Crystal Palace and Forest Hill sit on the high ground of south-east London, about half an hour from Victoria and London Bridge. Crystal Palace is a hilltop of pubs, antique shops and long views arranged around a triangle of three streets; Forest Hill, down the other side, is a quieter high street with one of London's best free museums on it. Between them, in the valley, is the park with the dinosaurs.
The park is covered in full on our Crystal Palace Park page, and the museum on our Horniman Museum page. This article is about everything around them: the streets, the shops, the pubs, and how to get from one hill to the other without wasting an hour.
The first thing to understand is the geography. This is the top of a ridge, the highest ground in this part of London, and it is why a Victorian exhibition palace was dragged up here in the first place. Everything you do will involve a slope.
Crystal Palace and Forest Hill at a glance
- Best for
- Antiques and second-hand shopping, pubs, views, a free museum, a park with concrete dinosaurs
- Stations
- Crystal Palace (Overground Windrush line and Southern); Forest Hill (Windrush line and Southern, Zone 3); Sydenham; Gipsy Hill
- From Victoria
- About 29 minutes direct to Crystal Palace
- From London Bridge
- 14 minutes direct to Forest Hill; about half an hour to Crystal Palace
- The Triangle
- Westow Hill, Westow Street and Church Road, meeting at a point
- Time needed
- A full day if you include the park and the museum
Getting up the hill, and the line that changed everything
Crystal Palace station is the southern terminus of one Windrush line branch on the London Overground. Northbound it calls at Sydenham and Forest Hill, then New Cross Gate, Canada Water and Shoreditch High Street before ending at Highbury & Islington. That line is the reason these two places are now easy to reach from east and north London, and it is the one to use if you are staying anywhere near Shoreditch or Dalston.
From the south and west, Southern trains run from Victoria to Crystal Palace in about 29 minutes, and from London Bridge to Forest Hill in fourteen. Our explainer on the Overground's six line names is worth reading first, because the Windrush line splits into several southern branches and only some trains come to Crystal Palace.
Crystal Palace station itself is worth a minute of attention. It was built in the 1850s to bring visitors to the palace, on a scale that makes no sense for the traffic it carries now: a grand Italianate frontage, a long approach and a booking hall built for crowds that stopped coming ninety years ago.
Crystal Palace and Forest Hill are two stops apart, but the walk between them is not the obvious one. They sit on different sides of the same ridge and the road between them is long and dull. Take the train the two stops through Sydenham, or the bus, and save your legs for the park and the Horniman gardens, both of which are steep.
Photo: OrdinaryTomatoes · CC BY 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons · resized
The Triangle: what is actually on the streets
Crystal Palace's centre is a triangle formed by three streets meeting at a point: Westow Hill along the top, Westow Street down one side and Church Road down the other. Everything is inside those three roads or immediately off them, and you can walk the whole thing in twenty minutes.
It is a proper local high street rather than a shopping destination. There are independent cafés, a bookshop, wine shops, several restaurants, a cinema, and a run of pubs that is out of proportion to the population. What makes it unusual is the concentration of second-hand and antique trade, which arrived because the rents were cheap and the buildings are large.
Among the ordinary shops you will also find the familiar high-street names; our page on the chains on every London high street explains which of those is which if the names mean nothing to you.
Antiques, vintage and the Haynes Lane warren
Two things bring people up here to shop.
Haynes Lane Market is a covered indoor market in a lane off the Westow Street side of the Triangle, made up of small units selling vinyl, vintage clothing, antiques, books and collectables. It opens Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 11am to 5pm. It is a maze rather than a hall, and browsing it properly takes an hour.
The antiques warehouses on Jasper Road, just off Westow Hill, are the other half of the trade: large multi-floor buildings full of furniture, mid-century pieces, lighting and architectural salvage. These are trade premises with public opening rather than boutiques, and prices are negotiable in the way our guide to London's antiques markets describes. If you are buying furniture, work out the shipping before you fall in love with a sideboard.
For clothes rather than furniture, our page on vintage and second-hand shopping in London puts Crystal Palace next to Brick Lane and Camden, and is clear about which is cheaper.
The pubs, and why there are so many
Crystal Palace has a reputation among Londoners as a place you go for the pubs, and the density along Westow Street and Church Road is genuinely high for an area this size. There are traditional Victorian pubs, a craft beer bar or two, wine bars, and back rooms that put on music and comedy.
It works as an evening out with one important warning: there is no Night Tube and no night rail service here. The last trains from Crystal Palace and Forest Hill go at ordinary times, and after that it is a night bus or a taxi. Work out the way home before the second round. Our guides to craft beer and brewery taprooms and live music venues in London cover the wider scene.
The view, and the mast you can see from half of London
This is the high ground, and there are views north across the whole city from several points: from the top of the park, from the streets above Church Road, and from the Horniman gardens on the Forest Hill side. None of them is a designed viewpoint with a plaque; they are just the tops of ordinary streets, which is part of the pleasure.
