Thames Tributary stream flowing to the Ravensbourne – Bromley Common
Thames Tributary Ravensbourne – stream which meanders to join it.
TQ 42260 66496
Residential area around the long road out of Bromley across what was once a common, and the road was the A21.
Post to the west Bromley Common
Post to the east Crofton Heath
Barham Close
Named after Barham House which was in this area on Hastings Road,
Brewery Road
Princes Plain - was called Princes Plain.
Dog Kennel Alley. After the brewery was built in the early 1880s, the four oldest cottages were up a side alley, which became known as this. Probably built as charitable housing by the Trustees of Bromley College
Steam Brewery 1880s. Four storeys with a chimney. Owned by Jones, who lived in Pembury House. Brewing stopped in about 1905 and the building became a laundry and then a film processing factory. Unfortunately, the film caught fire.
Pembury House. Home of Jones the brewery owner
Bromley Common
Bus Garage. A Tillings garage with the code of 'TB' for 'Tillings Bromley'. Opened in 1924 by Thomas Tilling the garage, it was taken over by London Transport on its formation in 1933. Now operated by Stage-coach, it remains an important local depot
Holy Trinity. Flint, especially black on the tower 1842. Designed by Thomas Hopper Windows with sandstone surrounds and wooden tracery. In 1884 C. Pemberton Leach replaced much of the tracery with designs in Bath stone, changing from a local to a non-local stone.
Churchyard. War memorial in Portland stone and with a cross in the centre of the churchyard, an unusual design. Two weathered stone wings support the shaft and carry the names of the fallen from both world wars. The graveyard also contains several War Graves Commission headstones Monument to George Norman 1855. Signed T. Gaffin. Mourning soldier either side of a gravestone. Grave of statistician William Farr
Bromley Common Village Hall
Garden Gate Pub. Now a Macdonalds. Next to the bus depot
Bromley Golf Club
In 1929 this was Cooper's Farm House. It had been the Bromley Race Course in 1864.
Cottage Road
Most of the houses predate 1910
Vanbrugh Housing group of co-operative houses built in the late 1960s. Previously, an orchard.
Daerwood Close
Taken from the names of the developers who built the road in the 1930s -Messrs Dear and Cristwood
Lower Gravel Road
Once called Woods Road
New Era Laundry. This was Woods Laundry. Mr Wood was also a coal merchant
Richmal Crompton Fields, formerly known as Scrubs Farm. Medium-sized Country Park with a children’s play area and open countryside walks. Richmal Crompton who wrote the Just William books lived locally.
Hastings Road
Built after the enclosure of Bromley Common in 1821. Called Turnpike Road and built and maintained by ‘The New Cross Turnpike Trust.’
Oakley Farm. In the 1930s it was a farm used by the Peckham Health Centre and then taken over by RAF.
Jackson Road
This led to a hamlet called Skim Corner. Mr Jackson owned the general shop and post office on the corner of Hastings Road.
Iron plaque at the corner of Bradford Close let into the footpath.
Says that in 1865 the land belonged to the parish of St Mary Aldermanbury in the City of London. It also bears the names of the two churchwardens of that period.
Lennard Road
The corner of the common, and once called ‘Shim Corner’. In 1929 there were some very old cottages there. In the 1820 this was called Clay Road and it became Lennard Road in 1935 although locally, it was known as Hospital Road because it led to the Bromley and Beckenham Joint Hospital for infectious diseases
Clay Farm, south of the road, was sold in 1985 and developed for housing
Lennard Hospital for infectious diseases. This isolation hospital became an old persons unit and was then demolished 1984 and replaced by housing. It opened in 1885 as the Bromley and Beckenham Hospital for Infectious Diseases. It was enlarged during the 1920s and a building was erected to cater for the whole of west Kent. After the Second World War it was renamed ‘Lennard ‘from Sir John Lennard, former chairman of the Board of Guardians, and was converted into a geriatric hospital.
Magpie Hall Lane
Astley Adult Training Centre 1971, by the borough architect Aneurin John. Red brickwork.
Bishops Justus Church of England School
Oakley Road
Westerham Turnpike Road. Before the enclosure of Bromley Common in 1821, it ran much closer to Oakley House,
Pond on the corner with Hastings Road – a stream from here joins others near Oakley House and meanders towards the Ravensbourne.
Prince's Plain
Marshy ground. This road was built after the enclosure of Bromley Common in 1821. Originally known as Rushey Road, because of the rushes growing in the drain by the side of the road. It was renamed Prince’s Plain in the 1920s. The name comes from a nearby field. In 1812 when it was made into a cricket pitch and it was said to be named after the future George IV or it was called after Frederick, son of George II, who attended race meetings at Turpington Farm in the 18th.
Prince’s Plain School
Turpingtons Lane
Was called Slough Lane
Slough farm
Sources
Bromley Golf Club. Web site
Glazier. London Transport Garages
Holy Trinity. Web site
GLIAS Newsletter
London Borough of Bromley. Web site
Lost Hospitals of London. Web site
Pevsner and Cherry. South London
TQ 42260 66496
Residential area around the long road out of Bromley across what was once a common, and the road was the A21.
