofton Roman villa

Orpington · 8.1 miles

Evidence of Roman domestic architecture can be examined at a museum-type archaeological site on the edge of Orpington, within the London Borough of Bromley. The remains belong to a villa that was occupied from roughly AD 140 until the end of the fourth century, forming the hub of a farming estate that covered about 500 acres of fields, meadows and woodland. At its peak the residence may have comprised no fewer than twenty rooms, although today the foundations of ten rooms are visible to the public. Among the preserved spaces are two with fragments of opus signinum flooring and three where tessellated, or tiled, surfaces have been identified. A portion of the underfloor heating system survives, displaying both channelled and pillared hypocaust arrangements, and assorted small artefacts have been recovered from the layers. The villa was first uncovered in 1926 when workmen preparing a driveway for new council offices stumbled upon Roman material. While initial investigations confirmed the site's existence, a comprehensive excavation was not undertaken until 1988 by the Kent Archaeological Rescue Unit, with the results later published in 1996. The archaeological remains are now housed within a modern protective building. The museum is situated close to Orpington railway station, making it readily accessible by public transport. As a designated historic feature, the site is listed on OpenStreetMap and forms part of the local heritage trail that also includes the nearby Lullingstone Roman Villa in Kent.

The Tarn

Well Hall · 8.7 miles

A wooded lakeside site on the eastern side of Court Road, opposite Mottingham railway station, offers a mixture of open garden, water and protected wildlife. Covering nine acres in the Royal Borough of Greenwich (postcode SE9 5AQ), the area was once the southern part of the Great Park attached to Eltham Palace, used for royal deer hunting until the English Civil War. After the Metropolitan Borough of Woolwich bought the land from the neighbouring Royal Blackheath Golf Club, the public garden opened in 1935 and has remained largely as laid out in the 1930s. The central part of the site surrounds a two-acre lake, historically called Starbuck’s Pond, and provides a circular walk that follows the shoreline, crosses a wooden footbridge and links the two gated entrances. Along the route visitors find a range of benches, a gazebo, a public-toilet block with a veranda shelter and an 18th-century brick ice well that is Grade II listed and viewable through a fenced opening. The park is wheelchair-accessible on most routes, although a few steps remain near the north-west and south-west entrances. Dogs are not permitted to protect the resident birds. Half of the nine-acre area is fenced off as a bird-sanctuary nature reserve, where species such as mallard, Canada goose, rose-ringed parakeet and swan are regularly observed, alongside foxes, squirrels, frogs and bats. The lake supports a small stickleback population and is fed by the Little Quaggy stream. Access is via Court Road; the nearest town is Well Hall, and entry is free.

Eel Brook Common

Walham Green · 9.3 miles

Eel Brook Common is common land in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, close to Fulham Broadway, with its south-eastern boundary along New King's Road. According to the Fulham Society, the name actually is a derivative of 'hill brook common' - which relates to Musgrave Crescent, which is raised much higher than the surrounding land. It is believed that this is artificial and it probably was originally a Bronze Age mound - either a raised piece of ground to defend against attackers, or as a burial mound. When you leave Eel Brook Common from the north side, you go up a steep ramp - up onto Musgrave Crescent. It is within the Hammersmith and Fulham Conservation Area of Parsons Green.

The Cinema Museum

Kennington · 9.3 miles

Building name is The Lambeth Workhouse. Constructed in 1873. The building was eventually turned into a hospital. The workhouse's former master's house and chapel are now occupied by the Cinema Museum which is a grade II listed building.

Peter the Great Memorial

Albury Court · 9.3 miles

The bronze ensemble on Glaisher Street marks the tercentenary of the Russian tsar’s 1698 visit to England, standing at the junction where the River Thames meets Deptford Creek within the Royal Borough of Greenwich. Set beside the Millennium Quay housing development, the monument occupies a broad marble platform that rises on five steps and is bordered by a stone balustrade. Central to the arrangement is a tall statue of Peter the Great in 17th-century dress, holding a pipe and a telescope, flanked by an ornate bronze throne on the left and a bronze figure of a court dwarf on the right. Bronze cannons on stone plinths terminate the platform, each bearing grotesque plaques and bilingual inscriptions that recount the tsar’s stay at Sayes Court and his study of English shipbuilding at the nearby royal dockyard. The memorial, unveiled in 2001 by the Russian ambassador and Prince Michael of Kent, incorporates works by Russian artist Mihail Chemiakin and architect Vyacheslav Bukhayev. It lies on a pedestrian path on the south bank of the Thames, accessible from Glaisher Street and visible from the surrounding waterways. The nearest town identified in mapping data is Albury Court. No admission fee or visitor facilities are recorded in the source material, and the site remains open to the public as part of the riverside landscape.

Michael Faraday Memorial substation

Pullens Estate · 9.3 miles

A stainless-steel box sits on Elephant Square at the northern side of the Elephant and Castle gyratory, commemorating the Victorian scientist Michael Faraday. Designed by modern-movement architect Rodney Gordon in 1959 and erected in 1961, the structure occupies the centre of what was formerly a roundabout. Inside the metal casing lies a London Underground electrical substation that powers the Northern and Bakerloo lines, a fitting tribute to a pioneer of electricity. The original concept called for glass panels so that the transformer work could be seen, but concerns about vandalism led to the current metal cladding. The monument carries an inscription set into the surrounding concrete paving, identifying it as the Faraday Memorial. Since being granted Grade II listed status in 1996, it has been fitted with a series of lighting schemes: a school-girl-designed installation from a 1996 Blue Peter competition, and a “disco” theme introduced by Southwark Council in May 2012 that illuminates the box each evening after dark. Although early-2000s regeneration plans considered relocating the monument 400 metres to Walworth Road, the scheme was abandoned and the memorial remains in its original position, now more readily reachable after the roundabout was “peninsulised”. Visitors can view the monument at any time without charge; it is openly visible from the surrounding streets and pedestrian routes. Access is straightforward via the Northern and Bakerloo Underground lines, whose tunnels the substation serves, and the site is operated by London Underground as part of the public transport infrastructure.