Joseph Paxton
(1803-1865)
English gardener, architect and Member of Parliament, best known for designing the Crystal Palace, and for cultivating the Cavendish banana, the most consumed banana in the Western world. He lived and died at Rockhills (later our caravan site). See Wikipedia entry >>>


John Scott Russell
(1808-1882)
Shipbuilder who built Great Eastern with Isambard Kingdom Brunel while living on Sydenham Hill. He made the discovery of the wave of translation that gave birth to the modern study of solitons, and developed the wave-line system of ship construction. See Wikipedia entry >>>


George Grove
(1820-1900)
Grove lived and died at his home on the site of St Phillip Neri. He was the first director of the Royal College of Music, was responsible for the regular orchestral concerts at the Crystal Palace and founded the eponymous ‘Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians’. See Wikipedia entry >>>


WG Grace
 (1848-1915)
WG played first-class cricket for a record-equalling 44 seasons, from 1865 to 1908, he captained England, Gloucestershire, the Gentlemen, Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC). Remembered by a plaque on Cricketers Walk, Lawrie Park Road See Wikipedia entry >>>


Eleanor Marx
(1855-1898)
Daughter of Karl, trade unionist, biographer and translater of Gustave Flaubert’s Madame Bovary was attracted by a street named Jews Walk. She retired to no.7 and was allegedly poisoned there by her husband, the infamous Edward Aveling.See Wikipedia entry >>>


Ernest Shackleton
(1874-1922)
The great polar explorer who led three British expeditions to the Antarctic. Shackleton and his Anglo-Irish family moved to the house next to St Bart’s on Westwood Hill, Sydenham when he was ten. He would walke to Dulwich College every day. See Wikipedia entry >>>


John Logie Baird 
(1888-1946)
Demonstrated the first working television system in 1926. Inventor of both the first publicly demonstrated colour television system and the first purely electronic colour television tube. His house still stands opposite the Dulwich Wood House pub, Sydenham Hill. See Wikipedia entry >>>


Cecily Saunders
 (1918-2005)
 Founder of the modern hospice movement and of St Christopher’s she was a pioneer of palliative care in modern medicine. She originally trained as a nurse, became a doctor and was awarded the Order of Merit. She lived at 54 Lawrie Park Gardens. See Wikipedia entry >>>


Rolf Harris
(1930-2023)
Australian musician, television personality, painter, and actor. He lived in Border Road and was an member and supporter of Sydenham community organisations. He was convicted in 2014 of the sexual assault of four underage girls. See Wikipedia entry >>>


Bill Wyman
(1935-)
Rolling Stone bass guitarist early childhood was at his parent’s home at 38 Miall Road, Lower Sydenham and with his aunt in Penge. He played with the band from 1962 until 1993 and then formed his own Bill Wyman’s Rhythm Kings. See Wikipedia entry >>>


Kazuo Ishiguro
(1954-)
The Shogun of Sydenham award the 2017 Nobel Prize in Literature. He wrote ‘The Remains of the Day’ while living in Newlands Park. The book was made into an award winning film starring Anthony Hopkins. See Wikipedia entry >>>

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Mohammed Hanif
(1964-)
British-Pakistani writer and journalist. His first novel ‘A Case of Exploding Mangoes’ was written in Sydenham.It was shortlisted for the 2008 Guardian First Book Award and longlisted for the 2008 Man Booker Prize. See Wikipedia entry >>>