Sydenham

"SYDENHAM, a suburban district of the metropolis, forming a chapelry in the parish of Lewisham, hundred of Blackheath, lathe of Sutton-at-Hone, county Kent, 7 miles S.E. of London, with which it is connected by several lines of railway. It occupies an elevated spot on the S. side of the metropolis, and is a rapidly increasing place. About 1640 it first came into public notice on account of a mineral spring, which was supposed to possess peculiar medicinal virtues, and for the benefit of which invalids often came from a considerable distance. This raised the village from a cluster of huts to a town, and though the fame of the spa subsequently declined, the village continued to increase, and was divided under the Act of 58 George III. into the two district parishes of St. Bartholomew's, Sydenham, and Christchurch, Forest Hill. The formation of Sydenham Park, and the removal hither of the Crystal Palace, from Hyde Park, in October, 1851, upon the close of the great International Exhibition, tended much to the improvement of the neighbourhood. The population of the entire chapelry in 1861 was 10,595, comprising 4,641 in Forest Hill, and 5,955 in St. Bartholomew's, Sydenham; the latter district having more than doubled in population in the 20 years between 1841 and 1861." See also under Lewisham

[Transcribed from The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland 1868 by Colin Hinson ©2010]