Thames Tributary Ravensbourne - Pool, Chaffinch, Beck - Beckenham
Thames Tributary Ravensbourne
The Chaffinch flows north towards the Pool River and the Ravensbourne
The Beck/Pool flows east to join the Chaffinch flowing towards the Pool and the Ravensbourne.
The Beck flows north west towards the Chaffinch
TQ 36507 69046
Solidly comfortable middle class area of outer South London. Local facilities and commuter rail. The art school is only claim to fame as the nurturer of David Bowie
Post to the north New Beckenham
Post to the east Beckenham
Post to the west Penge - Beckenham
Balgowan Road
Balgowan School –opened as Beckenham Central School. Built just pre First World War with a separate Infants school. During the war it was used as a hospital. In 1919 it opened as boys and girls, taking children who had just failed to qualify for a Grammar school place. In the late 1940s following reorganisation it continued as a Secondary Modern School. From 1959. It became a Junior and Infants school.
Barnmead Road
Beckenham Road
Clockhouse station. 1864. Between Elmers End and New Beckenham on South East Trains. Built by South Eastern Railway to the same design as Woodside Station. There was an opening on the down side to allow post office vans to load.
Signal box. This also controlled the line to Beckenham Council sidings.
Goods Yard. Shut October 1964
Beckenham Road Tram Stop. Opened 1998. Between Beckenham Junction and Avenue Road on Croydon Tramlink. This might be the site of an earlier station.
Penge Station – possible site of an 1858 station with only one recorded passenger. It was on a line which linked the former South Eastern & Crystal Palace Line at Kent House with the line to Beckenham Junction which now runs parallel to the Croydon Tramlink branch. The spur met the line at the point where the tram stop at Beckenham Road is now situated which means it is a point where a station could have been sited. The embankment that carried the line is still there.
Clock House. Substantial red brick mansion built in the 18th later haunted with rats. It was named from the large turret clock on the stable block. It was occupied in 1781 by Admiral Piercy Brett after whom Cape Brett and Piercy Island in New Zealand are named. Lord Byron said goodbye to Lady Byron there. It was demolished in 1896 but the Stables survived until 1926 and the clock was taken to Beckenham Place. The gardens, with lake and fountain became a nursery
School of Art. Thus was built on the site of the old Clock House, and the foundation stone dated 25.7.1899 is on the front, and carved in stone on the side, the words 'Science' and 'Art'. The school was opened in 1901. In 1931 the older boys moved and the Institute building then housed a Junior Technical School, This school was closed in 1958, when the boys were transferred to the new Technical School at Keston. In 1902 Art classes were held in the Technical Institute and in 1908 the building in Beckenham Road was built especially for an expansion of the Art school and the Beckenham School of Art became a full time diploma awarding institute. Plans for a new building in the 1950s were halted and various buildings around the area were taken over and used. In 1962 it closed and amalgamated with Sidcup Art School and Bromley School of Art to become the Ravensbourne College of Art and Design. The premises were then used as an Adult Education Centre but burnt down in 1978 and replaced by Beckenham Library Green
Library 1939
Sports ground
The Spa – this was Beckenham Baths 1902. Baths demolished. Beckenham Spa swimming pool opened 1999. Impressive.
Beckenham Baptist Church. Built 1889 with a saddleback spire. The foundation stones were laid in November 1882
Chaffinch Bridge
Cedars Road
Named for cedar trees in the grounds of Beckenham Lodge.
Chaffinch Road
Named for Chaffinch Brook
All Saints Church. Closed and demolished. It was on the corner of Clock House Bridge and built in 1907. It was a Mission Church of St Augustine's and was removed when St Augustine's became a separate parish.
Churchfields Road
Road was called Arthur Road or Back lane given to the parish
Electricity station. Combined electric light station and destructor. Some of the station on site was meant for coal and as a refuse destructor. Relics of London County Council and GLC on site.
St.Augustine Mission Hall. Opened in 1886. The present church was consecrated on 31 May 1945.
Arthur Road Mission 1889
Clock House Road
Chaffinch Brook culverted alongside the road.
Croydon Road
101d, site of Beckenham Lodge, at the junction with Beckenham Road. Pre- 1810 occupied by the Banyer family, then by Hulbert Wathen and then John Woolley. Cedar trees in the grounds.
Beckenham Cottage Hospital. Founded in 1872 by a group of local people with Peter Hoare of Kelsey Manor for the provision of a building in Middle Barnet Field, with four beds, a Matron and two doctors. At first patients were charged 6d. per day but three years later there were eight beds supported by house to house collections. Peter Hoare died in 1877 and his estate demanded a full rent leading to a full-time collector of funds. In 1887 they bought the freehold and added a new wing. Queen Victoria's Jubilee saw £1,500 raised towards a children's ward and in 1903 a new operating theatre. By 1929 45 beds were available and in 1939 the Trapnell Wing. In the Second World War thousands of outpatients received treatment. Major improvements were completed with the opening of Douglas Lindsey Ward in 1969. In 2010 it is again being rebuilt.
