Avery Hill parkrun

Note: in 2025 Greenwich parkrun changed name to Avery Hill parkrun. This post dates back to the before days, but nothing else has changed at this great venue. I have also updated the embedded YouTube video after a second visit in October 2025, since during my first visit unfortunately my GoPro decided to capture everything in time lapse instead of proper video.

As my long term ‘second NENDY’, I had been holding on visiting it for a while, but this week I have finally toured to Greenwich parkrun. Greenwich parkrun which is not in Greenwich park, courtesy of the old naming convention. It is in Avery Hill park, in Eltham, basically in Bromley. But nobody really cares about this, the park is glorious and the team is great. Just don’t make the mistake to alight in Greenwich and look for the start around Greenwich park. It’s a long walk away.

Why did I wait this long for my visit? I had read there is a large section on grass, so I wanted to avoid wading through quicksands 3 times over the 3 laps. Which is ironic, because a few weeks ago I visited Woking parkrun, where I am sure several runners were lost in the mud and never found again. This week I spent most working days in the South of France on business, so those sun days made me wrongly believe spring was here. Which got me to Greenwich finally.

This was a week of achievements as well. Greenwich was the last LonDone location South of the river I had not visited yet, so as of this week I am SarfLonDone. I am through 50 events, only 12 left for the coveted badge. Unless new ones pop up this year, which is likely. But hey, parkrun touring is a marathon, not a sprint! The journey is more important than the destination.

Also, I had completely forgotten, but a G was all I was missing to complete Staying Alive, one of the oldest parkrun challenges. So yeah, there is that, another fake digital badge added to my fake digital trophy cabinet. Cheers! I will update the ‘trophy cabinet’ when I have a chance.

Anyway, enough with personal rumblings I’m sure nobody cares about. It’s time to dive into some more info about Greenwich parkrun!

Trip to Avery Hill parkrun, formerly Greenwich parkrun and parking

Sitting at the South of Greenwich Borough, Avery Hill park somewhat suffers from the South-East London curse. The tube network kind of forgot about this part of town.

The venue is about 20Km from where I live, but getting there by public transport would take roughly two hours. It would involve going to London Bridge to catch a South Eastern mainline train to New Eltham. From there, I would still need to walk it for another 20 minutes or so. The official course page for this event is a bit skint and cryptic, but it offers other suggestions on potential public transport options.

If you have read a few of my parkrun reports, you will know by now that I am lazy and, probably, spoilt when it comes to public transport. So yes, guilty, I drove there. I don’t drive a lot and spend my professional life promoting projects that decrease carbon footprint, so allow me this little weekend vice.

Roads were unusually clear, even for early on Parkrunday morning. It was an easy hop through Merton, Croydon and then Greenwich. Some of the roads where the same ones I’ve run when I completed the London Marathon and the Big Half in 2023, so it was also a nice trip through memory lane.

Parking arrangements here are incredibly convenient. Once your GPS gets you to the entrance of the park, you snake around for a little while and then reach a relatively spacious and free parking area by the pavilion/Manor House. You are only 2 minutes walk from the meeting point, so you can relax before the main event of your Parkrunday.

Greenwich parkrun: start and briefings

If you used the car park, just walk towards the park either via the walled garden or through the path starting where you entered the car park. After a few metres, you will enter the park proper, with gorgeous mature trees and wide views over glorious meadows. And just there in front, 100m or so away, there is an ugly square building with many parkrunners starting to come together.

The ugly building is the cafe and it also hosts a couple of toilets that were open before 9am.

When the time was right, the New Runners briefing was held in front of the cafe, with a nice lady welcoming us and giving us a few pointers about the route. But not much to say here, it is as simple as it gets.

Afterwards, everybody starts walking to the start which is uphill from the meeting point. You go towards the basketball courts you can easily see and then stop towards the end. Glad you are walking up and not running up? Well, this is just the first time. There are 3 laps and that climb will be part of the route. Enjoy!

Once we got up, there were issues with the sound system so the Main Briefing was not very long. And then, since apparently we were all already lined up along the start line, I had a little surprise. 3-2-1 Go came basically mid sentence: first time I have to scramble with my watch to start my run. And you know, if it does not show 5K on Strava, it did not happen. That’s the law.

Oh well, I just lost a couple of seconds, then it was time to follow the crowd.

Avery Hill parkrun, formerly Greenwich parkrun course review – star ratings

Avery Hill parkrun, formerly Greenwich parkrun course review – route highlights

There were 211 parkrunners on the day I visited. Looking at historical results, attendance seems to oscillate in a 200-250 rage, with some peaks in the low 300s. This is a healthy field for a parkrun. It keeps things relatively familiar, but it also gathers enough people to keep the run busy alone the whole course.

Conceivably, I cannot think about any serious bottleneck along this route. Roughly 1/3 is on grass, so you can always spread out there. The other 2/3 are on decently wide tarmac paths. At higher numbers, mid packers might find this part a bit busier, especially during the first lap, but it is never gonna be a real issue. If we really want to be picky, the ‘S-shaped’ section at the beginning of the tarmac section could be the only spot where things might slow down a bit.

Surface-wise it starts on grass, then it transitions to tarmac. The grass section was fairly firm and not slippery, the tarmac was in good conditions. The RD mentioned we should expect soft-to-medium conditions on grass and some large puddles. LOL, in hindsight it’s cute to think these conditions were worth noting. Give a look at my recent ordeals in Woking and Crane Park.

