via Catford and Downham. Grove Park railway station to the south is served by these three buses plus routes 124, 126, 136, 181, and night bus N136, which take passengers to Bromley Common, Chinbrook, Mottingham, Eltham, Hither Green, Ladywell, Middle Park, New Cross, Peckham, Perry Vale, Plaistow, Bromley, Sundridge, and Sydenham. Grove Park Nature Reserve and the footpath where the main entrance is located, Railway Children Walk are part of the South East London Green Chain, footpaths in a linked system of open spaces in southeast London. History Before the nature reserve In the mid eighteenth century the area that is now Grove Park Nature Reserve and the majority of the surrounding area was all agricultural fields, the buildings of Burnt Ash Farm were located to the north of the site. By the 1860s there were several other farm buildings were present, including Shrofield Farm, close by to the west, College Farm to the northeast, and Grove Farm, which gave its name to Grove Park, to the southeast. The South Eastern Main Line railway was built through Grove Park in 1865, connecting the existing Lewisham station to the newly built Chislehurst railway station. In 1868 the line was extended to join Tonbridge railway station, then in 1871 Grove Park railway station opened to the south of the site. In the late nineteenth century, and early twentieth century, what is now the southern end of the reserve, around the current entrance was a row of tennis courts. The land immediately north of here was within the garden of a large house on Baring Road from the late nineteenth century and became wooded early in the twentieth century, The remains of an old cast iron fence which was part of the boundary fence of the garden are still visible here. Between 1894 and 1899, writer and poet, Edith Nesbit lived in a large house named Three Gables on Baring Road, where the residential apartment building Stratfield House now stands. Her garden backed up to the railway line and overlapped with what is now the southern part of the nature reserve, it is suggested that the location inspired her in writing the children's book The Railway Children which was published in 1906; the fictional house near the railway in the book is called Three Chimneys similar in name to Nesbit's real house near the railway in Grove Park. The footpath running along the