Thames Tributary Ravensbourne - Quaggy - Petts Wood

Thames Tributary Ravensbourne
The two branches of the Kyd Brook/Quaggy meet and thread through the Petts Wood streets flowing northward.

Post to the north Petts Wood
Post to the south Crofton

Beaumont Road
Davis built ‘modern’ houses

Crescent Drive
The houses here and in surrounding streets by the Morrell brothers as ‘Morrell Garden Estate’.

Crossway
Before development this was an area of watercress beds
The Kyd Brook runs parallel to the road to the east

Eastbury Road
Davis built ‘modern’ houses

Fairway
Building by speculative builders Reed and Hoad

Fieldway
Davis built ‘modern’ houses, with some ‘suntrap’ houses
1 Davis house sold from the Ideal Home Exhibition in 1935.

Kenilworth Road
Town Court Farm stood between here and Queensway. This was probably the moated site of the Town Court Manor. Latterly it had seven bedrooms and a lawn sloping to a large lake at the rear.

Kingsway
Building by speculative builders Reed and Hoad

Lakeswood Road
Lakeswood Hall began as a Methodist church

Petts Wood
Mainly 1930s residential area named from wood-land still known as Petts Wood and marked thus on the Ordnance Survey map of 1876, from the shipbuilding family called Pett

Priory Avenue
Building by speculative builders Reed and Hoad

Queensway
Gardens on the west side of the road show signs of the old flint lane going to Town Court Farm. Shops began to be built in the road, under developer Scruby, 1933
109-11 Sovereign of the Seas. Wetherspoon’s pub named for one of the Pett family’s vessels. Local history display round the walls.
Embassy Cinema. Shipman and king 1936 opening with Ronald Coleman in a Tale of Two Cities. Closed 1973 and demolished.
Methodist Church opened in 1961

Station Square
Neo Tudor set piece. Basil Scruby and Leonard Culliford. Completed 1930. It is a trapezium, an architectural paradox. Building began in 1928 on the north east side.
Petts Wood Station. 9th July 1928. Between Orpington and Bickley and also Chiselhurst. On SER new main line, 12 1/2 miles added in July 1928 In February 1928 an agreement had been made between the railway and developer, Basil Scruby. He provided the land for the station and goods yard, contributed money and bought shares. Originally it was very basic lit by oil lamps and known as ‘paraffin junction’. There was a bridge over the railway, and you had to buy a platform ticket. In 1932 there were extensions, a second platform and waiting rooms, toilets, etc. Hut where gum boots and mackintoshes could be left. It was also considered calling it Crofton Halt.
Goods yard. Opened in 1928 and used by Herbert the coal merchant.
Daylight Inn. Tudor style pub. Opened following some objections in 1935. Large ballroom which was used as a sort of community centre. Also had 13 hotel bedrooms. Architect Sydney Clarke.
Dunstonian Garage. Opened on Armistice Day 1930 by 19 year old Jack Kemsley and naming it after his school. Pump and so on all under a canopy and he sold Rileys and then Rootes Group. Became a bit of a social centre and a fire station in the Second World War.
Petts Wood estate office in another half timbered building in the centre of the square. 1928.

St.John’s Road
Beaumont Road corner - before building meadows were so wet that cows would be up to the tops of their legs in water.

Town Court Crescent
Houses built by developer Scruby’s own company Petts Wood Building Company also building by speculative builders Reed and Hoad

Town Court Estate
Town Court manor was owned by Lesnes Abbey and covered the area between the railway and the Kyd Brook as well as other land further west. Later it was owned by the Walsinghams.

Tudor Way
Before buildings were here the area to the west of the road was very marshy. Davis built ‘modern’ houses on the east side of the road.
Petts Wood Free Church built 1954 and called Congregational church
Willett Way
St.Francis. 1934. By Geoffrey Mullins of Chistlehurst. Brick. Fashionably jagged treatment of the windows. – Stained glass by James Hogan, 1946.

Woodland Way
Garden of Remembrance. Dedicated 1950
Memorial Hall opened 1954 with a stage and other facilities.
Building by speculative builders Reed and Hoad

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