Christ Church Mission Room 1907. Established in Croydon Road, between the Cottage Hospital and Shaftesbury Road
205 Clockhouse pub. Closed
Croydon Road Recreation Ground. Oriental shelter. The fountain from the grounds of Clock House. On land given to the parish in the Middle Ages. Opened in 1889 with no ceremony – but local people thought there should be one and a demo was held so that they then had a treat there for the schoolchildren. Bandstand by Macfarlane Hope of Glasgow
Hayne Road
Woodbrook School: a school for girls and young boys known as Woodbrook ran here. The school closed in 1960 and Beckenham Education Committee demolished the old house built modern school for handicapped children. This closed 2000.
Riverside School opened in September 2007 on this site for special needs children.
Kings Hall Road
Kent House Station. 1st July 1863 between Beckenham Junction and Penge East on South East Trains. London Chatham and Dover Railway. Named after 1778 acre farm to the north on Kent House Road. In 1993 a train carrying an IRA bomb was diverted there where it exploded.
Cyphers Bowling Club, Burned out shell of the is home of Cyphers Cricket Club. Formed over 100 years ago, W G Grace and the actor Trevor Howard played there, as well as accommodating tennis and bowls and cricket. impressive club house dating from 1936 and funded mostly from donations burnt down and closed in 2004.
Old School Close
Churchfields School. Built on parish land given called Grubb Field, also called Bellrope Field because it paid for the bellrope. In 1889 the land was sold to the Beckenham School Board for £900. It was first called Arthur Road School, but later renamed Churchfields School. Now housing.
Sidney Road
Named after Sidney Cottage which was on the Beckenham Road corner. Vicarage for All Saints Church
Railway Line
North of Clockhouse station the line crosses Chaffinch Brook which is very prone to flooding. Ok with steam trains but a big problem once it was electrified. 1966 the stream was culverted.
Sources
Balgowan School. Web site
Connor. Forgotten stations of London
Industrial Archaeology Review
London Borough of Bromley. Web site
Manors of Beckenham
MPP electricity list
Pevsner and Cherry. West Kent
Stewart. History of Croydon
Wagstaffe and Pullen’. Beckenham anthology,
Walk round Beckenham
The Chaffinch flows north towards the Pool River and the Ravensbourne
The Beck/Pool flows east to join the Chaffinch flowing towards the Pool and the Ravensbourne.
The Beck flows north west towards the Chaffinch
TQ 36507 69046
Solidly comfortable middle class area of outer South London. Local facilities and commuter rail. The art school is only claim to fame as the nurturer of David Bowie
Post to the north New Beckenham
Post to the east Beckenham
Post to the west Penge - Beckenham
Balgowan Road
Balgowan School –opened as Beckenham Central School. Built just pre First World War with a separate Infants school. During the war it was used as a hospital. In 1919 it opened as boys and girls, taking children who had just failed to qualify for a Grammar school place. In the late 1940s following reorganisation it continued as a Secondary Modern School. From 1959. It became a Junior and Infants school.
Barnmead Road
Beckenham Road
Clockhouse station. 1864. Between Elmers End and New Beckenham on South East Trains. Built by South Eastern Railway to the same design as Woodside Station. There was an opening on the down side to allow post office vans to load.
Signal box. This also controlled the line to Beckenham Council sidings.
Goods Yard. Shut October 1964
Beckenham Road Tram Stop. Opened 1998. Between Beckenham Junction and Avenue Road on Croydon Tramlink. This might be the site of an earlier station.
Penge Station – possible site of an 1858 station with only one recorded passenger. It was on a line which linked the former South Eastern & Crystal Palace Line at Kent House with the line to Beckenham Junction which now runs parallel to the Croydon Tramlink branch. The spur met the line at the point where the tram stop at Beckenham Road is now situated which means it is a point where a station could have been sited. The embankment that carried the line is still there.
