We found ourselves off the beaten, overused, paths that criss cross Dulwich and Sydenham woods. Whilst doing our best to avoid the rest of the Sunday afternoon strollers we slipped off the well known paths and onto the ones better known by foxes and squirrels. As we delved deeper and deeper we started to come across parts of the forest I hadn’t been to before, huge bricked foundations of houses and retaining walls of what would have been stepped and sculpted Victorian back gardens rose from the creeping ivy like the foundations of long lost civilisations.

These houses were demolished in the early 80s and had already given up to the slow but steady march of nature.