Telegraph Hill Area Guide
Community spirit is strong, with many residents getting involved with growing herbs and vegetables to be used in the very special community café, Hill Station Café, which sits between both parts of the park.
The café holds art exhibitions, events and has a pop-up space showcasing local makers/small businesses.
This is a settled community, mostly brought here by the school’s long-standing reputation, fine housing stock and amazing train links. It’s not uncommon to find actors and academics settled in the sprawlers, while young university students take on the flats and over the streets on their bicycles.
Homes:
Victorian and plenty of big ones. The standard template is halls-adjoining with triple bay frontages and a basement level. As the basements were built with separate entrances, many have converted them into a separate flat that can be rented out or given to a granny or au pair. These are the chunkiest Victorian terraces you could wish for with fab proportions, large gardens and huge attics.
Homes lining and topping the park are hottest, towards the bottom of Jerningham Road is a terrace of enormous late-Victorian four storey houses. Kitto Road has some towering townhouses, Bousfield, Gellatly and Arbuthnot are lined with picture-pretty, three-bed terraces. Some strapping periods have been turned into flats and you can find affordable post-war homes if you look hard enough.
Where to eat:
New Cross is a mixed area with plentiful cafés and some lively gastro pubs. Try The Telegraph at the Earl of Derby which borders Peckham but has an SE14 postcode. You’ll rub shoulder with Goldsmiths’ students in all of the pubs here. The Royal Albert and The White Hart have DJs at weekends and a relaxed vibe. The Rose Pub and Kitchen serves wood-fired pizzas in its large beer garden The New Cross House has a free cinema room upstairs. Eat Thai food at Skehans on Kitto Road.
You’re spoilt for coffee and brunch hangouts. Try The London Particular, La Café Boulangerie, Mughead Coffee, or Chinwag. Birdie Num, Nums is a firm fave with locals and there’s a fab Korean place. The Rosemary serve organic Hungarian fare. Out of the Brew is a socially responsible café with an enchanting garden and downstairs art gallery. Good, budget eats can be had at Thailand New Cross, Uncle Wrinkle is a great Chinese takeaway, Cummin Up serve fab jerk.
Shops:
New Cross has a huge Sainsbury’s and a TKMaxx, both by New Cross Gate station. Edy & Bridge sell their own label clothes while Prangsta is probably the best costumiers you’ll ever set foot in. The Word is New Cross’s very own independent bookshop.
Culture:
Goldsmiths’ brings pop-up art galleries, buzzing boozers and cheap eats. It also brings a Curzon cinema. Young guns head to the Party in the Park a summer music festival. The New Cross Inn is a live music venue while The Venue is a nightclub with live music stage, in the heart of SE14.
The New Cross and Deptford Free Film Festival shows a wide-range of film in some lovely settings while The Five Bells
Art galleries include The Take Courage Gallery, MMX Gallery and of course, Goldsmiths’ Centre for Contemporary Art.
The annual Telegraph Hill Festival shows visual and performance art, comedy, theatre, music, spoken word, literature and film. There’s a weekly farmers’ market in the park and a very good One O’clock Club.