Elevation-wise, this is a fairly undulating course. It often feels you are running an incline, but it is never steep. At 37m elevation gain over 3 laps, the math is unavoidable. Shortly after the start, there is the first long, gentle descent on grass. I suppose if it gets very wet, it could be slippery, but when I visited it was totally fine. Then unfortunately, what goes down needs to go back up again. So the other side of the course is a long, relatively simple climb. A bit like in Highbury Fields: happy side, painful side. But even milder here, since a similar elevation gain is spread over a longer distance of the climb segment.

In terms of course design, this is as simple as it gets. 3 laps in a semi-rectangular shape. It is not as boring or consistent as the design might suggest though. This is an interesting variation on the ‘run around the field’ trope: it is a beautiful park and the team has actually done a great job in making it interesting. At least for tourists: I think if this is your local, it might get a bit boring in the long term, but don’t they all?

A quick Relive route plot is on my YouTube Channel, with longer video highlights embedded below.

So, as said above, rather than a fluid transition from the briefing to running, what I’ve experienced on the day I visited was a sudden shift from standing to a moving mass of bodies. I even had to go a few steps without my watch recording them. Sacrilege, those are steps I will never get back and they are not going on my running record!

After recovering from the Garmin-related shock, my mind settled back to running and the first section is actually fairly relaxing. It is on grass, so everyone can spread around a bit, minimising the usual congested stampede effect. It does not remind the great wildebeest migration like the Bushy start, but it got moderately wide. This goes on virtually on the flat for a couple of 100 metres, until you reach one of the 4 route corners and turn left.

Here everyone transitions onto the other grassy segment. It is a long straight descent. It is not steep, but you can feel it enough for it to be pleasant and even if on grass it never felt slippery. Also, the terrain is fairly even, or at least I was lucky enough not to stumble into any holes.

At the end of this segment, it is time for another left turn and it is time to transition onto the tarmac path. The first short bit is a fun wiggly bit shaped like an S. It is not long, but it is the only part that isn’t straight here, so it felt particularly enjoyable. Then it is time to start climbing. The first long straight is not steep, at all. Then you get to the end and turn left once more for a shorter, but slightly steeper segment. This will go up for a short while with a nice view to your left before passing under a little mature copse. After you exit the copse, you emerge in front of the big Manor House/pavilion thingy you could see from the start.

Here you run in front of the Thingy for a short while, crossing the park uphill. Nice view on your left. At the end of the crossing, it is time for a short, sharp descent that will get you at the bottom of the mini-hill you walked up to go from the meeting point to the start. This time you don’t walk it – unless you want to. But you will need to get to the top to start your second lap. And then once more for the third.

Once you get to the Thingy crossing for third time, you still go down the same short and sharp descent, but at the bottom you take a sharp left and the Heavenly Cones will be there in front of you. The coveted gateway to parkbreakfast that all runners dream is finally within sight.

The funnel is not long and it is managed very efficiently. Also, this must have been the location with the fastest results processing of all the 140-ish events I have attended. I had just left the cafe when I got my text, impressive.

Congratulations on completing Greenwich parkrun!

Facilities at Avery Hill parkrun, formerly Greenwich parkrun

Greenwich parkrun is set in a park that benefits from a lot of nice views, but facilities are relatively concentrated around the start area.

That said, everything a good parkrunner needs is here, even if not necessarily up to 5 star standards. There are two toilets which are accessible before the run. So you might have to wait in line for a few minutes, but urgent needs will be catered for.

After the run, parkbreakfast is at the cafe in the same building. It is a small cafe with limited staff on the day I visited. The queue was not long, but fairly slow moving. Not an issue for me after a run, to be honest. They had very inviting bacon or sausage sandwiches and decent sweet options.

As a competitor to the McDonald’s index, I am continuing to collect data for the parkbreakfast index: how much is breakfast at each location?

At Greenwich parkrun, I ordered a single espresso, diet coke and a slice of lemon drizzle undefined muffin. The coffee was awful, the cake was great. This cost £7.0, which was surprisingly overpriced given quality and setting.

Avery Hill parkrun, formerly Greenwich parkrun: Video Highlights

As usual, I’ve taken a few video snippets during the run to give an idea of the course. If you like it, please subscribe, it’s a fun past time for me 🙂

Note: this week my GoPro misbehaved and recorded most of the footage as time lapse. I tried speeding it up, but clearly not enough stills were taken to give the illusion of natural motion. Give a look below if you want to see a robotic patching up of an accidental time lapse.

The other parkrun videos on my YouTube channel are all linked on the course review and video highlights summary page.

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Achievements and performance

Conclusions

I enjoyed this course. It is weirdly engaging, considering how basic its design is. Also, the team is extremely friendly, I’ve rarely been greeted with so much enthusiasm by many of the volunteers.

The fact my GoPro decided to be annoying also gives me one objective reason to come back, so I am sure I will, eventually. This is the second SE London location I need to come back to for posterity reasons, after Foots Cray Meadows. All reasons to go back to a parkrun venue are good reasons!

Add Greenwich parkrun to your touristing plans, people. It is fun.

And obviously, thank you, Greenwich parkrun team for your hospitality!