Dulwich is well connected, mostly through broadband and buses more than trains. Over half of working residents worked from home at the last census. Buses stop close to almost everyone and run all week. Trains are close at hand but carry relatively few commuters.
Rail comes from several directions at once. West Dulwich, North Dulwich and East Dulwich stations take the name, with Herne Hill, Tulse Hill, Gipsy Hill and Sydenham Hill nearby, and West Dulwich runs to London Victoria. Even so, only about 7% of working residents took the train to work at the 2021 census. Another 7% went by bus, from one of the 122 bus stops in and around the area. Three stations have Dulwich in their name, and none of them is just plain Dulwich.
The census shows how people actually get to work. About 56% of working residents worked from home, about 12% drove, and about 5% each walked or cycled. A third of households have no car, and 16% have two or more. In 2021 the busiest commute in Dulwich was down the hallway.
The Department for Transport's modelled journey-time statistics put the nearest town centre about 8 minutes away by car, 13 by public transport, 10 by bike and 14 on foot. A quarter of an hour's walk to a town centre is close for south London.
The same model covers everyday trips. A GP is about 8 minutes on foot and 7 by car, a food shop about 7 minutes either walking or driving, and the nearest cluster of jobs about 6 minutes by car or 12 by public transport. A hospital is the long trip, at about 14 minutes by car, 28 by public transport and 46 on foot. These are averages for the area modelled in 2019. The car and walking times still hold because the buildings haven't moved, but the public transport times depend on bus timetables that have changed since, so they're the least reliable of the set.
The bus service is current and strong. Across the stops with timetable data, the average stop sees about 402 departures on a weekday and around 21 in the peak hour, and every stop has a weekend service. A stop with that many departures doesn't need its timetable memorised.
Broadband is good. Gigabit-capable connections reach about 86% of premises and superfast about 99%, and no postcode falls below the universal minimum. Mobile signal from every network is available almost everywhere.
Traffic noise is the price of all those buses. About 85% of postcodes are near or above 65 decibels of road noise, the level at which official noise mapping treats road noise as significant, and the loudest band recorded is 75 decibels. Rail noise is a separate source, and about 37% of postcodes are near or above 65 decibels from trains, with that as the loudest band. These figures describe postcodes, so how loud a particular house is depends on which way its bedrooms face. That is worth checking at the viewing, by listening at the front of the house at rush hour.
There are 151 public charge points in the area, with 169 connectors between them, and none is rapid. Charging an electric car here happens overnight. It isn't something you do in the ten minutes it takes to pick up the shopping.
For a typical commute, the trains are close enough to walk to, the buses are frequent enough to just turn up for, and the broadband is fast enough that many residents skip the commute entirely.
Dulwich is better connected than average, without being the best in its corner of London. The buses and broadband do the work, and the trains are close by for the minority who still go into an office.