Home Care in Grove Park, SE12

An older corner of the borough

Of the ward's 15,728 residents at the 2021 Census, 2,068 (13.1%) had passed 65, a share beaten only by Catford South; 279 were over 85, and 683 older people lived on their own. Most people live in houses (63% of households), and more than half have a bedroom to spare. The usual picture is an older person, often widowed, in a family house with a garden.

Lewisham or Bromley: the Burnt Ash Lane line

Most of Grove Park is in Lewisham, with SE12 postcodes. The Chinbrook Estate in the south-east corner has SE9 postcodes but is still Grove Park and still Lewisham. Streets on the southern edge carry BR1 postcodes. South of the junction of Burnt Ash Lane and Ridgeway Drive, you are in the London Borough of Bromley.

• Lewisham addresses: Lewisham Adult Social Care, through the online questionnaire or 020 8314 7777. Grove Park is in the council's third neighbourhood area, with its own neighbourhood coordinators.
• Bromley addresses: ask Bromley Council for a care assessment on 020 8461 7777. See our Bromley home care page.

If in doubt, the name on the council tax bill answers it.

Houses from two eras

Grove Park grew as a railway suburb from the 1870s, and much of it is a 1920s estate built by the old Metropolitan Borough of Lewisham. The council-built houses usually have gardens and straight stairs; the older Victorian and Edwardian houses are larger, some split into flats. For simple equipment, the council's approved pharmacies sell aids such as raised toilet seats and perching stools. For rails, ramps or a stairlift, ask for an occupational therapy assessment.

What we can help with

• Washing and dressing, getting up and going to bed
• Medication support
• Meals, shopping on Baring Road, keeping the house and garden path safe to walk
• Company, including Chinbrook Meadows or the Ringway Centre café
• Dementia care for someone who lives alone

How carers get to Grove Park

Grove Park has its own bus station and better links than most outer neighbourhoods. The 261 and 273 run from Lewisham station via Lee; the 136 and 181 come through Downham and Catford, and the 136 also passes University Hospital Lewisham; the 284 and 124 link the station with Catford. The SL4 Superloop now links Grove Park with Lee and Blackheath. By train, Southeastern runs to London, and a shuttle runs to Bromley North.

Parking controls here last longer than in Lee: zone D is enforced every weekday until 5.30pm from 9am. In the zone, a housebound resident with daily care can hold Lewisham's free carers' permit for a visiting carer's car, up to four hours a day.

Hospitals for Grove Park

Lewisham residents mostly go to University Hospital Lewisham, about 38 minutes by bus from Baring Road. Some on the eastern side may be treated at Queen Elizabeth in Woolwich. On the Bromley side, the usual hospital is the PRUH at Farnborough, at the far end of the 261. District nursing follows the GP: Lewisham's service takes patients with a Lewisham GP, and Bromley has its own.

Parks, the Ringway Centre and a carers' hub

Chinbrook Meadows, the area's largest park, has the River Quaggy running through it and the Desmond Tutu Peace Garden. Grove Park Nature Reserve and the Green Chain Walk link the green spaces. The Ringway Centre, on land once set aside for a motorway, is a community hub with a café. For family carers, the council and Imago run a drop-in hub on Wednesdays at St Luke's Church, Northover, on the Downham side.

Everything our carers can help with →