St. Paul's Churchyard, London - 020 7332 3456 Piccadilly Circus Underground - 0343 222 1234 visit@cityoflondon.gov.uk

Norwood was originally a huge area covered by the Great North Wood which was a natural oak forest that covered four miles (6 km) of South London. Apart from South Norwood, the wood covered Upper Norwood, West Norwood (known as Lower Norwood until 1885) and the Woodside and Gipsy Hill areas reflect the history of the area. The wood covered more of Lambeth and Southwark than Croydon, but the name "Nor"-wood is itself a reminder that it had closer connection with Croydon than with Lambeth or London. Prior to the Norman conquest, Croydon was larger and far more important that the insignificant villages that made up what is now London.

West Norwood is a largely residential area of south London within the London Borough of Lambeth, located 5.4 miles (8.7 km) south south-east of Charing Cross. The centre of West Norwood sits in a bowl surrounded by hillsides on its east, west and south sides. From many parts of the area, distant views can be seen, of places such as the City of London, Canary Wharf and Crystal Palace.

In March 2016 planning permission was granted to build a new 4 screen Picturehouse Cinema and cafe alongside an improved library service within the existing site of Nettlefold Hall, which had been closed since 2011. Building work commenced in September 2016 with the new complex expected to open at the end of 2017.

The West Norwood Feast, a monthly community market running across several areas of West Norwood, has been active since 2011. Featuring music, stalls and community events, the feast has been hugely popular.

West Norwood Health and Leisure Centre was opened in 2014. This is located on Devane Way, and offers leisure facilities including a full sized swimming pool, gym, dance studio, community space as well as health resources, both GP and dental.

Upper Norwood is situated along the London clay ridge known as Beulah Hill. Most housing dates from the 19th and 20th centuries, with large detached properties along the ridge and smaller, semi-detached and terraced dwellings on the slopes. There are some more modern areas of social housing that date from the 1970s. The hill offers panoramic views northward to central London and southward to central Croydon and the North Downs.

The area is one of the highest in the London area, and for centuries was occupied by the Great North Wood, an extensive area of natural oak forest which formed a wilderness close to the southern edge of the ever-expanding city of London. The name "Norwood" is a contraction of "North Wood". Local legend has it that Sir Francis Drake's ship, The Golden Hind, was made from timber cut from trees in this area. The forest was a popular area for Londoners' recreation until the 19th century, when it began to be built over. It was also a haunt of Gypsies, with many local street names and pubs recording the link, notably Gipsy Hill. The area still retains woodland in large amounts for an urban area. The Beulah Hill ridge was used as a sighting-point for the Anglo-French Survey (1784-1790), which measured the precise distance between the Royal Greenwich Observatory and the Paris Observatory, using trigonometry. It was particularly useful for this purpose on account of both its height and its relative proximity to Greenwich.

In 1831, one of England's most prominent architects, Decimus Burton, designed a spa and pleasure gardens below Beulah Hill and off what is now Spa Hill in a bowl of land on the south facing side of the hill around a spring of chalybeate water. Burton was responsible for the Beulah Spa Hotel (demolished c1935) and the layout of the grounds. Its official title was The Royal Beulah Spa and Gardens. It became a popular society venue attracting large crowds to its fetes. One widely publicized event was a "Grand Scottish Fete" on 16 September 1834 "with a tightrope performance by Pablo Fanque," the black circus performer who would later dominate the Victorian circus and achieve immortality in The Beatles song, Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite! The spa closed in 1856 soon after the opening nearby of The Crystal Palace.

The Crystal Palace was rebuilt nearby on Sydenham Hill in 1854, following its success at The Great Exhibition of 1851 in Hyde Park. It was destroyed in a spectacular fire in 1936. The importance of this building led to the area immediately around the Crystal Palace becoming known as Crystal Palace.

The most easterly district of Upper Norwood is now also known as Crystal Palace and is the commercial hub of Upper Norwood known locally as the 'Triangle'. The most westerly district is also known as Crown Point. The central district was once known as Norwood New Town but this is only seen on older maps.

St Joseph's College is a Roman Catholic boys' secondary school which was first established in Upper Norwood in 1855. The school operates a coeducational sixth form. Harris Academy Upper Norwood is a girls' school that was established in the area as Westwood High School in 1958.

