Thames Tributary Ravensbourne - The Pool River - New Beckenham
Thames Tributary Ravensbourne
The streams making up the Pool/Beck stream, the Chaffinch Brook and the Beck River meet in Cator Park and continue to flow northwards as the Pool River.
Post to the north Bell Green
Post to the south Beckenham
Beckett Walk
Housing on the site of Kent House. Kent House was owned by a series of City merchants including John Styles who dealt in wool in London and Calais in the 15th. Anthony Rawlins who gave money for the Beckenham almshouses also lived there. It was bought by Russian Banker Angerstein in 1784 and was used as a farm after 1806 with grazing rights on Penge Common. In the late 19th is became a nursing home and then a hotel and was demolished in 1957.
Brackley Road
Name of a former field of Copers Cope Farm
St.Paul’s Church. In 1863 the foundation stone was laid for a church on the estate developed by Albemarle Cator. It was enlarged in 1868. One of the last alterations was the building of the William Hill organ in 1891. After the First World War a War Memorial Chapel was installed. In 1940 a land mine did a large amount of damage and in 1942 incendiary bombs came through the roof. A dent made by one can still be seen in the North Aisle. The church was rebuilt in 1949.
Bridge Road
Built as part of the rebuild of New Beckenham station at the insistence of posh locals and the Cator Estate. It connected the two halves of the estate.
New Beckenham Station was on the north side 1864-1868. It had four platforms for the through line to Beckenham Curve and from Beckenham Junction to Addiscombe. It did very badly and was closed. The station was abandoned and the station master’s house became a private house which was demolished 2003.
Cator Estate
Developed in the 1860s. Laid out by the Cators with wide posh roads and articulate residents. More recently there have been Span developments.
Cator Park
Commemorates John Cator, a local benefactor who built Beckenham Place in 1773. It was originally a garden for Cator Estate residents, the Kent House Pleasure Gardens and it became a public-access park in the 1930's.
Pool River – the Beck River meets the Pool here and the Chaffinch Brook rising in Shirley also flows into Pool River here.
Chaffinch's River in 1827, apparently a late name from the surname ‘Chaffinch’.
Copers Cope Road
This was the name of a large farm with a farmhouse on Southend Lane. This farm was of 250 acres and was bought by the Cators in 1813 and developed in the 1860s as New Beckenham.
Fitness First sports ground
Kent House
Border territory and named after what was the first house in Kent. First noted in the 12th when it was leased to Hospital of St.Katharine by the Tower.
King's Hall Road
16 plaque to Frank Bourne colour sergeant at Rorke’s Drift
Lawn Road
Name of a former field of Copers Cope Farm
Lennard Road
HSBC sports ground, which was the Midland Bank sports ground. Shortly after midday, 1st January 1945 the ground was hit, by a V2 severely damaging the pavilion, slightly damaging New Beckenham station, and injuring 14 people.
Cater Park School Sports and Conference Centre
New Beckenham Station. 1st April 1864. Between Lower Sydenham and Beckenham Junction or Clock House on the line from Lewisham to Hayes of South East Trains. Opened by the Mid-Kent Railway and subsidised by the Cator Estate. Initially the station was north of Bridge Road but was resited. In 1868 to north of the junction of the line to Beckenham Junction on the corner of Lennard Road. Line from Lewisham 1857 and through from Beckenham Junction line to Addiscombe 1864. The new site allowed the station to serve two lines. In 1877 the first Congregational services in Beckenham were started by a group of people in an iron room here. It was rebuilt again following complaints from posh locals in 1904 as a big brick station with lots of platform canopies. It was set alight by vandals in 1966 and it was rebuilt again.
Signal box built in the 1904 rebuild of the station.
Cator Park Secondary School. This had been Beckenham County Grammar School for Girls. Before the school was ready for use, the First World War meant it was requisitioned and used a hospital. In 1919 it was opened as a school. It was extended in 1927, but in 1959 it moved away. Balgowan Girls' then moved to these buildings and it was renamed Cator Park School for Girls.
Level Crossing here which was seen as dangerous and something posh Victorian locals complained about. Replaced by a tiled subway.
Park Road
Name of a former field of Copers Cope Farm
Minshull Court. Minshull House School opened in Park Road in 1868 and took both day girls and boarders for 97 years, until it closed in 1965. The flats known as Minshull Court stand on its site.
