alm

The running in ED area is actually very good by London standards - Richmond Park excepted - as you have loads of parks separated by quiet surburban roads. Try the nunhead cemetery/peckham rye/dulwich park loop (come down friern road its v quiet) as suggested but then add in brockwell via belair park and/or sydenham hill wood - you easily get half marathon length without having to do repeat loops anywhere and around 2/3 is in the parks. I also go out east sometimes via nunhead and nice roads in Brockley/St Johns to Blackheath and Greenwich park or through hilly fields/ladywell fields (down the ravensbourne to catford) and blythe hill - v quiet and great views. And if you are really keen add in one tree hill and Horniman gardens!

Sorry last train from Victoria 19.46. After that you can get the little hoppa train to Peckham Rye (the one that goes onto London Bridge) or need to go to Blackfriars.

And there are always plenty of people getting off the more limited train service in the evening (last direct train from Victoria leaves at 19.16) - so safe coming back at night.

I'd like to second (or thirds) the good reviews. Mrs Alm and I went there Thursday last week - bit quiet but not deserted. The burger was excellent but even better was the crab starter - really fresh and tasty. The wine list as expected was very good and as SeanM states the unwieldy layout firnally works. I think it walks the tightrope between good local boozer and poncy gastropub pretty well. I confess a vested interest as it is my local and I would love to see the latest incarnation bed in, so get along and make it work.

I have regularly run (and walked) across the Rye in the dark. Normally a few dog owners, cyclists and the odd runner around. Never seen or heard of trouble - although this does not mean it is risk free, of course. Ihe rye is completely open and reasonably well lit (which is not the case in the park part but that is locked after dark) so if you are at all concerned you can change direction easily enough to avoid unwanted attention.

And when on the rye why not vary by using the network of paths inside the park - far from traffic and plenty of variety. The jogging/dog walking path around the edge of Dulwich park is also fun.

I live one street away and love it. Waveney is very quiet but there are loads of good pubs within stumbling distance. Within very easy striking range are not just the Clockhouse but Page 2 (2 mins walk) which is having a bit of a revamp and great things are expected (there was a thread on here recently about it). The Nuns Head and the Rye are both a short stroll away and do good food as well as decent beer and wine. About ten minutes walk across the common are the Herne and the FHT plus the Gowlett tucked away off East Dulwich road. And its 15 mins to the bright lights of Lordship Lane. And having previously lived in East Dulwich, I would say the transport is better as there is easy access to two stations which service more than one line plus the useful 12 and 63 buses (which stop diagonally across the common from Waveney about 5 mins walk).

Done after the last locals and with the next someway off atill not great targeting. Good old Wikipedia can do a better job than me of explaining - its an American term anway http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pork_barrel

Ah but Alfornun they have only recently redone my road which is on the 'wrong' side of the common (and very nice the pavement is too) and I know my next door neighbour votes Labour - perhaps they are just not very good at this pork barrel politics lark... X

Ah Alfornun has a new conspiracy to develop... I actually agree with you about the state of the east side of Peckham Rye leading into Cheltenham road - it is used as a racing track by some cars. But be careful proposing speed reducing measures on here - they make some posters very angry indeed. Still there is one problem with your theory both sides of the park are in the same ward, Peckham Rye, and not in East Dulwich at all.

Not just south of the cemetery but also the cluster of roads west of the cemetery carden, barforth, waveney, tresco etc have excellent housing stock (and the only 4 bed houses in Nunhead) - are right by the common and park, annde within walking distance of both Nunhead and Peckham Rye plus all the buses. And no, we don't have just two trains an hour - Victoria trains run all week plus much more frequent Blackfriars services at peak hours. For anyone who doesn't work in the city, it is much better connected than ED. But this Nunhead versus ED argument somewhat misses the point. Nunhead is much smaller and diffuse than ED, its shopping district will always remain more convencience based. Nunhead cannot replace ED - but why would it need to? ED is a short stroll away - in fact it is the same distance for me now to the EDT as when I used to live in the Plough area of ED. Do you guys not have legs?

I too have just stumbled on this thread and completely baffled by Alfor Nun's comments - but alfor never seems to let any facts get in the way of a good anti-council Dulwich bias rant. I live on the Nunhead side and have two young children who use the playground most days. I know lots of other parents in the area all of whom use it regularly. The facilities are similar in range to Goose green and much less busy, which is the attraction. The kids also love the park element - open spaces to run, ducks to look at, trees to climb which Goose green does not offer. By Peckham Rye Park standards the playground is in one of the busier spots right by the pond, near the school entrance and looking out over the open playing fields - if you jog round it regularly you may have noticed it is a quiet park. Again for many of us this is a huge attraction, especially when compared with Dulwich park, for example. And yes people from our side of the park with children sometimes go to Goose Green, Dulwich Park, Telegraph hill and even Brockwell Park to meet other friends or go somewhere different.

funny that fatfighters, we went the other day to CHouse with two very small children in the early evening (I guess we had left by 7) and had no trouble at all. Maybe it is teenagers they don't like...

To those complaining about the location - the question is where else would you put it? Anywhere in the park - which was only recently expensively redone - would involve substantial environmental damage. The Common site does not have this problem. The view out the front towards the handsome houses on Peckham Rye with the spires of East Dulwich in the distance is rather fine. Of course, it would be good if they got rid of the car park altogether (put on my tin hat), but that is another question.