- Location: Hilly Fields, Lewisham, SE4 1LD, London
- Terrain: mixed, tarmac and grass
- Elevation: hilly, 78m
- Parking: on street,, free
- Facilities: toilets and cafe
- Shoes: road if dry weather
- Laps: 3
- Attendance: mediuml, 250-300
- Last visited on: 26 Apr 2025
- Number of visits: 2
- PB: 29:34
Last parkrunday I visited Hilly Fields parkrun for the second time. This post comes a few days later, after a very busy week with work and family, but obviously it had to be done. The clue is in the name for this event, like its spiritual sibling in North London, Sunny Hill parkrun. I guess you know you are going to find hills if you go to either of them!
As said before, after completing LonDone a couple of months ago when visiting Valentines parkrun, I am now slowly checking out the few London events I only visited before starting this site. So this week I decided to put one further tick on that list, after a more exotic trip to Severn Bridge parkrun a week before. 5 events left now, before all London parkruns are covered here. But I won’t rush through them: journey before destination.
Hilly Fields parkrun might have a scary name or ‘only’ be in South London, but it held well against the more famous friend visited one week before. It is a great event and on the day it benefited from the usual buzz and amount of tourists you get the day before the London Marathon. Justified buzz, because the London Marathon is a fantastic event and I will never forget my chance to run it. If you are curious, you can go read about it or watch my London Marathon video highlights here.
Most of the remaining events I have not covered here yet are in this very parkrun-rich cluster of South/South-East London. It was my first target area when I started venturing out of South-West London working towards LonDone. Not long ago I visited Catford parkrun, another great local event. South East London parkruns might not be the easiest to reach sometimes, but they are all definitely worth a visit!
Anyway, enough with my rumblings. It’s time to dive into some more info about Hilly Fields parkrun!
Trip to Hilly Fields parkrun and parking
Hilly Fields is a mid-sized green area in Ladywell, Lewisham. The official event page references to Adelaide Avenue as the closest road to use as a reference point for the start. That said, meeting point and start line are pretty much bang in the middle of the park.
According to the official event page, the closest station is Ladywell station. It is served by South Eastern with frequent connections to Charing Cross and Kent. The Station is South-East of Hilly Fields parkrun meeting point, about 10 minutes walk away.
If you decided to drive, bear in mind there isn’t any dedicated car park at this location. However, the streets around the park don’t seem to be terribly busy and when I got there at around 8.35am there were plenty of free parking spots available. I parked in Vicars Hill, which was perfect to reach the meeting point. However, Saturday morning seems to be garbage collection day, so you might have to risk bins being bumped around your car if you park here.
Hilly Fields parkrun: start and briefings
If you are coming from the station or if you have parked your car where I did, you will enter Hilly Fields from the bottom left corner. With good weather, you will be quickly met by lush, big meadows, with one caveat. Immediately, you will need to start climbing to reach the top of the hill. Good appetizer for what’s to come, because that hill will be a recurring feature later on.
The meeting point is at the top of the hill, next to a children play area and 30 metres away from the cafe. A toilet is available behind the cafe. It is a nice vantage point on both sides of the hill. Views on the rest of London are nothing special, but the green open fields do have a calming impact.
The First TImers briefing was called at the usual time next to the meeting point. A friendly and welcoming description of the course, with warnings about the challenges to come.
Shortly after that, everybody started walking towards the cafe. Then we stopped next to a clearing with several tree stumps. This is where the Main Briefing took place, with shout outs for the many tourists in town for the London Marathon weekend.
Then everyone turns around facing the meeting point again, ready to get started.
Then, I heard the RD start the countdown. ‘3, 2, 1, go!’. It was time to go.
Hilly Fields parkrun course review – star ratings
| (0-5) | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ |
|---|---|
| Location | ⭐️⭐️ ⭐️ |
| Parking | ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ |
| Facilities | ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ |
| Hills challenge (lower is easier) | ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ |
| Surface challenge (lower is easier) | ⭐️ ⭐️ |
Hilly Fields parkrun course review – route highlights
There were 374 parkrunners on the day of my second visit to Hilly Fields parkrun. Scrolling through historical results on their website, if this is not their record attendance level, it must be up there. I don’t see anything above that over the last couple of years. In general, Hilly Fields parkrun seems to host around 250-300 parkrunners, with some spikes in the mid 300s. Did it feel overly busy on the day even with record (or near record) attendance? No, not at all. Except the first 100m or so when people had to converge inside the path from a slightly wider start, it always felt like a great, comfortable parkrun.
I don’t think there are real bottlenecks around this course. Most turns are fairly wide and open and I don’t remember any gates, bollards or particularly concerning tree roots. The tightest turn is probably a 90-degrees turn at the top of the hill by the tennis courts. But even this is fairly comfortable and, being right by the finish funnel, it is always guarded by several volunteers. Let your steam go freely here, you won’t have any problems.
