Comprising the eastern portion of Lewisham town centre, Lee High Road and Belmont Hill, this neighbourhood area offers densely-packed residential properties, high streets brimming with amenities as well as a couple of modest green spaces: Manor Park and Manor House Gardens. With the exception of those living within a few streets of the main highstreets (Lewisham Road and Lee High Road) residents can enjoy relative peace and quiet in well-sized modern and Victorian houses, whilst remaining within walking distance of all of the benefits afforded by Lewisham town centre. The area is made up of hundreds of shops, a leisure centre, restaurants, supermarkets, the Lewisham DLR and Overground station, as well as a well-serviced network of bus stops. Lee High Road is also famous for its selection of eating-out options, such as the Asian fusion restaurant Bento which offers all-you-can-eat sushi for £20 per head, infamous curry house The Darjeeling, and underground music hotspot Dirty South. There are 8 schools within walking distance of this neighbourhood rated on average ‘good’ by Ofsted.

Lewisham was little more than a village enveloped by great fields until the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. The first railway, the North Kent line from Dartford to central London established a station in Lewisham in 1849, creating a frenzy of development in the area mainly for the wealthy, who built large manor houses for the comfort afforded by the rural landscape whilst remaining well-connected to central London. This began to change just 20 years later as industrialisation continued at an alarming pace. Much of the larger houses were converted into the terrace Victorian styles that constitute much of the area today, creating a predominantly lower-middle class neighbourhood.

There is another Lewisham on the opposite side of the world, in Australia. It was named in 1834 after the estate of Joshua Frey Josephson, a court judge, who named the suburb in Sydney after the then town of Lewisham.

The main downsides to this neighbourhood come from Lee High Road running through its centre. Whilst it is brimming with interesting and useful amenities, it is also tightly-packed two-lane road that is heavily trafficked, producing a great deal of noise and air pollution around the clock. Many residents noted that the sound was not audible from just a few roads away, however, and our air quality data shows that pollution levels drop dramatically in these zones also!

Lewisham Town Centre, just a few minutes walk away, is due to undergo major regeneration works in the coming years, which will be coupled with the construction of thousands of new affordable homes through the Lewisham Gateway Development. The first phase of this development has now been completed, with the second phase expected to complete in 2023. Lewisham Council aims for the town centre to achieve metropolitan status through this by 2026. Within this postcode developments tend to be lower density, with two small housing developments on Belmont Park Road and Brandram Road set to complete later in 2022.