Clock House. Substantial red brick mansion built in the 18th later haunted with rats. It was named from the large turret clock on the stable block. It was occupied in 1781 by Admiral Piercy Brett after whom Cape Brett and Piercy Island in New Zealand are named. Lord Byron said goodbye to Lady Byron there. It was demolished in 1896 but the Stables survived until 1926 and the clock was taken to Beckenham Place. The gardens, with lake and fountain became a nursery
School of Art. Thus was built on the site of the old Clock House, and the foundation stone dated 25.7.1899 is on the front, and carved in stone on the side, the words 'Science' and 'Art'. The school was opened in 1901. In 1931 the older boys moved and the Institute building then housed a Junior Technical School, This school was closed in 1958, when the boys were transferred to the new Technical School at Keston. In 1902 Art classes were held in the Technical Institute and in 1908 the building in Beckenham Road was built especially for an expansion of the Art school and the Beckenham School of Art became a full time diploma awarding institute. Plans for a new building in the 1950s were halted and various buildings around the area were taken over and used. In 1962 it closed and amalgamated with Sidcup Art School and Bromley School of Art to become the Ravensbourne College of Art and Design. The premises were then used as an Adult Education Centre but burnt down in 1978 and replaced by Beckenham Library Green
Library 1939
Sports ground
The Spa – this was Beckenham Baths 1902. Baths demolished. Beckenham Spa swimming pool opened 1999. Impressive.
Beckenham Baptist Church. Built 1889 with a saddleback spire. The foundation stones were laid in November 1882
Chaffinch Bridge
Cedars Road
Named for cedar trees in the grounds of Beckenham Lodge.
Chaffinch Road
Named for Chaffinch Brook
All Saints Church. Closed and demolished. It was on the corner of Clock House Bridge and built in 1907. It was a Mission Church of St Augustine's and was removed when St Augustine's became a separate parish.
Churchfields Road
Road was called Arthur Road or Back lane given to the parish
Electricity station. Combined electric light station and destructor. Some of the station on site was meant for coal and as a refuse destructor. Relics of London County Council and GLC on site.
St.Augustine Mission Hall. Opened in 1886. The present church was consecrated on 31 May 1945.
Arthur Road Mission 1889
Clock House Road
Chaffinch Brook culverted alongside the road.
Croydon Road
101d, site of Beckenham Lodge, at the junction with Beckenham Road. Pre- 1810 occupied by the Banyer family, then by Hulbert Wathen and then John Woolley. Cedar trees in the grounds.
Beckenham Cottage Hospital. Founded in 1872 by a group of local people with Peter Hoare of Kelsey Manor for the provision of a building in Middle Barnet Field, with four beds, a Matron and two doctors. At first patients were charged 6d. per day but three years later there were eight beds supported by house to house collections. Peter Hoare died in 1877 and his estate demanded a full rent leading to a full-time collector of funds. In 1887 they bought the freehold and added a new wing. Queen Victoria's Jubilee saw £1,500 raised towards a children's ward and in 1903 a new operating theatre. By 1929 45 beds were available and in 1939 the Trapnell Wing. In the Second World War thousands of outpatients received treatment. Major improvements were completed with the opening of Douglas Lindsey Ward in 1969. In 2010 it is again being rebuilt.
Christ Church Mission Room 1907. Established in Croydon Road, between the Cottage Hospital and Shaftesbury Road
205 Clockhouse pub. Closed
Croydon Road Recreation Ground. Oriental shelter. The fountain from the grounds of Clock House. On land given to the parish in the Middle Ages. Opened in 1889 with no ceremony – but local people thought there should be one and a demo was held so that they then had a treat there for the schoolchildren. Bandstand by Macfarlane Hope of Glasgow
Hayne Road
Woodbrook School: a school for girls and young boys known as Woodbrook ran here. The school closed in 1960 and Beckenham Education Committee demolished the old house built modern school for handicapped children. This closed 2000.
Riverside School opened in September 2007 on this site for special needs children.
Kings Hall Road
Kent House Station. 1st July 1863 between Beckenham Junction and Penge East on South East Trains. London Chatham and Dover Railway. Named after 1778 acre farm to the north on Kent House Road. In 1993 a train carrying an IRA bomb was diverted there where it exploded.
Cyphers Bowling Club, Burned out shell of the is home of Cyphers Cricket Club. Formed over 100 years ago, W G Grace and the actor Trevor Howard played there, as well as accommodating tennis and bowls and cricket. impressive club house dating from 1936 and funded mostly from donations burnt down and closed in 2004.
Old School Close
Churchfields School. Built on parish land given called Grubb Field, also called Bellrope Field because it paid for the bellrope. In 1889 the land was sold to the Beckenham School Board for £900. It was first called Arthur Road School, but later renamed Churchfields School. Now housing.
Sidney Road
Named after Sidney Cottage which was on the Beckenham Road corner. Vicarage for All Saints Church
Railway Line
North of Clockhouse station the line crosses Chaffinch Brook which is very prone to flooding. Ok with steam trains but a big problem once it was electrified. 1966 the stream was culverted.
Sources
Balgowan School. Web site
Connor. Forgotten stations of London
Industrial Archaeology Review
London Borough of Bromley. Web site
Manors of Beckenham
MPP electricity list
Pevsner and Cherry. West Kent
Stewart. History of Croydon
Wagstaffe and Pullen’. Beckenham anthology,
Walk round Beckenham
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