This green and pleasant village

GREEN is Dulwich’s colour. The line of soaring trees and trimmed hedges along Red Post Hill hints to Dulwich Park’s manicured lawns and ancient oaks, Brockwell’s cricket pitch, Long Meadow’s black poplars and Belair Park’s weeping willows, their branches tickling the surface of the lake. ‘The leafiness of Dulwich is, to me, its greatest charm,’ Arthur Oswald wrote in COUNTRY LIFE in 1962. Fifty-nine years on, this slice of English Arcadia hidden in south-east London endures.

‘Dulwich is one of London’s greatest surprises,’ agrees Jennifer Scott, director of the Dulwich Picture Gallery. ‘It’s remarkable that 30 minutes from Victoria you are in the most quintessential English village. Even for those who know