The area around Anerley is greener than its crowded streets would suggest. Most front doors are a couple of minutes' walk from a park or green space. Water is a short walk away too. Shops far outnumber places to eat or drink. Crystal Palace Park sits on the northern edge, so a large Victorian park comes free with the postcode.
Green space is roughly 150 metres from the average home in Anerley, and the typical address has about 31 green spaces within a kilometre. That covers everything from pocket greens and playing fields to Crystal Palace Park and Betts Park, with Dulwich Park, Belair and Horniman Gardens further out on the other side of the hill. In a place this dense, it is a lot of grass.
Water is close as well, about 480 metres from the average home, with around 21 ponds, lakes and other stretches of water within a kilometre. Most are park lakes and ornamental ponds, none of it a river big enough to bother an insurer.
The National Cycle Network is about 940 metres away on average, and only about 13% of postcodes are close to it, so getting out by bike usually starts on ordinary roads.
The local trade leans towards errands. The council's list of rated premises counts 235 shops, 9 pubs and 9 restaurants, which makes Penge High Street and the parades along Anerley Road somewhere to pick things up more than somewhere to spend an evening. For a night out, most people head up the hill.
Bromley's average level of fine particles in the air was about 8.1 micrograms per cubic metre in 2024, a figure for the whole borough that includes its quieter southern fields as well as Anerley's busy main roads.
The character comes from where boundaries meet. The northern edge of Anerley takes in part of what everyone calls Crystal Palace, including the site of the old Vicar's Oak, where the boroughs of Bromley, Croydon, Lambeth and Southwark all meet. Planning decisions at the top of Anerley Hill involve four borough councils' worth of opinions. Down the slope it becomes Victorian terraces, converted flats and later blocks, with conservation areas on Belvedere Road and Penge High Street keeping some of the older streets intact.
Private outdoor space works out at about 43,000 square metres of garden for every 1,000 residents. Given that most homes here are flats, a large share of residents have no garden of their own, which makes the parks more important than they look on a map.
The business rating list counts 524 rateable premises in the area, led by 233 shops and 65 offices. These are premises on the valuation list, which is not the same as businesses currently trading, but they show a commercial base built around shops more than anything else.
Of the 152 food outlets with a hygiene rating, about 74% hold the top score of five and about 3% are rated low. Eating locally here is a safe bet, even if there are not many places to choose from.
No protected landscape overlaps Anerley. It has no area of outstanding natural beauty, no site of special scientific interest and no ancient woodland. The green space here is made up of Victorian parks, playing fields and gardens, shaped by people.
The area around Anerley is one of its real strengths. A park is almost always close by, Crystal Palace Park is on the doorstep, and water is a short walk from most homes.