Post to the west Bromley Common
Post to the east Crofton Heath
Barham Close
Named after Barham House which was in this area on Hastings Road,
Brewery Road
Princes Plain - was called Princes Plain.
Dog Kennel Alley. After the brewery was built in the early 1880s, the four oldest cottages were up a side alley, which became known as this. Probably built as charitable housing by the Trustees of Bromley College
Steam Brewery 1880s. Four storeys with a chimney. Owned by Jones, who lived in Pembury House. Brewing stopped in about 1905 and the building became a laundry and then a film processing factory. Unfortunately, the film caught fire.
Pembury House. Home of Jones the brewery owner
Bromley Common
Bus Garage. A Tillings garage with the code of 'TB' for 'Tillings Bromley'. Opened in 1924 by Thomas Tilling the garage, it was taken over by London Transport on its formation in 1933. Now operated by Stage-coach, it remains an important local depot
Holy Trinity. Flint, especially black on the tower 1842. Designed by Thomas Hopper Windows with sandstone surrounds and wooden tracery. In 1884 C. Pemberton Leach replaced much of the tracery with designs in Bath stone, changing from a local to a non-local stone.
Churchyard. War memorial in Portland stone and with a cross in the centre of the churchyard, an unusual design. Two weathered stone wings support the shaft and carry the names of the fallen from both world wars. The graveyard also contains several War Graves Commission headstones Monument to George Norman 1855. Signed T. Gaffin. Mourning soldier either side of a gravestone. Grave of statistician William Farr
Bromley Common Village Hall
Garden Gate Pub. Now a Macdonalds. Next to the bus depot
Bromley Golf Club
In 1929 this was Cooper's Farm House. It had been the Bromley Race Course in 1864.
Cottage Road
Most of the houses predate 1910
Vanbrugh Housing group of co-operative houses built in the late 1960s. Previously, an orchard.
Daerwood Close
Taken from the names of the developers who built the road in the 1930s -Messrs Dear and Cristwood
Lower Gravel Road
Once called Woods Road
New Era Laundry. This was Woods Laundry. Mr Wood was also a coal merchant
Richmal Crompton Fields, formerly known as Scrubs Farm. Medium-sized Country Park with a children’s play area and open countryside walks. Richmal Crompton who wrote the Just William books lived locally.
Hastings Road
Built after the enclosure of Bromley Common in 1821. Called Turnpike Road and built and maintained by ‘The New Cross Turnpike Trust.’
Oakley Farm. In the 1930s it was a farm used by the Peckham Health Centre and then taken over by RAF.
Jackson Road
This led to a hamlet called Skim Corner. Mr Jackson owned the general shop and post office on the corner of Hastings Road.
Iron plaque at the corner of Bradford Close let into the footpath.
Says that in 1865 the land belonged to the parish of St Mary Aldermanbury in the City of London. It also bears the names of the two churchwardens of that period.
Lennard Road
The corner of the common, and once called ‘Shim Corner’. In 1929 there were some very old cottages there. In the 1820 this was called Clay Road and it became Lennard Road in 1935 although locally, it was known as Hospital Road because it led to the Bromley and Beckenham Joint Hospital for infectious diseases
Clay Farm, south of the road, was sold in 1985 and developed for housing
Lennard Hospital for infectious diseases. This isolation hospital became an old persons unit and was then demolished 1984 and replaced by housing. It opened in 1885 as the Bromley and Beckenham Hospital for Infectious Diseases. It was enlarged during the 1920s and a building was erected to cater for the whole of west Kent. After the Second World War it was renamed ‘Lennard ‘from Sir John Lennard, former chairman of the Board of Guardians, and was converted into a geriatric hospital.
Magpie Hall Lane
Astley Adult Training Centre 1971, by the borough architect Aneurin John. Red brickwork.
Bishops Justus Church of England School
Oakley Road
Westerham Turnpike Road. Before the enclosure of Bromley Common in 1821, it ran much closer to Oakley House,
Pond on the corner with Hastings Road – a stream from here joins others near Oakley House and meanders towards the Ravensbourne.
Prince's Plain
Marshy ground. This road was built after the enclosure of Bromley Common in 1821. Originally known as Rushey Road, because of the rushes growing in the drain by the side of the road. It was renamed Prince’s Plain in the 1920s. The name comes from a nearby field. In 1812 when it was made into a cricket pitch and it was said to be named after the future George IV or it was called after Frederick, son of George II, who attended race meetings at Turpington Farm in the 18th.
Prince’s Plain School
Turpingtons Lane
Was called Slough Lane
Slough farm
Sources
Bromley Golf Club. Web site
Glazier. London Transport Garages
Holy Trinity. Web site
GLIAS Newsletter
London Borough of Bromley. Web site
Lost Hospitals of London. Web site
Pevsner and Cherry. South London
Comments
During WW1 it was used as a 50 bed hospital complete with an operating theatre and an X-ray Department. Between the wars it was used to provide fresh vegetables and milk to the Pioneer Health Centre in Peckham. During WW2 it was requisitioned by the Royal Navy and used as an Orthopaedic Rehabilitation Centre