I certainly make no secret of the fact that I’m rather passionate about London’s transport network. And so it’ll likely come as no surprise that I could quite easily recite a carefully-curated catalogue of the best stations in the city at – quite literally – the drop of a hat. However, it seems as though my railway rankings may require a bit of a rejig – because I’ve just discovered that there’s a station in south London that is home to its very own vineyard. And if that’s not a reason to be immediately catapulted to the top of the list, I truly don’t know what is.
The station in question is Denmark Hill – yes, the very same station that boasts a pub in its former ticket hall. The vineyard itself comes courtesy of the Camberwell Society, a local organisation that was awarded a Community License by National Rail back in 2020. The license allows the society to care for and develop the non-passenger areas of Denmark Hill station. And they’ve certainly been putting in a solid shift.
Over the past six years, the Camberwell Society has installed around 30 pieces of artwork at Denmark Hill station. There’s a ‘chaos wheel’ made from colourful buckets and a flock of birds created out of milk cartons, just to name a couple of the eye-catching pieces dotted around the transport hub. A plethora of planting has also taken place over the past half-a-decade. There are 56 lavender plants, a whole host of bluebells, crocuses, and daffodils, and – perhaps most impressively – over 20 thriving Bacchus grapevines.
The vines are avidly-attended to by Nick Mair and Tony Coleman, two members of the Camberwell Society. Nick was a keen winemaker in his youth and Tony has a background in construction, making them the pretty perfect pairing for this endeavor. Using vertical posts, the micro-vineyard boasts around 25 Bacchus vines. These particular vines were chosen as they tend to fair pretty well in south-east England.
Just two bottles were produced at the UK’s first station vineyard last year, but 2026 marks the vineyards first year of ‘proper production’. Speaking to MyLondon, Nick said: “The grapes are very sweet. We need a bit of rain to flesh them out a bit, but I think if we got one bottle per vine, that would be good. If you produce too much wine from a vine, then the quality does down. But I think if we got in this our first year of proper production, a bottle per vine, I think be quite happy with that.”
There are currently no plans in the pipeline for this wine – that’s been fondly dubbed ‘Chateau Denmark’ – to be available to buy. But rumour has it that a few bottles may be popped open at the Camberwell Society’s Christmas party to see how it tastes. It’d be rude not to, I suppose.
