Addiscombe Railway Park

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Addiscombe Railway Park, which was also known as Addiscombe Linear Park while in the planning and construction stages, officially opened at 2:30pm on Saturday 26th May 2007. Just phase 1 opened with phase 2 eventually underway by March 2009. Completion was 'expected by the summer' but the official opening was apparently on 13th March 2010. It is built on an abandoned railway track bed.

The park is just basically a footpath / cycle track with wide grass verges to the side and two benches. When I visited the park shortly after it opened I found the footpath to be needlessly soft, uneven and gritty. The idea is apparently for the park to have rather a 'natural' look but it just looked like they had done beggar all with it and I was extremely disappointed with it. Problems with the path (which also included weed growth and poor drainage) were acknowledged and it would seem the path has been relaid in tarmac and the same material is used for phase 2. In occasional walks through the park I have continued to feel underwhelmed but I haven't been there for some time.

Location

Addiscombe Railway Park lies between Morland Road and Dalmally Road on the former trackbed of the railway line between Addiscombe and Woodside.

Phase 1 runs in a westerly direction from Dalmally Passage (a footpath between Morland Road and Dalmally Road) to East India Way where there is another entrance (there don't seem to be any others).

Phase 2 runs from Dalmally Passage to Blackhorse Lane where it connects with the tram stop (by steps and sloped path) and there are proposals to have access to the Woodside schools. The Croydon Parks Links' project includes proposals to continue the path alongside the tram line and link up with South Norwood Country Park.

History

A history of the park is really a history of the railway line between Addiscombe and Woodside and there are several sources of material on that on the net. Nick Catford's page on Addiscombe station is an excellent starting place and I'm not sure it will be worth my repeating information that he has already provided so well.

Work started on the park in January 2006. The most obvious major work required in the creation of the park was the removal of the pedestrian underbridge at Dalmally Passage and the embankments either side and the creation of slopes up to the original level of the railway line.