[1] At the southern end, at the very top of the hill which forms the park, it joins the grounds of Coombe Cliff once the home of members of the Horniman Tea family.

[1] From there a steep drive winds down to Coombe Road where a footpath leads to South Croydon railway station for National Rail.

[4] In his memoirs, "The Chronicles of Wasted Time" (1973), Malcolm Muggeridge reminisces about the park being a childhood playground where he and his father would frequently walk together and engage in discussions about socialism and world affairs.

[8] By the 18th century Croydon Palace was no longer used, having fallen into a state of disrepair[9] and in 1726 the park was leased to William Busick of Mitcham.

[5] With the consent of his tenant Thomas Weaver, the Archbishop sold just over an acre of Bean Hill to Croydon’s local board of health for a reservoir on 2 November 1850.

The reservoir was strengthen by sixteen vertical ribs and covered with earth several feet thick that also kept the water at a constant temperature throughout the year.

[13] The railway cutting meant that a wooden bridge had to be constructed to carry the cast iron water main from the well to the reservoir,[16] where Barclay Road now crosses.

[22] It was accessed by a footpath known as Lover's Walk,[23] part of today’s Chichester Road and the nearby entrance to the recreation ground.

It enabled the highest areas of the parish to be supplied with water and was designed by the board of health's engineer Baldwin Latham in Norman style with a bartizan or overhanging turret.

[34] The land stretched from Fairfield Road to Coombe Cliff and was connected to Reservoir (or Water Tower) Hill by a public right of way.

A condition of the sale was that it should be preserved as a public recreation ground for ever, along with it being fenced and the construction of the road on its northern boundary.

[35] The recreation ground was laid out by the Corporation’s road surveyor Mr. Powell,[36] but work did not start until the end of the year when it was vacated by the tenant Mrs.