dawsons heights built on roman burial ground

[betsy555]

hi does anyone else know this story ? someone told me it was built on a roman burial ground and that strange things happen up there . also the architect threw herself off the top of the building.....and died .....is this a shaggy dog story or true

[daizie]

oooo spooky

[Peckhamgatecrasher]

I heard that the architect throwing herself off the top of her own designed buildings was in Walworth. Who knows?

[Penguin68]

Roman burial grounds were either generally in a necropolis (city of the dead) or, very frequently along the roads leading out of towns as in Rome (they were always initially placed outside town limits, although the towns could then expand to incorporate them).

I wouldn't have thought that Dawson Heights was either an obvious site for a necropolis or lay along a Roman Road. Indeed, I am not sure what Roman Settlement they would be outside - Londinium was too far away and on the other side of the Thames - and although there is some suggestion of Roman settlement at Greenwich that too is too far away from here to count.

There may have been burials at Dawson Heights - presumably pagan since there is no church there I believe for Christian burial (normally around a church until the 19th Century municipal cemeteries). But the (close) Camberwell Old Cemetery would be, and indeed was, a much more obvious location for burial.

But I would be happy to stand corrected.

[brum]

I would be very surprised if this site was a roman burial ground. The Romans traditionally buried the dead just outside the town Walls, which is why there were roman remains found in spitalfields. The cemetries would also be close to main roads. I'm not aware of any roman roads or roman settlements or forts in this area (although I may be mistaken). Most roman activity south of the river focused around Borough and along the modern A2 through Greenwich. If there were any ancient settlements on Dawsons Heights, it would possibly be Iron Age due to it's dominating position in the area.

I don't want to spoil a good ghost story though!

[brum]

Sorry Penguin! I didn't see your previous post before writing my own - at least we are both in agreement!

[ryedalema]

Sorry to disappoint you guys. I work for the association that now owns Dawson Heights. We invited the architect around for a press visit last year and she was in glowing health. We have plenty of pics (see page 5 of this newsletter).

http://www.shgroup.org.uk/Documents/Publications/On%20Board/OnBoard42Aug08FINAL.pdf

[ratty]

What actually is Dawson Heights, where is it and why is it so special? I have always wondered. :)

[lozzyloz]

There is an ancient Bronze Age burial mound very close to Dawsons Heights.

[Mark]

ratty Wrote:

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> What actually is Dawson Heights, where is it and

> why is it so special? I have always wondered. :)

It's the big building up on the hill on the Forest Hill side of ED, here's a panorama of the view from there, with East Dulwich in the foreground on New Years Day this year.

Here's a link to a larger 3.5Mb version, it's compressed at 40% jpg to keep the file size down so the quality's not brilliant but you can still see your bedroom window. Maybe.

And you can see the Dome, Wembley stadium, the wheel, Earls Court, St Pauls etc, it really is worth going up there on a clear day. I didn't see any dead Romans though.

ryedalema, I'd love to take a picture from right at the top, as would a few others I'm sure, so if that's ever possible please let us know, we'd be eternally grateful.

[PeckhamRose]

Dawson Heights is an estate of ex council blocks on Overhill Road and the land in front of it furnishes the viewer with the best views of London. To my mind it beats Primrose Hill views any day of the week. Even better views can be seen from Canonbie Road - or better still the back gardens of the people who live round there, but Dawson Heights is brilliant.

I've not been in any of the flats but often ride past there and stop to have a grin break*. Seeing New Year in from there is a regular thing too, indeed pretty much every twelve months.

*I don't smoke.

[DrDom]

The site used to be a farm with a farm house atop from around the 17th century.

I remember in the 80's there was an urban legend of some-one jumping off the top as they had done some Acid and thought they could fly. There is a bent metal rail where they were have supposed to have landed on the Dunstan rd end.

[lozzyloz]

Excellent panorama Mark!

[ratty]

Is it the housing estate that looks like a boat?

Can someone point it out on google maps and I will go have a look!

[wee quinnie]

Yes it is - hence nickname - the battleship.

I can't link to googlemaps - but...

it is in the grey area, boundaried (is that a word?) by Dunstans Rd. and Overhill Rd. Donkey Alley is to the left on GMaps.

[buggie]

Regarding what the hill was - in the article Ryedalema linked to, the archietect states that it's an artifical hill from railway works waste

[ratty]

Ok , I think I have it

View Larger Map

[Mark]

That's the one. When get to the top of Champion Hill just before going past Sainsburys, you see it on the hill in the distance, looking like a communist hotel/hospital building.

[computedshorty]

Dawson's Heights blocks of flats was built to Council standard for the Council as housing stock.

I have personal memories of Dawsons Hill a natural clay hill on a very steep gradient, sloping from Overhill Road to Dunstan's Road. The only building on the lower part at Dunstan's Road was a small block of flats.

There was a rough road leading onto a row of about ten pre-war terraced houses some way back from Overhill Road, behind these were some twenty lock up garages, then an opening leading to the green rough hillside. Here the workmen employed by the Estate Agents dumped the rubbish for many years, we used to use anything large enough to sit on slid down the hill

One of the local Estate Agents who had at a later date their Estate sales Office facing Peckham Rye, near Brunton & Williams Printing Factory. This agent who lived in Overhill Road , her house is still there it can be picked out as it is a square white building completely out of character nearly facing the now called Dawson's Heights.

The site was never developed as it was too steep for services to gain access, everybody used it as a local open space, I used it from about 1938 myself.

There was a Police Building built near entrance in Overhill Road, and my brother in law lived facing it, where we were always calling there, giving us plenty of time to use the hill.

Personally I think it unlikely that it would have been used as a Bronze Age burial site, as the buried bodies would after years become dislodged and exposed from the unstable clay steep hillside.

The mention of moving excavated materials from the railway is not a thing that would be considered as the transport in those day would be mostly Horse drawn, it would be a hard task to transport the spoil to the top of a hill, it could become unstable end cause a landslide.

The back alleyway Donkey Passage from Goodrich Road has only gained that name a short while ago.

There is a hill that was called Furze Hill a green open area behind Horniman?s Park now built on and is called Westwood Park an estate of houses. I could recall memories told to me of the Zeppelin Airship that was kept there the securing rings were visible there until the development.

I would be interested in any personal recollections of Dawson's Hill.

[lozzyloz]

Here's a link about Dawson's Heights with some info on Roman ghosts, Bronze Age burial mound and a map.

[sanity girl]

fascinating! I will pay a visit when the weather improves. thanks

[SCSB79]

ratty Wrote:

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> What actually is Dawson Heights, where is it and

> why is it so special? I have always wondered. :)

What is it??? It's a bloody eye sore.

[daizie]

Just be grateful you dont have to live in it .

[betsy555]

fascinating stuff , so i was kind of correct and kind of incorrect.......

[DrDom]

Computed shorty and loz. Thanks for this. great stuff.