Overall View
Crystal Palace site is situated south of the River Thames in London, next to the Crystal Palace Park which contains the remains of the Crystal Palace Exhibition. There is also a lovely café in the middle and plenty of walking for our four-legged friends. The site has excellent transport links to the centre of London – further details below.
The site has 71 pitches for caravans, motorhomes and campervans, the majority of which are hard standing. There is a separate area with 18 pitches for tents just past reception, open during the warmer months. The site is currently open year-round but is under threat of eventual closure in 2022 due to redevelopment. The date of closure keeps getting extended and the current lease expires in September 2022. In the meantime, you have a gem of a site with which to visit the city of London, its shows and all the attractions. Our Site Arrival Video shows a route in from the south on the A23.
The site is situated within the London Low Emission Zone (LEZ) which means you may need to pay a fee based on your vehicle’s emissions, age and weight. Check here for more details: Transport for London Low Emission Zone Checker.
Facilities
The site is on different tiered levels with service points throughout the site and a centrally located motorhome service point. There is one central facility block for the main site which includes a fully accessible disabled shower room, laundry with full access as well, male, and female toilet/shower blocks and dishwashing facilities. The block was dated – understandable due to the impending closure, the threat of which has been around for a few years – but was well kept, clean and tidy.
There is the usual Reception and Information Room with a good supply of local and further afield details.
There is a Shell garage about fifty yards from the site entrance which has a small supermarket style shop for essentials. A larger supermarket, Sainsburys, with parking available is a very short drive away located within the Crystal Palace Triangle.
Review of Site Pitch
Each pitch, dependent upon its status, is of a decent size and awning pitches allow for awning and car to be parked either side of the caravan.
Getting Connected
The club’s site wifi is available and in the past I’ve used it without any problems, however on this occasion it was extremely slow, struggling to load tweets and upload photos. In the evening it was nigh on unusable, so much so that I asked for my money back.
Mobile reception however is very good. We used Three and EE, both easily topping 100Mbps. The coverage checkers for O2 and Vodafone also show excellent coverage.
Given that we were only a few metres from one of the country’s biggest transmitters it’s no surprise that TV and radio reception wasn’t a problem. Turn your booster amp (if you have one) right down and the club suggest that even a short length of aerial cable plugged into the back of your TV is sufficient.
Around and about
Firstly, transport links – you have two main options, the bus, or the trains. The nearest option is the no. 3 bus – this leaves from about a 5-minute walk from the site, into central London stopping in Whitehall. This journey, depending upon traffic, takes approximately 1 hour. The bus passes through Brixton – journey time aproximatley 30 minutes – from where you can join the London Underground. The Crystal Palace train station is about a 15-minute walk through the Crystal Palace Park. You are strongly recommended to sign up for an Oyster Card www.oyster.tfl.org.uk and the main www.tfl.org.uk website has everything you could possibly need transport wise in the city. I have found their route planner very helpful – although not infalliable.
Once you have dealt with transport arrangements, then the places to visit, activities, entertainment, shopping, and eating/drinking are endless. A good place to start is www.visitlondon.com
For the purposes of this review, we will concentrate on things to do nearer the site, some of the less well known or visited attractions.
On this trip we chose to visit The Horniman Museum in Forest Hill. This is a short bus ride (no. 363) from outside the site at the top of the hill. A short walk uphill brings you to the entrance to the museum, gardens, and a very pleasant café with additional seating in a beautiful Victorian orangery. Given the weather on the day of our visit, this was very well patronised. It is fully accessible and there are plenty of toilets available. Due to the weather, the gardens will have to keep for another trip. We did, however, make a thorough tour of the museum building itself. It should be noted that are sections where an entrance fee is payable, notably the aquarium – the rest is free to enter but pre-booking is currently required online. There is more than plenty to see to keep both adults and children alike interested – it was remarkably busy at times due to it being half term holiday but felt safe. There are two big main rooms with permanent exhibitions, one relating to evolution of humans and animals and many exhibits are on display. The other spacious room contains a vast collection of musical instruments of all types and sizes from all over the world. At the time of our visit, there was also a temporary exhibition of the museum’s links with Nigeria and its history following independence. Please check ahead for the current temporary exhibition as it was due to change shortly.
Literally next door to the site is Crystal Palace Park and requires good shoes if the weather is less than favourable as parts can get muddy. It is a huge park with plenty of walking and the viewpoints from the original main hall level, on a clear day are considerable.
Do be sure to check out the Crystal Palace Dinosaurs! As mentioned before, there is a lovely café situated in the middle – there is outdoor seating and toilet facilities available. A good place for a pit stop on the walk. www.brownandgreencafe.com
There are plenty of dining options in the Crystal Palace triangle, from pub grub, to Italian, Indian and Thai. There’s a couple of good old fashioned hardware shops too selling all sorts of useful – and not so useful – bits and bobs.
Summary
This is a perfectly situated site to use when visiting London – good road, bus and rail links make getting around the whole of the city, without a car, extremely easy indeed.
Visiting the site, just for itself, is to miss the purpose of the site – which is mainly a base. It is, however, a very pleasant and well-kept space allowing you to enjoy the comforts and economies of having your own home on wheels with you to return to at the end of each day.
The site has many return visitors – realising that one visit is not enough to see all that is on offer and appreciating the convenience of its location.