Lewisham station opened in 1849 and instantly attracted well-to-do city dwellers to the town, with the promise of land and spacious homes. As a result, large houses with long, leafy gardens popped up all around the station, and many of these opulent Victorian structures survive today, split into flats to accommodate the vibrant multicultural community for which the modern Lewisham is best known. In 1999, the Docklands Light Railway extension from the Isle of Dogs sparked another population boom.
The station is an expansive network of tracks and interchanges with the DLR and short- and long-distance trains reaching out all over southeast London and beyond. The past is never far away in Lewisham: look out for the defunct Victorian post box on the station forecourt and the original cast-iron canopy charmingly depicting cherries on platform 3.
Lewisham's pedestrianised town centre is a five-minute walkaway and holds a daily market -with its notorious 'bowls of fruit for a pound', it is considered one of the more authentic markets in Greater London. The town's Clock Tower was built to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria in 1897 is a local landmark.