Behind you stands the Crystal Palace transmitting mast, a lattice tower that broadcasts television across London and is among the tallest structures in the city. It is the landmark you can pick out from Hampstead Heath, Greenwich Park and half a dozen bridges, and being at the foot of it gives you a useful mental map of where you are. For the other high ground with a clear panorama, see our list of free viewpoints across the city.
For the other Victorian pleasure palace on the other side of the city, see Alexandra Palace, which had a similar idea, also burnt down, and unlike this one was rebuilt.
Forest Hill: the quieter half
Forest Hill is fourteen minutes from London Bridge and is in Zone 3. It has a short, sloping high street, a handful of good cafés and restaurants, a swimming pool, and a library, and its single reason to exist for visitors is at the top of the hill.
The Horniman Museum and Gardens is free, has an over-stuffed walrus, an aquarium, a large collection of musical instruments and gardens with one of the best views in south London. Our full guide to the museum covers what is free, what is not and how long to allow.
Off the high street, Havelock Walk is a short cobbled lane that has long been occupied by artists' studios and occasionally opens its doors to the public. It is two minutes from the station and takes five minutes to see.
The Horniman and the dinosaurs make one good day, in that order. Do the Horniman in the morning, when the aquarium is quiet and the gardens are at their best; take the bus over to Crystal Palace Park for the dinosaurs and the maze in the afternoon; then walk up the hill into the Triangle for an early dinner and catch a train before the service thins out. It is a cheap day, and almost all of it is free.
Football, and a stadium that is not where you think
Crystal Palace Football Club is one of the six London clubs in the Premier League for the 2026/27 season, alongside Arsenal, Brentford, Chelsea, Fulham and Tottenham Hotspur. The club takes its name from this area, but it does not play here: Selhurst Park is about two miles south, and the nearest stations are Selhurst, Thornton Heath and Norwood Junction rather than Crystal Palace.
Turning up at Crystal Palace station on a match day expecting a stadium is a standard mistake. Our guide to Premier League football in London explains how tickets are actually sold, which matters because Selhurst Park is small and most matches are not open to general sale.
What else is within reach
This corner of south London links up better than most. Sydenham Hill Wood and the ruined Victorian railway that once carried people up to the palace are a walk away on the Dulwich side, and from there you drop down into the village: see Herne Hill and Dulwich. West Norwood Cemetery, one of the great Victorian burial grounds covered in our page on the Magnificent Seven cemeteries, is down the western slope.
North on the Windrush line, Deptford and New Cross are fifteen to twenty minutes away, and Peckham is a short bus ride west. Stringing two or three of these together makes a very cheap day; there are more ideas of the same kind in our round-up of what you can do in London for nothing.
Who this suits
Go if you want
- Antiques and second-hand shopping without West End prices
- A free museum and a free park on the same day
- Pubs, and a lot of them, in one triangle of streets
- Views north over the whole city, for nothing
- A whole day with the children for the price of the fares
Skip it if you want
- Famous sights, or a museum anyone at home has heard of
- Flat ground: everything here is on a slope
- Late transport back to a central hotel
- To see Crystal Palace FC play, which happens two miles away
- To visit the actual Crystal Palace, which burnt down in 1936
Frequently asked questions
How do you get to Crystal Palace from central London?
Southern trains from Victoria take about 29 minutes direct, and trains from London Bridge take roughly half an hour. Crystal Palace is also the terminus of one southern branch of the London Overground's Windrush line, which runs from Highbury & Islington through Shoreditch, Canada Water and New Cross Gate. Contactless and Oyster work on all of these.
Is there still a Crystal Palace to see?
No. The glass and iron building from the 1851 Great Exhibition was rebuilt on this hill in 1854 and burnt down in November 1936. What survives is the park, with its terraces, sphinxes and Victorian dinosaur sculptures, and the name, which now belongs to the area, the station and the football club.
When is Haynes Lane Market open?
Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 11am to 5pm. It is an indoor market of small units off the Westow Street side of the Crystal Palace Triangle, selling vinyl, vintage clothing, antiques, books and collectables. The larger antiques warehouses are a few minutes away on Jasper Road, off Westow Hill.
Does Crystal Palace Football Club play in Crystal Palace?
No. Selhurst Park is about two miles south of the area the club is named after, and the nearest stations are Selhurst, Thornton Heath and Norwood Junction. Crystal Palace is one of six London clubs in the Premier League for the 2026/27 season, and tickets for most matches do not reach general sale.
Can you visit the Horniman Museum and Crystal Palace Park in one day?
Yes, and it is the best way to use the area. The Horniman in Forest Hill is free and works well in the morning; Crystal Palace Park, with the dinosaurs and the maze, is about 20 minutes away by bus and is also free. Finish in the Triangle for an early dinner, and check the last train before you settle in.
Sources
- Visit London - Haynes Lane Market, opening days and times (checked September 2026)
- Crystal Palace Park - Opening times, entrances and events (checked September 2026)
- Transport for London - Journey Planner, train times from Victoria and London Bridge (checked September 2026)
- Transport for London - London Overground line names and routes (checked September 2026)
- Premier League - Clubs in the 2026/27 season (checked September 2026)