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Oxleas Wood

Eight thousand years of woodland on the south side of Shooters Hill, the forest London's road builders failed to cut through, with a meadow and a café looking out over Kent.

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Photo by Stephen Craven, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Parts of Oxleas Wood have been wooded since the end of the last ice age, and with Jack Wood and Shepherdleas Wood it makes a Site of Special Scientific Interest of oak, hornbeam, silver birch, coppiced hazel and an unusual number of wild service trees. It belonged to the royal manor of Eltham from 1311, to the War Department from 1811, and to the public from 1934, when the London County Council opened it. In the 1980s and 1990s the East London River Crossing was to have driven a dual carriageway through the middle of it. People Against the River Crossing took the scheme through two public inquiries and to the European Commission, three thousand people signed a pledge to lie down in front of the bulldozers, and in 1993 the road was withdrawn. Oxleas Meadow on top of the hill has the café and the long view south; Severndroog Castle is in Castle Wood next door.

Where
Shooters Hill, SE18 3RT
Nearest station
Falconwood · 4 min walk

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Data is compiled from public sources including OpenStreetMap, under the ODbL. Hours change often, so check before making a journey.

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