 Hello, thanks for joining me. I'm in Bermondsey in South London today, and I'm walking along a road called Surrey Canal Road. Believe it or not, this was once the Grand Surrey Canal. And in today's video, we're not going to explore that canal. We're going to explore another old canal. So before the railways and everything, canals were the prime mover and the river Thames, of course, were the prime mover of goods. But then the railways came along. Look, there's a train just going over the bridge. A Class 171 of these are probably going down to Uckfield. This was once a canal. That railway bridge wouldn't have been there. And then, as the railways came about, the canals used what they came obviously, basically. So what we're going to do, just under this viaduct, was the old Croydon Canal. And that's what we're going to explore in today's video. Now, the Croydon Canal was authorised in 1801. It opened in 1809, and it closed by 1836. So the idea was to bring goods to and from Croydon. Quite a hilly route up and over some hills, as we'll find out. Now, bearing in mind, it's been closed such a long time. The plan is, what can we find today? Now, as we're not doing the Surrey Canal, but I have just noticed here, that there looks like a bollard for tying boats to do. And I suspect the towpath would have been about here, about where this bridge is. Let's go under the bridge, because I want to show you the junction. So we'll be at the very start of the old Croydon Canal. It's going to be interesting to see what we can see, because considering it's been closed so long and the railway has been built over most of it, there are still some signs that there was one to canal. So that's Mercury Way there. So we've got a bit of a little traffic jam. That would have been boats, having that same problem. Boats would have obviously wouldn't come under the bridge, because the bridge wouldn't have been there, but they'd have been turning off down there towards Croydon, with a long lock flight ahead. Let's go down there and see what we can find at the old Croydon Canal. We've arrived on our oak park on the Brighton Line, looking down towards Brighton. There goes a London Overground Train. It's just starting to rain, it's a bit annoying. Anyway, what I wanted to show you here was this is the railway, which is effectively built on the canal. Now, the canal did take a bit of a, not such a straight route as the railway. So the railway follows roughly the same route, but you may just be able to see it is very slowly, it is going uphill and to a summit. So there would have been locks all along here. As I said, I'm not sure the exact location of where the canal was. Part of the canal is very difficult to trace, but as we go further up towards Forest Hill, we shall start to find more clues that there was once a canal here. So we're now in a residential area of Forest Hill. I understand the canal ran approximately where this road is. We're close to Forest Hill Railway Station. Now, across the road, there's a couple of clues to the canal. So you look along here. I understand this path up here. This was the tow buff, so I'm probably right now stood. I'll be stood in the water, be water up to about here. Now, the clue so far, it's not a relic from the canal, but a clue to show you there was a canal, is in this mule that carved into the brick wall. It mentions Hornerman's Tee. The Hornerman Museum is just up the hill. And here, you can see there's a barge carved in the brick wall. So that clearly shows there was a canal here once. Forest Hill Railway Station is just across the road. And then a couple of other things. We've got the wheels here of a steam locomotive carved in the canal, in the wall, and a tram, double-decker tram. Unfortunately, there's no trams here. And there's a squirrel, no trams here anymore. Interestingly, as we come to here, I might be completely wrong, but those cobbles, they look a bit like, you know, canal side path. Maybe there was a bridge here once. I don't know. I'm going to continue on past Forest Hill Station. There's a path that goes along beside the railway. We're going to go over a bridge, and we're going to go and find some water. So now, I'm just walking along this path down here beside the railway line. Come to this footbridge. This will take us over the railway line and to the place we're next going to. It's called Dakerswood Nature Reserve. It's only open once a month. It must be those trees are there. So I've waited quite a while to do this video because it's an idea I've had for a while. The last couple of times I nearly did it and something else cropped up. So here I am today, finally making this video. So what we're going to do, we're going to make our way down here through another residential area. And then that's where we'll find what I said will be the first bit today where we actually see some water in the old canal. Part of the old canal. The canal itself wasn't overly a commercial success. It would have taken coal down to Croydon. All of this area would have been a lot more rural than it is today. So it could have taken timber up to the Thames towards London. So there was some trade on it. There was also the Surrey Iron Railway, which I understand it connected up with. That's a very old sort of... Well, you know, it's a video for another day really, a very old railway probably pre-steam. So that's something we'll do another time. I'm just passing church here. I'll look for it. So up here should be Dakerswood Nature Reserve. I've just arrived at Dakerswood Nature Reserve. The whole reason I wanted to come here today to do this video. And at Dakerswood Nature Reserve is the thing I most wanted to see. Here we have a section of the Croydon Canal still with water in it. Okay, we're not going to see any boats today, but this is the Croydon Canal. It's still got water in it. This is a very, very old section