please empty your brain below
Looking forward very much to the first day when Crossrail and Crossness coincide.

Dan | 19.05.22 - 7:06 a.m. | #

Visited Lesnes Abbey and the woods recently while doing the Green London Way. Planning a trip next week to explore further, and of course get the Elizabeth line back. Thanks for the review, there is even more there than I thought.

davews | 19.05.22 - 7:32 a.m. | #

How does one pronounce 'Lesnes'?

Vectisian | 19.05.22 - 8:16 a.m. | #

And us in the Abbey Wood area are very much looking forward to the fast connection to London. I'm taking the children straight after school for a trip.

Kathryn | Homepage | 19.05.22 - 8:22 a.m. | #

I would love to hear this read in the style of Peter Sellars' "Balham - Gateway to the South"

daveid76 | 19.05.22 - 9:19 a.m. | #

"Leens" (Abbey)?

David | 19.05.22 - 9:21 a.m. | #

It’s Lez-Nez

Toronto Addick | 19.05.22 - 9:39 a.m. | #

No its Lez-Knees

Boneyboy | 19.05.22 - 10:06 a.m. | #

Thanks for the mention. For those who don't know about the Ridgeway, there is further information on Wikipedia here.

Fun fact for train geeks, if you walk along the length of the elevated Ridgeway path you can get a great view of the Elizabeth Line maintenance depot at Plumstead.

Ridgeway Users | Homepage | 19.05.22 - 10:37 a.m. | #

Informed reconstruction of the Abbey here.

David | 19.05.22 - 10:58 a.m. | #

I visited Lesnes (Lez-knees) Abbey for the first time recently and even on a grey drizzly day it was a gem and the prices in the cafe are jaw-droppingly cheap!
I think the eggy sculptures in the monks garden are supposed to represent beehives!

Cornish Cockney | 19.05.22 - 11:02 a.m. | #

I too wondered about the pronunciation of Lesnes Abbay. Is it an anglicised 'Less-ness' or a Norman-French 'Len' or 'Lane'? How do the locals say it?

Ian Paton | 19.05.22 - 11:31 a.m. | #

I hope the area does receive an Elizabeth line boost in visitors - and to judge from these glorious pictures and descriptions, there is plenty to be seen and enjoyed in the area.

Consensus on first syllable: Lez (also how the name Les is said). Wikipedia (fwiw) has the second syllable not as nez, nor Ness, nor knees, nor niece, but nis (like the second syllable of furnace).

Malcolm of Kent | 19.05.22 - 11:51 a.m. | #

I've actually been planning for some time now to visit the abbey on the same day as doing Crossrail. Now that I know what day I can do it (I won't be there for opening day but I will be in London on the 28th) and can put together a full itinery, I've pencilled in a 2 1/2 hour stop at Abbey Wood for lunch and to check out the abbey and surrounding woodland.

X-Plaistow | 19.05.22 - 12:24 p.m. | #

Speaking as someone whose bedroom window has overlooked that mulberry tree for 35 years, I would say the pronuciation of Lesnes locally is LezNess with a tilt towards LesNus.

It may be worth visiting on 5th June for the Platimum Jubillee celebrations.

Malcolm Knight | Homepage | 19.05.22 - 1:22 p.m. | #

Abbey Wood seems to be a bit of a transport item. It did of course also host one of the last original London tram lines (Croydon notwithstanding) until 1952. Regrettably I missed the last tram commemorations.

Strabismus | 19.05.22 - 2:12 p.m. | #

It might just be the camera angle, but the purple roundel doesn’t appear to line up with the glazing like the NR logo does.

Kev | 19.05.22 - 3:02 p.m. | #

I’m looking forward to the follow-up posts on Shenfield and Reading which, I’m guessing, may not have so many surprising attractions.

Cjw714 | 19.05.22 - 3:13 p.m. | #

A nice description, and I have wondered about that pronunciation for 39 years. All I need now is to know whether the emphasis is on the first or second syllable! I sometimes alighted at that station sometimes en route to a previous workplace. A first re-building happened around 1985 I seem to remember, probably due to increased use following the construction of Thamesmead. Later I was puzzled by the addition of the suffix "Abbey Wood" to the re-built station at Filton in Bristol.

cau1khead | 19.05.22 - 3:30 p.m. | #

The previous station was opened on the day I moved into the area so easy to remember - May 1987.
Lesnes most definitely has the emphasis on the first syllable.

Malcolm Knight | Homepage | 19.05.22 - 3:48 p.m. | #

The post mentions Harrow Manorway, but what, in this context, is or was a Manorway? Some have names such as Church or Woolwich while others are less obvious such as Harrow, Corinthian or Crabtree. They seem to lead down towards the river Thames on both the south and north bank and may have been a way to a landing stage.

Alan JS | 19.05.22 - 4:04 p.m. | #

I have much sympathy for foreign tourists, given we ourselves cannot tell how to pronounce our own sites they clearly have no chance.

Before it was clarified, my vote would have been for a "Leyns" pronunciation. You win some you lose some

Bob | 19.05.22 - 5:03 p.m. | #

I suppose the fate under Henry VIII would count as abbeylessness.

Sprout Eater | 19.05.22 - 9:43 p.m. | #

I wonder how many of those trying out the line after it opens will simply turn around at Abbey Wood, without going through the barriers, thus avoiding paying for a zone 4 ticket if they would be capped at a lower level having started from home closer into London.

AndrewR | 20.05.22 - 12:40 a.m. | #

To add to the pronunciation debate, there is also the area of Lessness Heath a bit to the east which is either pronounced less (as in more) nez or lez-ness with no issues as we are more concerned with arguing about whether our village is called Nuxley or Belvedere.

Kathryn | Homepage | 20.05.22 - 9:32 a.m. | #

I grew up in Bexleyheath, and Bostall Woods was where we used to most frequently walk the family labrador. It's also where as a child I dug for and found many little shark's teeth in the sand of the fossil pit. Oh and my dad as a young man used to take the tram. I still have his tram map somewhere. As a teenager I'd learn to drive and sail round Thamesmead and went out with a girl from there, Jackie.

Colin | 28.05.22 - 10:04 a.m. | #











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