We have trendy Dulwich village, Ladywell village and even Walthamstow village.
What would make Forest Hill a village?
One thing’s for sure, the noise and traffic of the A205 appears to be the main deterant.
Havelock Walk on an open day is our village.
The Perry Vale triangle could get a little villagey vibe going on - especially if they manage to get the road semi-pedestrianised where cars are restricted to a 10mph crawl.
If Forest Hill becomes a village will the moderators of SE23.life become Village People? Who gets to be the policeman?
That could be the clincher for me. I’d want to be the Indian but my culturally sensitive Liberal Left bent finds the idea atrocious leading to a boycott of myself .
Quite right, @starman. You can be the First Nation Canadian.
In the interests of challenging gender stereotypes, I’ll be the construction worker.
With my profile photo surely I’ll have a part to play!
Perry Vale by the old Fire station is a super little village area. I just wish someone would open the bakery. I remember when the post office was there, I think there may have been a butchers as well. Having that post office contributed greatly to the village feel, as does the church and cafe. Unfortunately You don’t realise these things until they’ve gone.
And I will have been sent to Coventry (by way of Norfolk).
Dibble, not policeman 
There was a green grocers there where the bookies is but I dont recall a butchers. A great guy called Derek used to run a lovely butchers on Perry Hill but he packed it in over 12 years ago - I think it was called Daveys. Derek now helps out in the Prowd Sow in Crofton Park so I still bump into him…
I think I’ve seen Honor Oak referred in that way before, and expect it’s possibly more likely. Surprise estate agents don’t do this now, or maybe they do!
Don’t you mean ‘Honor Oak Parade’, Estate Agents talk.
I await Honor Oak Village Parade!
As someone who grew up in a Devon village between the ages of 10 and 17, be careful what you wish for.
LOL. A London “village” is not the same as a real one, thankfully. Blackheath, for instance, bears scant resemblance to anywhere in the countryside I can think of. I think it is more of a cachet thing though does imply a self sustaining feel, even if only in Farrow & Ball paint and quail eggs. As such, definitely in the estate agents’ lexicon. Not so sure about parade though, more of a council/planning term I think.
Population of Forest Hill is approximately 30,000. That’s about the same as Chichester, Kendal, Colwyn Bay, or Dunstable. It has twice the population of Saffron Walden, Penzance, Matlock, or Skipton. And is three times larger than Oban, Glastonbury, Cromer, or St. Ives.
With such a large population, including two secondary schools, a swimming pool, library, parks, and a world class museum - I’m not sure why anybody really expects Forest Hill to feel like a village of a few hundred people.
However, Forest Hill is a friendly place and so it doesn’t take long for me to bump into somebody I know. But I do have a slightly larger contact network in the local area than most people. That happens when your daughter goes to the same school you did, your parents and in-laws live in walking distance, when you are an active member of multiple community organisations, and so are your family. The difference between a village and a town is that we don’t need to pretend to share the same interests and we can all be active in different groups.
I’d be concerned if @Pauline started wearing a headscarf.
Am not sure that anyone actually does. My point is that a London Village is something altogether different. The population of Blackheath is roughly comparable. To call it a village might seem pretentious to some but I would contend that it has its own meaning. And one that many in London aspire to live in.
I see no reason why Forest Hill shouldn’t get a villagey feel about it. I think there is a certain inevitability about it.
It’s a good thing our streets are paved or, with all our burst water mains, we’d be three times muddier than Glasto, too.
If we’re reminiscing about the Perry Vale parade of shops, I can remember when there was a …
butcher
greengrocer
chemist
another newsagent/sweetshop
MOT garage
horse-drawn fire engines operating out of the Old Fire Station
Just joking on the last one. There also used to be a clothing factory in the building that was later converted into flats next to the bus stop.
Sounding a lot older than I feel!
And why do people complain so much about the South Circular dividing the town centre? It’s nowhere near as bad as the A2 through New Cross or the North Circular.
If something or somewhere is deemed ok because you can name something for or somewhere worse, then you probably need to raise you aspirations.
I certainly do not want to live in a village. I grew up in a village and moved to London for the opposite experience! But when people talk about London “villages” they seem to mean places with compact parades of little independent shops, cafés and pubs - not far off what we are like here now.
As a previous village dweller total 38 houses, two farms one pub and a small shop/butchers.
I was told by a local whose family went back to the 1500s that to be a true villager you had to have great grandchildren in the local school.
The village in which I grew up didn’t have a parade of independent shops, cafes and pubs. It had a general store (now a Tesco), a hairdresser, a dentist and an estate agent. The village (which is actually quite big), also boasted two pubs, two garages, a doctors surgery, a post office, a nursing home and a primary school. If you couldn’t fulfil your daily needs out of that lot (e.g. employment, secondary education, policing, emergency medical care, fuel, etc.) then you had to travel 5 miles down the road to the County town.
Personally, I think Forest Hill is far better served, if only for having a choice of dentists for starters…
Scratch that, I’ve just had a google street view trip down memory lane and one of the garages is now a Morgan dealership and the parade of shops has now sprouted a deli. Clearly upwardly mobile…
My village likewise. But then the understanding of what is a “village” in London seems to be defined by people who grew up in suburbs.
Village is a term coined by estate agents, eg Kidbrooke Village? Abergavenny village (not sure name is right) 2 blocks of flats on A13 near Canary Wharf.
Perhaps we should go for a Hamlet, Kibbutz, precinct or hinterland 
Ah, Aberfeldy Village. Previously notorious as the Aberfeldy Estate.
Thanks knew it was something Aber, did occur to me we could make Dartmouth Road (Walk) as it’s faster than the traffic.
Well I grew up near here
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/search/Walton+Village,+Liverpool/@53.4445488,-2.9622308,17z
And went to school near here
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/W+Derby+Village,+Liverpool+L12+5HW/@53.4328459,-2.9130792,16.25z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x487b21f05190643f:0x9b2c606993a546f7!8m2!3d53.4328405!4d-2.9102029
Both of which are very urban areas, in which ‘Village’ stands for ‘Old bit of the district for which it’s named, mostly near the original church, with a concentration of shops and some slightly odd old-fashioned bits, but not really the busiest bit’.
So ‘Forest Hill Village’ might suit the Perry Vale bit relatively well on that front. Albeit it would be estate-agent-imposed, and not organic or named after the actual road.
Living in a village could lead to one big happy family…literally
No forest hill can’t be as there’s too much heavy lorrys rattling passed my house already
The betting shop on the corner next to Smiths used to be a butchers! And I remember when we had two bakeries (one near The Hill, and the other near M&co)