Surface-wise, the event I visited was run on its summer course, which is a mixed path. It starts on tarmac, then it transitions to hard path and grass. Hard path is the least prevalent, they other two are roughly equally split. At the end of a dry week, road shoes were totally fine. However, in muddy or wet conditions I suspect trail shoes would come highly recommended.
Elevation-wise, this is fairly consistently undulating,n with some substantial inclines. At 78m elevation gain over 3 laps, there isn’t any long, steep slog, but several minor ones and one short, steep one. The descents are glorious thought. I would say, most inclines are manageable, with the exception of the last one on grass. This one is steep and long enough to be painful. As the volunteers warned us.
In terms of course layout, this is a quirky one. 3 laps around the perimeter of the park, with one longish diversion towards the end. The cruel trick is that you arrive back up on top of the hill and then, just before ending the lap, they make you turn left for a great, steep downhill to the bottom, just to climb all the way back up in a straight line. Cruel.
A quick Relive route plot is on my YouTube Channel, with longer video highlights embedded below.
When it is time to go, people bunch up a bit wider than the actual path. This means that the first 30/40 metres can be slightly chaotic, with overtaking and swerving around to find the idea spot. That said, it is not uncomfortable or disruptive, there are much worse start lines. It wont be long until you pass by the tennis courts where by the original meeting point and then the finish funnel. Keep going a little further and the path will start benefiting from a noticeable negative gradient. Enjoy the descent.
At the bottom, time to take a wide right turn and change surface. Tarmac will give way to hard path here and we will be starting a slightly traily segment. It is compact, not technical and, mostly, flat. We will follow the curved edge of the park with some tree cover, providing nicely different surroundings from the rest of the course.
About 2/3 into the long wide curved segment, we will join a tarmac path and start feeling a slight positive gradient again. Keep going here for a little while until the turn becomes suddenly narrower and we have to tackle a short ramp. At the end of this ramp, a marshal will show us a hard left turn into the fields. This is the first grass segment. We only need to cross a field, with some mild elevation midway.
At the end of this field, we are back on tarmac and onto a hard right turn. This is the beginning of a mild climb that starts under sparse trees and ends under slightly denser tree cover. At the top, 90 degrees turn left and we are back at the start, but don’t make the mistake to think the lap is over. Keep going straight until you pass the tennis courts and you will be surprised by a volunteer showing you that you need to turn 90-degrees left. This is the evil detour.
A flat narrow path will bring you to the end of the flat top of the hill and onto a gentle right turn. Immediately after turning, you will see that the next segment is a glorious descent on tarmac crossing the fields. Enjoy it, you will need the dopamine soon. At the bottom, another volunteer will show you a gentle right turn, again getting you on grass. It starts climbing gently, towards a big, luxurious tree. Not too scary, right? Then after you pass the tree, another right turn and you see it. The main grassy climb. Not short and not mild, it is, as they say, character building.
Once you have reached the top, you find yourself roughly half way through the straight the run had started with. Turn left for lap 2 and then, lap 3.
At the end of lap 3, when you reach the top you need to turn right instead. You will see the finish funnel 60/80m in front of you, all flat this time.
Congratulations on completing Hilly Fields parkrun!
Facilities at Hilly Fields parkrun
Hilly Fields parkrun takes place in a mid sized green space around a noticeable hill.
The meeting point is on top of the hill, next to a beautiful cafe that also offers toilets. They are open also before the event.
The cafe is beautiful, with a substantial outside sitting area in the shade. Inside, it feels a bit cramped, but it offers good choices and service is fast and friendly
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 Hilly Fields parkrun, I ordered a cronut, a diet coke and a single espresso. This cost me £7.2. Expensive, but not obscene considering what I got and the level prices have reached in London over the last year or so.
Hilly Fields 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 🙂
The other parkrun videos on my YouTube channel are all linked on the course review and video highlights summary page.
Achievements and performance
My second visit to Hilly Fields parkrun was only motivated by my objective to cover all London parkruns on this site. Five more to go. However, this meant that I did not expect any progress on other parkrun challenges. And there were no surprises.
Now, back to parkrun challenges:
- Date Bingo: now at 46%
- Prime Numbers: now at 29%
Conclusions
Hilly Fields parkrun has a scary name. And I am sure it must be a very challenging course when wet and muddy. However, on a dry day, it was a lot of fun if still not an easy route. The course keeps things interesting, even with 3 laps and the local team was extremely fun and welcoming.
I would love to come back and I suspect I will, one day.
Finally, obviously, thank you, Hilly Fields parkrun team for your hospitality, once again!