of canal. It's been closed for, you know, well over 150 years. And here it is with watering in this very quiet area of London. To give you an idea, we are in very much a residential area. Houses all around. And then you've got this really nice nature reserve. The railway line is just over there. So this is sort of a kink of the canal. It sort of criss-crossed the railway line. There's a bridge up there. What we'll do, we'll walk along. We're on a boardwalk at the moment. I was warned the site can be quite slippery. So I'm just going to walk along this short section of the canal and see what we can see. And then what I'll do, I'll continue my walk. I'll probably get the train for the next leg. So let's follow down here. It's very pleasant. You can hear a few people are enjoying the site. So you've got more woodland over that part of the site. And then, as I mentioned, this part of the site has the Croydon Canal. So we can follow these boardwalks. You can hear a train, even if you can't see it. So the Croydon Canal is never far away from the railway. The railway that basically got built on the canal's track. So we'll walk along here. It's quite a nice bridge there, taking us across the canal. I'm really pleased that I've always wanted to do this. I'm glad to finally be here. But it's pointless me making the video if I couldn't come to this nature. Look at that. It's just such a nice, calm, quiet bit of South London. And then looking that way continues down to where this section of canal ends. I don't think we're ever going to see a boat come down here again. But at least the canal, you know, exists in some form. So I'll just follow this little bit here of the canal. And then what we'll do, we'll go around. Now in the end, there's a few ducks over there. We've got the woodland area here. So I'll have a mouth warm drop there. I don't have that much to see. But it's all really, you know, nice to explore. See a couple of ducks. So the ducks are still enjoying the Croydon Canal. I don't know if they're aware of the historical significance of the section of water there, that one. And then they're there. And then here we come to the end. So this was only a short bit of Croydon Canal. There is another short section that we will go and explore. Let's just have a quick look up in the woods. I don't know if there's going to be too much of interest to today's video, but just to give you an idea, if you think they're coming up to London and would like to visit this nature reserve, it's worth doing. It's free to visit. So, you know, I recommend it. And it's very nice and pleasant. So it's quite nice. It's not a place you're going to spend all day, but somewhere to go for an afternoon. I think it's a really, really nice little place. We'll walk along here. And then we'll go, we can hear a train going past again. I don't know how good the site is for watching trains. We'll have to go back down there. That will take us back down to the canal again. Let's just try and get over towards the railway. I don't think I see any trains. It's really, really like it though. There's something nice about walking through woods, especially in the autumn. It is, well, this is their October open day, which we've come to today. I have, like I have said, I've been meaning to do this for a long time. I've never always clashed when I've been doing something else. You can't really see the railway, but the railway is there. And I'm going to have to walk in that direction to Sydenham station. When I get to Sydenham, I'm going to catch a train to, that was it, Annalee or Pendry. I can't remember which one. I'll have to have a look, see where I've planned to go to. That's where there's a park and there's a bit more of the Croydon Canal up there. And then we'll continue onwards and we'll find the end of the Croydon Canal and see what's on the site today. So we're just coming back now. We've kind of circumnavigated the site to where we started. And we're back down by the Croydon Canal. So that brings me to the end of my visit here. Time to go and catch a train and let's go and find more of the Croydon Canal. So here we are, Annalee. I've travelled on this London Overground Class 378. That's departing for West Croydon. We'll get on to West Croydon later in the video because West Croydon station has quite a big significance to do with the Croydon Canal. The reason we're leaving the train here at Annalee and it's just started to rain is because this is where there's another section of the Croydon Canal. It's one of those few London Overground stations that doesn't have ticket barriers. Now I've got a daily travel card so I'm just going to walk out. I don't have to touch in or out. They were going to withdraw the travel card. I've breathed a sigh of relief this week when I heard that they are no longer withdrawing the travel card because for doing little things like this it would just really, really complicate things and make the cost of making these videos would just become ridiculous. Anyway, the travel cards are staying. So thank God for that. Let's go up there and find the Croydon Canal. I'm away from the railway station at Annalee and I believe, I haven't seen this before I believe I'm about to find a section of Croydon Canal. There's railings here and here we go, here we go. Yes, there it is. That is your other section of the Croydon Canal. So what we're going to do, we'll go down there and have a look. There's a good map here, look. So this map gives you an idea of how the canal criss-crossed the railway. So the nature reserve of that was an on-list map that was covered up. It's just come across over that side of the railway crossed about where the station was about where we exited the station along down there and it would have continued on down towards Croydon. So you can see, certainly around Norwood Junction that section of the old railway is very much