Visiting Lewisham’s CCTV Control Room
Above: Lampost mounted CCTV camera at Cobb’s Corner
Last Thursday the Sydenham Society Executive were invited to visit the borough’s closed circuit TV Control Room. We were asked not to divulge the location of the Control Room which is in a secure “central location” in the borough.
The Control Room has over 400 cameras covering the borough and the control room is staffed 24 hours per day 365 days a year.
We were impressed by the new high resolution cameras which produce excellent, clearly visible images even during hours of darkness.
The team send sightings to local police – and they were able to report that, just in the last two weeks, Lewisham’s CCTV Control room were able to pass on sightings of two serious knife crime incidents which resulted in almost immediate arrests by local police.
Insurance companies or individuals are also able to requests camera images which are only handed over when visible facial images have been removed.
In our area, CCTV cameras are at the following locations:
- Bell Green retail park
- Bell Green gyratory system
- Kent House Road
- Sydenham Road (2 cameras)
- Girton Road Car Park
- Cobbs Corner
- Wells Park
- Dartmouth Road
- London Road
- Perry Vale and
- Poole River Walk – Bell Green to Catford (5 cameras).
In addition, TfL and Southern operate their own cameras in and around local stations and on trains.