Thames Tributary the Beck - Eden Park

Thames Tributary the Beck
The Beck flows northwards to the Pool, and eventually the Ravensbourne and the Thames.

Suburban area with large estates - research laboratories included - gradually being built up

Post to the north Kelsey Park
Post to the south Monk's Orchard

Beck
The Beck is the longest river in the Borough of Bromley and its water quality is generally good. Parts of the Beck in the nature reserve and also the GlaxoSmithKline site have natural banks. All private of course despite the fact that this is housing now.
East Beck joins the Beck within the grounds of the Langley Waterside Educational Nature Reserve at its southern end. All private of course.

Cresswell Drive
Unicorn Primary School. Opened 2003.

Eden Park Avenue
Sports Ground. Beckenham Town FC moved here in 1980 with a 25-year lease. They had been formed in 1971, growing out of an amateur team called Stanhope Rovers.
V2 February 1945 hit behind St John’s Church which was severely damaged and needed to be shored up. The Church hall was wrecked and 79 houses damaged
St.John’s church. Constructed 1936 architect W Pite, Son & Fairweather. Signed services for the deaf., site of Eden Hall . In 1907, Christ Church Mission Room worshippers formed the nucleus of the congregation for the new church of St John's. The iron hut of the Mission was transported to Eden Park Avenue and was used for worship until the present church was built; it was consecrated in 1936.
Eden Hall, occupied in 1834 by Mr. Lichmore. The house stood where the present St. John's Church stands was pulled down about 1890.

Eden Way
V1 June 1944/ struck the stand at the Evening Standard sports ground

Crouch Oak Wood

Langley
The Langley Estate. Langley c.1762, It is sometimes taken to come form a family called de Langeie who lived here in the late 13th. However a note on boundaries of Bromley in an Anglo-Saxon 862 might refer to it as 'the long wood or woodland clearing'. Edmund Langley built a chapel here in 1608. In the 18th it was owned by the Burrells of Kelsey. In 1809 the estate was sold by auction. Emanuel Goodhart J.P. purchased Langley Park itself but in 1904 the estate was further divided up and sold.
Langley Farm. This was north of the mansion with an entrance via a tree-lined drive from Wickham Road. In 1830 it was home to Henry Holland a Governor of the Bank of England. Subsequent tenants were members of the Cator family. The building was demolished in 1886
Langley Court was built on the site of Langley Farm in 1886; the architect was James Barnett of Beckenham. In 1920 it was taken over by the Wellcome Foundation Laboratories which had moved here from Brockwell Park.
Welcome Research Laboratories. Two American pharmacists, Silas M. Burroughs and Henry S. Wellcome, formed Burroughs Wellcome and Co. in 1880. Burroughs died in 1895 and Wellcome took over the whole undertaking and it became 'The Wellcome Research Laboratories'. It is known for its research throughout the world, and for the calibre of the scientists. . No fewer than ten members of the scientific staff have become Fellows of the Royal Society; and there has been one Nobel Prize. They produced improvements to vaccines, particularly for diphtheria in the 1920s and 1930s. In addition there have been many breakthroughs in both human and vetinerary medicine.
Thatched building used as an office by the Estate Manager. It includes a clock made by Anthony Ireland of Mile End in 1770 which keeps good time and strikes the hours by a bell inscribed 'PETER BVRILL ESQr OF BECKNVM 1733'. The wooden headstock is dated 1773. During work on the building a halfpenny coin dated 1775 was found,
New housing development on much of the site. All private of course.
Langley Waterside Educational Nature Reserve, Ancient woodland, plus plantation, damp grassland, ponds, reed beds and the artificial lake. All private of course – no access to oiks however interested in nature.

South Eden Park Road
The main road passed close to Langley mansion and the Farm, but in 1775 it was diverted away from the mansion, forming this road. A footbridge was built across the diverted road to join the estate with Eden Farm estate.
Langley Park Boys School. The Grammar School in Penge High Street was moved in 1968 again to these new premises, and now takes children of all abilities. Informally spread in muted colours,
Langley Park School for Girls. The County Grammar School in Lennard Road moved in 1959 to these new premises. In 1973 it became a comprehensive school called Langley Park Girls' School. The school badge incorporates the arms of the Style family who lived at Langley Park for some 200 years.
Lodge of Eden Lodge
Eden Lodge. A large house built early 1820s. Home of John Marshall lived there 1830 – 1864. When the estate was put up for auction in May 1878 it included the carriage drive under an avenue of fine firs, over ornamental water. And a pew in Beckenham Parish Church.
Chalfont. Occupied in 1861 by T. Thomson. Built of white brick and part of the Harvington Estate.
Oakfield. Part of the Harvington estate. It was described in 1904 as a picturesque building in Italian villa style built of Staffordshire bricks

Eden Park
Eden Park perhaps means 'heath covered land'.
Eden Park Station. Built 1882 and now runs between West Wickham and Elmers End on South Eastern Trains’ Mid-Kent line to Hayes with the line weaving between big private parks. Built for the estate called Eden Park owned by William Mace and for Monks Orchard to the south. It was a cheap South Eastern Railway building, slate roof and canopy and pillars at the platform end. Subway and signal box shelter. When it was built the nearest house was quarter of a mile away.

Railway Line
A temporary siding was created for the construction of the hospital at Monk’s Orchard in 1928 for the construction company, Harold Arnold & Co.

Sources
Beckenham Town Football Club, Web site
British History Online. Beckenham
Bygone Kent
Cox. Kent

Flying Bombs and Rockets, Web site
Goldsmiths. South East London Industrial Archaeology

Langley Park Boys School. Web site
Langley Park School for Girls. Web site
London Borough of Bromley. Web site
London Railway Record

Manors of Beckenham
Morris. Archives of the Chemical Industry

Pevsner and Cherry. West Kent
Pevsner ad Cherry. South London

St. John;s Church. Web site
Wagstaff and  Pullen. Beckenham anthology,
Walk round Beckenham

Welcombe Foundations. Web site 

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