This area can be described as an intensely green hideout under the wooded valleys of south-eastern Croydon. It is separated from the nearby New Addington and Fieldway estates by the golf-course and Featherbed Lane – a winding country road which heads south towards the North Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. East is Forestdale, a neighbourhood of green verges and cul-de-sacs where the accommodation is predominantly terraced homes and flats. The area is desirable for its undisturbed serenity and also recently for its ease of access by the tram service at Gravel Hill, just north of the area. Of course, a community feel radiates from the thoughtful design of the pockets of houses which tail off from the four main roads; visit the Forestdale Arms pub to witness. The Forestdale Forum also houses community and club sessions and is available for event hire. The area boasts two local primary schools both rated ‘good’ by Ofsted and the John Ruskin college is an ‘outstanding’ sixth form.

Like neighbouring New Addington, Forestdale emerged in the post-war period of prefab mania. Wates was the main developer on site and locals recall how in their youth, thanks to the lax security, they were able to play on the construction site, ‘clamber on the equipment and mess around in the piles of building sand’. The developers were pioneers in the area, winning an award for installing solar heating panels in three houses in the 1970s.

The Selsdon Nature Reserve, known locally as the Bird Sanctuary, is a large woodland area accessible through Old Farleigh Road. It was established by the evolutionary biologist Sir Julian Huxley, after whom a pub is named in nearby Selsdon. Huxley was a man who served the world with his mind and heart, championing natural selection, becoming the first UNESCO director and the first president of the British Humanist Association.

It is certainly unexpected for such a hidden neighbourhood to be home to two award- winning restaurants. McDermott’s has been named the best independent fish and chip shop in the country, while Planet Spice was rated Croydon’s best Indian restaurant in 2016.

Despite the fact that locals who grew up in Forestdale praise the area for being a wonderful place to be as a child, they also admit that house prices had remained low over the past few decades. However, with the arrival of Tramlink in 2000, Gravel Hill station has been the main driver of value behind property in these neighbourhoods.

Neighbouring New Addington was a recipient of the Outer London Fund as of June 2011, launched to reanimate the main square at Central Parade. £516,000 was allocated to improve footpaths, parking spaces, common spaces, a new swimming pool, and to generally create a more pleasant community environment. This was followed up with more funding, as part of the Mayor’s Regeneration Fund. However, being the tranquil hideaway that this cluster of hamlets is, it is not projected to undergo major transformations in future years. Inhabited by mainly middle-class property owners and with little by way of business occurring directly in the area there aren’t particularly many forces of change at play. More recently, as part of plans to sustainably upgrade six of Croydon’s parks, Croydon Council worked with urban planners and landscape designers to make Lloyd Park an even more attractive recreational space.