Virgo Fidelis Convent Senior School is a Roman Catholic girls school located on Central Hill and was founded in 1848. It occupies an eighteenth century grand house once the home of the notable socialite and courtesan Mary Nesbitt.

A notable park in the area is Upper Norwood Recreation Ground. Its 19-acre site is part of the Harold Road Conservation Area. Its boundary is defined by Chevening Road, Hermitage Road, Eversley Road and Harold Road. One of London's hidden rivers, River Effra flows under the park and at the Harold Road end a well head exists. It was covered in the 1940s.

The Croydon Transmitter, a TV transmitter tower stands on the hill at Upper Norwood and a second larger TV transmitter, the Crystal Palace Transmitter, stands in Crystal Palace Park, making the district a landmark location, visible from any part of the London area.

In March 1966, shortly before the World Cup tournament, the Jules Rimet trophy was stolen from an exhibition at Central Hall Westminster. It was found seven days later in Beulah Hill by a dog named "Pickles". The story made national headlines.

In 1985 a Safeway supermarket opened on Westow Street. In 1990 the exterior of this branch featured in a clip of the television drama series Grange Hill. The store was acquired by Morrisons in March 2004, who closed it in November 2005. The lease of the vacant store was purchased by Sainsbury's in August 2006.

South Norwood is a district of south east London within the London Borough of Croydon. It borders the London Borough of Bromley. It is located north east of Croydon, and 7.8 miles (12.5 km) south-east of Charing Cross.

Together with Norwood New Town, it forms the ward of South Norwood in the local authority of Croydon. South Norwood is an electoral ward with a resident population in 2001 of just over 14,000.

The south-eastern side of the district is dominated by the 125-acre country park which opened in 1989. At the other northern end of the town is South Norwood Lake, which was created after the reservoir for the unsuccessful Croydon Canal went out of use. It is used by the Croydon Sailing Club and local anglers who fish for carp, bream and perch.

There are two secondary schools in the area along with a public leisure centre. South Norwood has a high street which forms part of Selhurst Road, and which includes a number of banks, estate agents and a coffee house. It is a commuter district, with many residents travelling to either the financial and insurance districts of Croydon or the City of London for employment via the large railway station. South Norwood and surrounding areas are covered by the London SE25 postcode. It is also the southernmost location of the London post town.

Handley's Brickworks' seven chimneys once dominated the landscape of the area. It has been demolished and the site changed into grassland and a lake, called Brickfields Meadow. Over 20 pubs were to be found in a 1½-mile radius, but many of these have closed. Some of South Norwood's famous pubs, such as the Jolly Sailor and the Albert, are still busy.

Arthur Conan Doyle lived on Tennison Road in South Norwood, from 1891 to 1894, but, contrary to popular belief, did not use the area as the setting for the Sherlock Holmes story "The Adventure of the Norwood Builder" (1903). This story, for the most part, takes place in Lower Norwood (today known as West Norwood). The only connection between this story and South Norwood is that South Norwood's railway station Norwood Junction is used by the character Jonas Oldacre. The NatWest Bank on South Norwood High Street was, in Victorian times and until the mid-1980s, the local police station and is the most likely candidate for the police station mentioned in the second Sherlock Holmes story The Sign of the Four.

Norwood New Town was built from 1840 purposely as one of the main working class areas of early Norwood (the others were South Norwood and the 'Triangle' of Upper Norwood). It was built as a walled estate to separate its working-class inhabitants from the upper-class country houses and farm land, which at that time made up the district. Its construction commenced before the rebuilding of the Crystal palace on Norwood Hill but it became home to many of the workers employed on the construction of the Palace.

The walled-in terraced streets formed a particularly close community, which occupied an area south of Central Hill. The enclosed streets were:

• Oxford Road;
• Naseby Road (formerly Albert Road);
• Dover Road (formerly Albert Terrace);
• Crystal Terrace;
• Eagle Hill (formerly Spa Road).

The wall was demolished in 1930 and the district was integrated into the neighbouring area, which was becoming increasingly suburbanised.

Norwood Junction is a National Rail station in South Norwood.

The station is managed by London Overground and trains are operated by London Overground (since 23 May 2010) and Southern.