We're in Kenley in the London borough of Croydon, a couple of miles southeast of Purley. Two railway lines wend down this dry chalk valley but we want the line to Caterham, the lower of the pair, shortly before trains cross the boundary into Surrey and pull up at Whyteleafe. The footpath crossing to the north of Kenley station has been converted to a diversionary footbridge in the form of two very long ramps. The footpath crossing nearer Whyteleafe has been converted to a loftier footbridge which you might well be familiar with from London Loop section 5, just after revelling in the joys of Riddlesdown. But the Bourneview footpath crossing is much quieter so has never been footbridged and here it is.
The cul-de-sac which dips down from Godstone Road is really called Bourne View, whatever the slapdash formatting in Network Rail's database might say. To one side is a small valley-bottom park and on the other side a few bungalows before the road stops dead at a telegraph pole. Here a sign confirms that Public Footpath 30 continues to Valley Road, and hurrah for that right of way because it's the only reason this crossing remains open. The springy gate no longer springs so it's dead easy to walk through onto railway land, and please take heed of the signs - Stop Look Listen, Keep dogs on a lead, Do not trespass on the railway, Do not touch the live rail, Oncoming trains can be hidden by other trains, Look both ways, Do not cross until all lines are clear.
You're unlikely to meet a train because this line's a terminating spur with a half-hourly service, but visibility is very good in both directions so you'd easily spot something coming. It's not a hi-tech crossing, just a stripe of boards across the tracks with angular timbers to either side to deter anyone straying from a straight line. A tiny grey shed has been provided for maintenance staff, either that or an austere portaloo, close to a decaying phone cabinet on a post. But this is essentially an entirely unstaffed crossing so your gambol across the tracks will be going generally unnoticed. According to the latest count only 27 people per day actually use Bourneview, so when a local jogger came up behind me and padded past I felt like I'd arrived at rush hour.
The gate on the far side closes more successfully, which ought to keep health and safety happier. It sits at the foot of a long sloping footpath, a rising stripe of tarmac carefully shielded from neighbouring back gardens. It's steep enough that a metal handrail has been provided but this runs straight up the middle, splitting the path divisively in two. The rail eventually gives out and after a breathy minute you reach Valley Road and a completely different residential neighbourhood. Brand new bus route 439 occasionally weaves past, at the same frequency as the trains, but if you didn't know the crossing was here you'd never think to alight in the right place. Bourneview all has the flavour of another age when pedestrians were trusted not to get in the way of trains, plus it's a damned useful connection for a few people locally, so long may it survive the risk assessment guillotine.
London's eight public footpath level crossings:
» Bourneview(Croydon) - almost in Surrey, between Kenley and Whyteleafe.
» Trumpers(Ealing) - also across a freight line, see Geoff's video here.
» Golf Links(Enfield) - along a minor footpath up Crews Hill way.
» Lincoln Road(Enfield) - south of Enfield Town, closed to road traffic in 2012.
» Angerstein(Greenwich) - alleyway across freight line near IKEA.
» Osbourne Road(Havering) - between Romford and Emerson Park.
» Brickfields(Havering) - between Upminster and West Horndon.
» Eve's(Havering) - north of Ockendon in a field alongside the M25.
I blogged the five in Havering in 2021 (two of which were closed the following year)
I blogged Lincoln Road in 2023 (in association with Knobtrench data services)
Angerstein was reprieved from closure in 2021 (hurrah)
Golf Links is now the only crossing I haven't walked across.
n.b. Riddlesdown Viaduct public footpath level crossing lies on the Greater London boundary but is officially in Surrey
n.b. Warren Farm, just north of Trumpers, is offically a private level crossing
