Chislehurst Caves

(Working off a backlog of blogposts that are knocking around my hard drive — apologies in advance for the flurry of posts you'll get today.)

A couple of weekends ago a group of us went to visit Chislehurst Caves for Jodi's birthday, and it was great! I found it sort of amazing that there's this huge network of mines (they're not really caves), just 15 minutes from London Bridge.

Tours cost £5 and I thoroughly recommend them. We were whizzed through the mine tunnels at what seemed a ridiculously fast pace, which I found frustrating because it meant I couldn't stop and take good photos (and it's hard enough trying to take photos in a poorly-lit, subterranean tunnel!), but when we came out again I realised we'd been down there for an hour, had been through many sections and told many stories. Many of the stories seemed completely spurious, but that was half the fun, and the tour group all enjoyed them.

The caves have seen some interesting things, though. During the second world war it was a huge shelter for many people who had been displaced by the bombing, and in the 1960s it was a music venue that played host to people like Jimi Hendrix and Led Zeppelin. These days a section of the caves is home to England's longest ongoing LARP game (which is explained why we saw people in bizarre face paint and anachronistic clothes eating sandwiches in the cafe).

During WW1, some of the caves were used as an armaments store, although I question the sanity of smoking near a cache of explosives.

There was a working hospital wing there during the second world war, and one baby girl was even born there. She was allegedly given the name Cavina as tribute, but changed it when she grew up.

I was especially interested to see this photo of mushrooms being grown inside the tunnels, as this is an endeavour which has fascinated me since I read Nicola Twilley's interesting article on the mushroom tunnel at Mittagong, Australia.

After exploring the caves, we ended up exploring the nearby hills and dales of Chislehurst trying to find a pub that could serve 12 hungry people on a Sunday afternoon. We ended up having to retrace our steps to the posh gastropub right next to the caves, but on the way we found a well-preserved cock-pit, which made the up-and-downhill trek worthwhile. Lunch was rather expensive but the wallpaper was lovely.

We finished the day off in the Rambler's Rest, a nice cosy villagey pub of the type that we here at Mondo Towers approve of, and would recommend to anyone planning to make the journey to visit Chislehurst for the caves.

There are few more pictures here.