Dulwich

I had once opined that those who complain about London being too crowded were just too idle to venture to the quiet bits. I think I said that in the context of Hampstead. Well today I sauntered around South London's equivalent of Hampstead, Dulwich. Its incredibly leafy and ever so middle class.

I started my walk by gawping at Dulwich College, a public school which rather unbelievably when you look at the huge edifice now, began as a school for 12 poor boys.

Then past some old cottages

And then past London's last remaining toll-gate.

Then a fairly steep climb up a wooded path which fortunately had at the top the London equivalent of El Dorado - a nice pub. The Wood House (aptly named) was able to supply me with a pint of scrumpy to help sustain me on a warm afternoon. A very welcome stopover, with a lovely beer garden. And I wasn't in the least put off by the young athlete that raced up the hill beside me. After all, I wasn't the one panting with my hands on my knees at the top. And I had a pint with my name on it not an energy drink to look forward to.

Across the top of the hill are the sort of splendid large houses one might expect, including, as in Hampstead, the odd awful modernist thing that middle-class intellectuals of the Thirties were proud of but now look dated, or at best "brave". And the first house was once lived in by John Logie Baird, inventor of the TV, allegedly.

Then I plunged into Sydenham Hill Woods, a genuine bit of ancient woodland, dark and dense but with some nice features including a little Victorian folly, a designer bit of ruined abbey. And a disused railway bridge from which Pisarro once painted.

The end of the pathway then passed that most quintessentially English site for a summer Sunday afternoon,

 a cricket pitch. Now no longer a national joke as we seem quietly to have become the best cricket nation in the world again.

Of course you would expect a nice area like this to have a nice park, and Dulwich Park doesn't disappoint.

But what Dulwich is most famous for is its Picture Gallery, the first public art gallery in Britain. It has a wonderful collection in a beautiful building, but just a little small for a special visit across London.

 Built on a collection intended to found a Polish national gallery, so it does have a top quality set of old masters, Rembrandt, Murillo, Van Dyck, Canaletto, Rubens. Poussin, Gainsborough, but nothing "modern". This they have made up for by having an exhibition comparing Cy Twombly with Nicolas Poussin. Sorry quite ridiculous. One caption started along the lines of "At first glance they couldn't seem more different but..." No, no, no not at first glance, or second or third, they just couldn't be more different to anyone who wasn't actually registered blind. Posussin is a classical artist and Cy Twombly basically scribbles. See below the contrast rather than the similarity. Its supposed to be in their poetry. Sorry, wrong medium.

 And finally into Dulwich Village itself, with its large Georgian houses once a good carriage ride away from London, but now a short train journey to London Bridge. Except when there are engineering works. Like today.

And a place like this obviously has lovely middle class restaurants, at which by a complete coincidence, I bumped into a lovely middle class couple, one of whom is a colleague mine in our tax department. They had just moved in literally over the weekend, so neither of us were exactly expecting to see each other.I joined them for a glass of wine at the restaurant looking out onto the street. Tremendously enjoyable end to the day. Last photo of daddy by the way courtesy of 4 year old Ben. Always credit your sources. Although being a 4 year old it does concentrate rather on his chocolate ice cream. Well you have to get your priorities right don't you?