on the alignment of the old canal. So we'll go down now into Annalee Park and we shall have the pleasure of walking beside the Croydon Canal to think it closed all those years ago and we're going to now go and walk beside it. Once again, it's... Well, after visiting the nature reserve I realised that it was once the garden of the Victorian house, what we saw back there. So that's why, and it became a pond. This is basically an almost like an ornamental pond in a corner of the park. I think it's encased in concrete in the 1930s. They did that to preserve it. It's even back in the 1930s. They wanted to preserve the Croydon Canal. So here we are. We are down on the canal side. No boats or anything. So really, it's just a long linear pond. But I do find something fascinating about old canals and what's left of them. I think the last time I did a video of this kind of nature looking at an old canal although that canal does have boats on it or part of the old Basin Stoke canal. We walked up to Odeum Castle and we walked up to the tunnel. That was really quite fascinating. I don't think there were any tunnels on this canal. Obviously there were the lock flights but I think it was all above ground. So what I'm going to do, I'm going to walk on down there and now I'm going to go back to the station, catch a train and we'll see what else we can find. I don't know if we're going to find anything as exciting as this but we will go to the end of where the Croydon Canal used to finish. So I've nearly come to the end of this little section of the Croydon Canal. I think what we shall see is, yeah, it ends here. I thought it was important we did go to the end. You can hear the railway line again isn't very far away. So here we are at the end of this little section in Betts Park of the Croydon Canal. So you can see it's not long at all. We were just up there a moment ago. Yeah, I always want to get like a model barge and float it up and down. Yeah, that's my sort of miniature railway mind coming in. So we've come to the end of this section. You can see quite clearly the canal. There's a bit of a looking old railway line. There's what I'd call well a bit of a cutting I suppose. So bearing in mind I'm now walking the water up to about here probably because we're walking in a cutting on the old canal. I haven't quite decided what I'm going to do yet. If I'm going to go back to the station and catch a train to Norwood Junction, or do I walk there? I don't think it's going to be a great deal else to see. But from that useful map that we saw, we can clearly see now where the canal would have been. Well where the canal used to go. The railway line is there. There is a couple of reservoirs south of Norwood's reservoir. I don't think I've got up there today but that's a lake which you can go and see that with a supplied water for the canal. So the canal went in that direction across the railway and then down towards Croydon. The destination the canal was built for. We're not too far from Croydon now. We're just in a housing estate over there at Selhurst depot which maintains most of the southern trains fleet so to give you an idea of where we are. And in the distance I can just see a couple of skyscrapers just there of Croydon Town Centre. When the canal arrived in Croydon the church bells were rang to celebrate this new mode of transport coming to Croydon. And it probably really was quite a revolution that people now had a means of transport up to the Thames and up to London. But now looking at this, this housing estate, you think really what has this got to do with the canal. Well this, believe it or not, is the root of the canal and there is a clue to that. This road is called Toe Pathway. So if you had no idea about the canal if I came along here the first time I saw that that's interesting. I wonder if there was a canal here once. And just to be very sure that you know it's not just a fancy road name we're at a roundabout here, see there's a road going off there. We get to here and here also confirms it. We've got Toe Pathway and canal walk. So that road it's canal walk that follows where the canal used to go. So this is the best bit of evidence in all this estate that this was once a canal. The canal would have gone off across what is now a huge railway junction area. I'm bringing the walk back to Northwood Junction and then I'm going to catch a train to West Croydon and that will be the end of our adventure along the Overcroydon Canal today. So I've just arrived on the London Overground train at West Croydon and believe it or not this railway station, that's the bay platform where the London Overground train is lists the through line where it looks towards Epsom. You've also got the tram line just the other side of the walk over there. Believe it or not this is the end of the Croydon canal or should I say where the Croydon canal once ended this used to be Croydon Basin here, what is now West Croydon station seems rather hard to believe but if you look around think about it, it's a bit of a low lying area so probably where I'm stood now would have been right in the middle of the basin and all of our boats floating about where my coffee cup is would have been floating past my face it does feel rather strange anyway so we've come to the end of the Croydon canal it's been quite a pleasant walk and train journeys in between and we've seen the two sections that still have water on as I said if you want to do this walk the Betts Park section you can do anytime the nature reserve section you have to come on the last Sunday sorry, last Saturday afternoon of the month that's when that's open Anyway, that brings us to the end of today's video thank you very much for watching please do feel free to like, subscribe and comment from West Croydon station which used to be the end of the canal, goodbye West Croydon station, Hanway and Hydrangea center