Shirley Park

Shirley Park Golf Club has a legitimate claim to being one of the more underrated members' clubs in the London commuter belt. Founded in 1914 and laid out across the grounds of a Victorian estate, the course retains a genuine parkland character — mature oak and beech lining the fairways, a stream that wanders into play on several holes, and enough natural contour in the land to reward those who think their way around rather than simply hit and hope.

The club sits in the leafy eastern reaches of Croydon, where Surrey begins to soften the edges of Greater London. It's a part of the world with a quietly strong golf tradition, and Shirley Park belongs comfortably in that company — respected locally, with a membership that takes its golf seriously and a course that holds up across the seasons.

For visitors with handicap access, it plays as a genuine test of parkland golf: varied, honest, and with enough character that the same round rarely feels identical twice.