There’s an interesting hole in the road, near No 97 Devonshire Rd (between the junction with Ewelme Rd and Woodcombe Crescent). I don’t want to be alarmist and suggest it’s a sinkhole, but there appears to be a sizeable cavity under the road. My pictures don’t really do it justice.
The road is open to HGV’s and all other traffic as usual.
I don’t think I’d call that alarmist. I’d be a bit concerned too. Only caveat might be if it’s been checked and there’s merely a large pothole underneath?
Hi @DevonishForester, Devonshire Road is actually not open to large HGV’s - it has a weight limit that the council and TfL chooses to not police (I see larger vehicles everyday).
Have you reported to council as drivers on Devonshire often ignore plastic barriers and drive straight through them (seriously)
Holy shit! I just wandered past there. At least 4 foot deep and longer than 6 feet! Only 3-6 inches of tarmac holding up the road
Unfortunately, the prohibition is only during specified times - at night during the week and weekends except Saturday morning.
Not sure how long it’s been like that. Nothing says deep hole around the barriers. Surprised they haven’t filled it in & no one there working on it either, barriers are quite close to the hole adding more weight from cars/vans/lorries, when passing. Does anyone know when they’ll be fixing it?
When I went along the barrier was actually overhanging the hole - presumably from having been hit.
I did move it
Surely a void of this size under a road should be repaired ASAP? Not trying to be an alarmist, but what if there was a fire on Devonshire road and a responding fire engine got trapped?
@swagger we would have to call the door brigade to bring their ladders so they could climb out of the hole!
The road is not currently closed to traffic.
There is a ‘Road Closed: Access Only’ sign largely out of sight on the pavement near the junction with the A205
but if a road closure is required, then physical barriers are necessary (not plastic like these next to the cavity)
I’m surprised they haven’t closed that stretch of road completely. There have been sinkholes elsewhere in Forest Hill (in 2016 I think): on Perry Vale near the station and under the railway track just outside the station. My recollection is that both road/railway were initially closed completely while the holes were assessed and then partially reopened (single lane traffic) when it was deemed safer.
The railway sinkhole even had its own Twitter account:
https://twitter.com/se_sinkhole?lang=en
Those plastic barriers look like they’ve been hit.
I’ll go and put them on the pavement, like I did the sign, so they don’t get damaged.
Wasn’t the railway sinkhole due to a collapsed sewer? I seem to recall reading that the first time around the filled it with sand, concrete and ballast… then it came back and the sewer had to be diverted through fat pipes in the underpass while they somehow got robots into the pipes to repair the collapse and re-line the sewer.
Those plastic barriers are like a chocolate teapot.
Once when I was out cycling I mistook one for something more substantial and leaned on it in an attempt to squeeze by a bus. It gave way and I ended up in a rather deep hole in which a man was wielding a shovel. Unfortunately I was still attached to my bike by my toe clips so one of us was upside down and it was difficult to understand his swearing.
He was even less pleased so when my toe clips gave way and I fell on top of him. Luckily I saw the funny side of it even if he didn’t…
That’s hilarious, I wish I’d been there to take photos 
I laughed hysterically throughout but the man in the hole, who was admittedly working hard for his living, failed to see anything amusing about it. I have never been told to “feck off out of me hole” before or since… 
@Foresthillnick Your story has literally made me laugh out loud… 
I too wish there was video of it but very relieved that neither of you were hurt!
Hi all,
Just to say that I’ve raised again with Council officers.
Sophie
I thought these signs and barriers at the end of the road were vehicle easing measures related to Covid that they are implementing around the area. Shows how poor the signage and warnings are. Give absolutely no indication to the issue.
Those flimsy barriers are not adequate for that hole, as a minimum they should have heras fencing around the hole with concrete bases and nearby parking zoned off to prevent weight load nearby. But as best practice they should have the section of road blocked off completely with diversions in place!
This is just waiting for an accident…
