I've read somewhere that London is not so much a unified city as it is a collection of villages that are all connected together. If this is true – and I suspect that it is – then I must live in the village of Shooters Hill.
Wikipedia defines a village as:
'... a human settlement or a residential community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand.'
The dot on the map marks the approximate top of Shooters Hill (132m/433ft) and the circle has a radius of approximately 800m.
Going by that definition, Shooters Hill certainly qualifies as a village, especially as it has the following amenities and historical sites:
- Foxcroft Stores
- The Bull (public house)
- The Red Lion
- Shooters Hill Golf Course
- Shooters Hill Tennis Club
- Shooters Hill Bowls Club
- Shrewsbury House Community Centre
- The Memorial Hospital
- Shrewsbury Park
- Severndroog Castle
- Christ Church
- Christ Church Primary School
- Bronze Age Burial Mound
A large part of Oxleas Wood – an area of ancient deciduous woodland – is also within the 'village' of Shooters Hill.
The ‘village’ has also been the home of several interesting people including Algernon Blackwood (the writer, broadcaster, and journalist), Steve Moore (the comic book writer), and Perceval Parsons (who created manganese bronze). It was also the place where engineer Samuel Brown tested an internal combustion engine that used hydrogen as a fuel. He fitted the engine into a vehicle in 1826 and drove it up Shooters Hill.
That's always been my view of London - lot's of 'villages' connected by a rail network (the Tube). This series of villages do actually contain two 'real' cities - City of London and City of Westminster - which tends to emphasize that feeling.
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