Southern exposure

IF you're planning a visit to London, don't do what everybody else does and avoid landmarks south of the Thames. South London is full of places to visit, things to do and plenty to see.

I'll admit to being biased, being born and bred in South East London, but there are treasures galore south of the river. And it's a lot cheaper than the tourist traps of central London. There are regular trains from York to King's Cross station, where a 30-minute train ride will take you to the heart of South London.

Horniman's Museum on London Road, Forest Hill, has been overhauled and extended in recent years and entry to the museum is free. The collection was started by the Victorian tea magnate Frederick Horniman, who wanted to bring the world to Forest Hill. To this end he began collecting objects from all over the globe. The museum opened in 1901 and houses what is now the third most significant ethnographic collection in the UK after the British Museum and Pitt-Rivers Museum in Oxford. It also has impressive natural history and musical collections. The gardens are a pleasant place to spend an afternoon, and the views over south east London are stunning.

If free entry sounds appealing then visit Dulwich Picture Gallery (just down the road from Horniman's in leafy Dulwich) on a Friday when all entry charges are waived. Normal entry costs £4 or £3 for senior citizens, free for students, the unemployed, disabled and children. The gallery has an impressive array of old masters on display, including works by Rembrandt, Poussin, Rubens, Canaletto and Gainsborough. It is in the heart of the largely unspoilt 18th-century Dulwich Village, just feet away from the entrance to the beautiful Dulwich Park and within walking distance of the ancient woodland area of Sydenham Hill Woods.

The National Maritime Museum in Greenwich is yet another museum where entry is free. It boasts an unrivalled collection of all things nautical.

Dry-docked in Greenwich is the 19th-century tea clipper The Cutty Sark. It costs £3.95 for adults or £2.95 for concessions and children to go on board and look around the ship, still decked out with the fittings of its heyday.

There is a market in Greenwich for shoppers with an eye for something out of the ordinary (I once bought a skirt here that my father insists was really a lampshade, but don't let that put you off) and there are plenty of quirky shops around with a particular emphasis on nautical antiques.

A stroll through Greenwich Park will take you up to the Royal Greenwich Observatory. Entry is now free. The home of the world's Prime Meridian, longitude 0 degrees 0'0', the Observatory was founded in 1675. It was built to assist the work of John Flamsteed, the first Astronomer Royal, in mapping the heavens with the ultimate purpose of finding longitude at sea. But despite the expense, it was not Flamsteed but John Harrison, the son of a village carpenter and a clockmaker, who eventually 'found longitude.'

Just on the edge of Greenwich Park is the Ranger's House, which houses the Wernher Collection, a unique art collection consisting of paintings, tapestries, furniture, sculpture and the country's largest collection of Renaissance jewellery. Entry costs £4.50 for adults, £2.50 for children and £3.50 for concessions.

Leaving Greenwich Park by the Charlton Way exit and crossing Shooters Hill Road will bring you on to Blackheath. Crossing the heath - some 275 acres - will take you into Blackheath Village where there is a plethora of places to eat.

Further east in Eltham is another English Heritage property worth a visit. Eltham Palace was originally a moated medieval royal palace - the childhood home of Henry VIII until he married Anne Boleyn - that degenerated into a ruin over the years. It was bought in the 1930s and substantially altered and extended in the art deco style by Stephen Courtauld, the wealthy heir to a fortune generated by the manufacture of the fabric rayon. Entry costs £6.50 for adults, £3.50 for children, £5 for concessions.

No visit to South East London would be complete without a trip to Crystal Palace. Sir Joseph Paxton, the man who designed the Crystal Palace for the Great Exhibition of 1851, re-erected it at Sydenham after it moved from its original spot in Hyde Park. The area afterwards became known as Crystal Palace and was something of a Victorian cultural hub attracting artists, writers and musicians. Although the original glass palace was burnt to the ground in 1936 there are more original stone features remaining than most people imagine, just yards from the National Sports Centre.

Crystal Palace park is as fine a place as any for a stroll and the world's first Dinosaur Theme Park, built in 1852 is still there.

However, the park is currently undergoing restoration and much of it, including the Victorian Boating Lake, is inaccessible to visitors.

Before making a visit it is best to check the current state of works with the Crystal Palace Park information centre on 0208 778 9496.

Visit Horniman's Museum online at www.horniman.ac.uk or at 100 London Road, Forest Hill, SE23 on the South Circular Road (A205).

Visit Dulwich Picture Gallery online at www.dulwichpicturegallery.org.uk or at Gallery Road, Dulwich Village, SE21.

Visit the National Maritime Museum online at www.nmm.ac.uk or at Park Row, Greenwich, SE10.

Visit Eltham Palace at Court Yard, Off Court Road, Eltham, London, SE9.

Visit the Ranger's House at Chesterfield Walk, Greenwich Park, London, SE10.

For what's on visit 'The Pulse' at www.icsouthlondon.co.uk, or pick up a copy of local paper The South London Press.

To visit the Crystal Palace ruins enter the park by the Anerley Hill entrance. The ruins are directly opposite the entrance to the National Sports Centre.

Updated: 10:06 Saturday, June 07, 2003