Sydenham is well connected, and the buses do more of the work than the trains. A typical stop sees a bus every few minutes at peak. Nearly nine in ten homes can get gigabit broadband. Four in ten households have no car. Half the working population skips the commute altogether.
Sydenham Rail Station serves the middle of the district, with Lower Sydenham, Sydenham Hill, Forest Hill, Penge East and Kent House all within reach depending on which side of the hill you live. At the 2021 census about 10% of working residents took the train to work. Another 10% took the bus, from 125 bus stops across the area. Sydenham's first transport link was a canal, and in 1836 it became the first canal ever abandoned by an Act of Parliament. The district has had strong opinions about how it travels ever since.
The biggest single answer to how Sydenham got to work at the 2021 census was that it didn't. About 48% worked from home, 16% drove, 5% walked and 3% cycled. About 42% of households have no car at all, and only 13% run two or more. A district where the car-free outnumber the drivers is mostly organised around the bus timetable and the router.
The Department for Transport's modelled journey-time statistics put the nearest town centre about 8 minutes away by car, 11 by public transport, 9 by bike and 12 on foot. Those are averages for the area, and a 12-minute walk to the shops is the kind of fact that lets people give up the car without much complaint.
The same Department for Transport statistics put a GP about 7 minutes away by car, 10 on foot and 10 by public transport, a food store about 6 minutes' walk or 7 minutes' drive, and a major employment centre about 8 minutes by car or 18 by public transport. A hospital is the one long trip, at about 17 minutes by car and 33 by public transport. These are modelled averages from 2019, so the distances still hold but the public transport times are the least reliable of the set, since services can change in a few years and roads rarely do.
The buses are a real service. The 114 stops with timetable data average 264 scheduled departures each weekday and about 14 buses in the peak hour, and every one of them has a weekend service.
Broadband is the strongest part of the picture. Gigabit-capable lines reach 88% of premises, superfast 98%, and no postcode on record falls below the legal minimum, while every mobile network covers the whole area with 4G or 5G.
Noise comes with the connections. About 38% of postcodes sit near or above 65 decibels of road noise, the level at which official noise mapping treats traffic as significant, and the loudest band recorded reaches 75 decibels. Rail is a separate source, and about 36% of postcodes are near or above 65 decibels from trains as well. Stand in the back garden when a train goes past during the second viewing, because the map shows which postcodes hear the line and not which bedrooms.
Public charging is thin. There are 26 charge points with 36 connectors between them, and none is rapid, so charging an electric car here is an overnight plan, not a top-up while buying milk.
Sydenham is one of the better-connected corners of south-east London for anyone who can live without a car, with buses that turn up often, fibre in almost every street, and a commute that half its workers have already given up.