Blackheath is well connected, though the trains are less of the story than the buses. Two stations of its own. Buses at almost every corner. Fast broadband for most homes. Half the working residents had stopped commuting at all by the last census, and the network barely noticed.
Blackheath station and Westcombe Park both run National Rail services into central London, and Kidbrooke, Lee, Lewisham and Maze Hill stations are close at the edges. At the 2021 census, only about 9% of working residents took the train to work and about 6% the bus, though the area has 197 bus stops. That is a lot of infrastructure for a population that had mostly stopped using it.
Working from home was the biggest single answer at the census, at about 53% of working residents. Driving came next at about 16%, walking at about 4% and cycling at about 3%. About 37% of households have no car and about 15% have two or more. Car-free flats and two-car households share the same postcode and very different weekends.
The Department for Transport's modelled journey times for the area put the nearest town centre about 8 minutes away by car, 9 by bike, 11 by public transport and 13 on foot. Across a gap that small, walking is roughly as good as driving. Those times are modelled national statistics from 2019.
On the same modelled 2019 figures from the Department for Transport, a GP is about 8 minutes by car, 9 by public transport and 10 on foot. A food shop is about 7 minutes whether you walk or drive. The nearest centre of employment is about 9 minutes by car and 12 by public transport. A hospital is about 12 minutes by car and about 22 by public transport. Distances to these places don't move, but bus timetables have been cut since 2019, so the public transport times are the shakiest in the set. Even so, almost everything a household needs in a week is within a quarter of an hour.
The bus figures are current, and they are good. The average stop sees about 396 departures on a weekday and 21 an hour at peak, and every one of the 185 stops with service data has buses at the weekend. With that many buses, the timetable barely matters.
Gigabit broadband reaches about 71% of premises and ultrafast about 72%. Superfast reaches 99%, and no premises fall below the legal minimum speed. Every postcode gets a 4G or 5G signal from every operator, so mobile coverage is complete.
Road noise is the price of all this traffic. About 96% of postcodes are near or above 65 decibels from roads, the level at which official noise mapping treats road noise as significant, and the loudest band recorded reaches 75 decibels. Rail is a separate source, with about 17% of postcodes near or above the same threshold from trains and a top band of 70. Neither figure says how loud a particular house is with the windows shut. The old Celtic trackway that became Watling Street climbed this same rise, and that route has been busy since before the Romans paved it.
There are 42 public charge points in the area with 74 connectors between them, and 9 of those are rapid units. Nine rapid chargers make topping up during a supermarket shop practical. For an overnight charge, the 37% of households without a car have one less thing to worry about.
For a typical commute, the arithmetic is simple. Anyone working in central London has two local stations and a constant flow of buses, and anyone working at home has fast broadband and complete mobile coverage.
Blackheath is well connected, a notch above average more than the best in London. Buses, broadband and short everyday journeys do most of the work, and a busy road is the cost of living next to all of it.