But, now there are darker associations with that glorious expanse of common land so beloved of south Londoners: an act of horrific violence that has shocked a nation.
We tell ourselves, rightly, that such crimes are astonishingly rare but, here is the terrible truth: acts of violence or sexual harassment against women are not rare, and overwhelming they are carried out by men.
Today is Mother's Day and I am so thankful for my own mother, and my marvellous wife, the mother of our two wonderul daughters, but it is precisely as we think of the women we love that we realise the awfulness of what has happened to Sarah Everard and to many, many other women in so many ways.
It shouldn't be like this.
We have a problem and by 'we' I mean us men. We have a problem about how we educate our boys, the images they see, the attitudes and behaviours that are modelled to them that they then emulate. We have a problem about how fathers father and how boyfriends and husbands treat their partners. Its about love. Its about respect. Its about faithfulness, sacrifice, and self-forgetfulness.
It's a deeper problem than something education alone can deal with. That's why Christians believe in the radical inner change in our hearts that can be effected by the Holy Spirit alone.
The horrible crime that has occurred this week is part of a long term problem that isn't just going to go away.
What we really mustn't do now is to put our heads in the sand and move on to the next item that grabs the headlines.
This is one of those moments when as a nation we need to pray: Lord, have mercy upon us.
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