The streams making up the Pool/Beck stream, the Chaffinch Brook and the Beck River meet in Cator Park and continue to flow northwards as the Pool River.
Post to the north Bell Green
Post to the south Beckenham
Beckett Walk
Housing on the site of Kent House. Kent House was owned by a series of City merchants including John Styles who dealt in wool in London and Calais in the 15th. Anthony Rawlins who gave money for the Beckenham almshouses also lived there. It was bought by Russian Banker Angerstein in 1784 and was used as a farm after 1806 with grazing rights on Penge Common. In the late 19th is became a nursing home and then a hotel and was demolished in 1957.
Brackley Road
Name of a former field of Copers Cope Farm
St.Paul’s Church. In 1863 the foundation stone was laid for a church on the estate developed by Albemarle Cator. It was enlarged in 1868. One of the last alterations was the building of the William Hill organ in 1891. After the First World War a War Memorial Chapel was installed. In 1940 a land mine did a large amount of damage and in 1942 incendiary bombs came through the roof. A dent made by one can still be seen in the North Aisle. The church was rebuilt in 1949.
Bridge Road
Built as part of the rebuild of New Beckenham station at the insistence of posh locals and the Cator Estate. It connected the two halves of the estate.
New Beckenham Station was on the north side 1864-1868. It had four platforms for the through line to Beckenham Curve and from Beckenham Junction to Addiscombe. It did very badly and was closed. The station was abandoned and the station master’s house became a private house which was demolished 2003.
Cator Estate
Developed in the 1860s. Laid out by the Cators with wide posh roads and articulate residents. More recently there have been Span developments.
Cator Park
Commemorates John Cator, a local benefactor who built Beckenham Place in 1773. It was originally a garden for Cator Estate residents, the Kent House Pleasure Gardens and it became a public-access park in the 1930's.
Pool River – the Beck River meets the Pool here and the Chaffinch Brook rising in Shirley also flows into Pool River here.
Chaffinch's River in 1827, apparently a late name from the surname ‘Chaffinch’.
Copers Cope Road
This was the name of a large farm with a farmhouse on Southend Lane. This farm was of 250 acres and was bought by the Cators in 1813 and developed in the 1860s as New Beckenham.
Fitness First sports ground
Kent House
Border territory and named after what was the first house in Kent. First noted in the 12th when it was leased to Hospital of St.Katharine by the Tower.
King's Hall Road
16 plaque to Frank Bourne colour sergeant at Rorke’s Drift
Lawn Road
Name of a former field of Copers Cope Farm
Lennard Road
HSBC sports ground, which was the Midland Bank sports ground. Shortly after midday, 1st January 1945 the ground was hit, by a V2 severely damaging the pavilion, slightly damaging New Beckenham station, and injuring 14 people.
Cater Park School Sports and Conference Centre
New Beckenham Station. 1st April 1864. Between Lower Sydenham and Beckenham Junction or Clock House on the line from Lewisham to Hayes of South East Trains. Opened by the Mid-Kent Railway and subsidised by the Cator Estate. Initially the station was north of Bridge Road but was resited. In 1868 to north of the junction of the line to Beckenham Junction on the corner of Lennard Road. Line from Lewisham 1857 and through from Beckenham Junction line to Addiscombe 1864. The new site allowed the station to serve two lines. In 1877 the first Congregational services in Beckenham were started by a group of people in an iron room here. It was rebuilt again following complaints from posh locals in 1904 as a big brick station with lots of platform canopies. It was set alight by vandals in 1966 and it was rebuilt again.
Signal box built in the 1904 rebuild of the station.
Cator Park Secondary School. This had been Beckenham County Grammar School for Girls. Before the school was ready for use, the First World War meant it was requisitioned and used a hospital. In 1919 it was opened as a school. It was extended in 1927, but in 1959 it moved away. Balgowan Girls' then moved to these buildings and it was renamed Cator Park School for Girls.
Level Crossing here which was seen as dangerous and something posh Victorian locals complained about. Replaced by a tiled subway.
Park Road
Name of a former field of Copers Cope Farm
Minshull Court. Minshull House School opened in Park Road in 1868 and took both day girls and boarders for 97 years, until it closed in 1965. The flats known as Minshull Court stand on its site.
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