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The Woodland Walk is a narrow strip of woodland, most of which is considered to be ancient in origin. It zigzags between the houses of Downham for just over one and a half kilometres. The Green Chain Walk runs along the length of the site, on its way between Beckenham Place Park and Hither Green Nature Reserve, as does Walk 4 at the back of this book.

Reference back to a map published in 1805 quite clearly shows the eastern half of the Woodland Walk: the part from Whitefoot Lane to roughly where it crosses Downderry Road today. Moving on to mid-Victorian times, Stanford's Library Map of London and its Suburbs (dated 1862) has the eastern part of the modern-day Woodland Walk extended southwards and then westwards to delineate the boundary of the park of Southend Hall. (See also Le.L6.) This last section ran along the northern side of Gipsy Lane, a country lane which now forms Oakridge Road, to terminate (as today) at Bromley Road.