Penge - Beckenham

Post to the west Anerley
Post to the south Birkbeck
Post to the east Beckenham


Arrol Road
Allotments. These are on the site of the Crystal Palace Brickworks, extant in the 1870s

Ash Grove
Houses on the south east side of the road were called Boundary Terrace in the 1870s when this was the Parliamentary Boundary for the Camberwell Constituency.

Avenue Road
3 Cator Masonic hall. Founded 1922
Pool River. The River crosses the road slightly to the north of the Ravenscroft Road junction. It is completely underground but one end of an old bridge exists between nose 68 and 66,
86-90 Aldous and Stamp, water treatment engineers. Plus Aldous Court, housing. In 1910 this was a Fire Station for this part of Beckenham
Avenue Baptist Church. The building was extant in the 1870s shown as a mission hall. The Baptist Church is still extant here.
127-129 Dixon Glass. Dealer in laboratory glass.
Avenue Road tram stop. This opened in 1998 between Beckenham Road and Birkbeck on Croydon Tramlink. The tram here connects central Croydon with Beckenham and the line is built alongside the main line Southern Railway between Beckenham and Crystal Palace.  The tram stop is therefore on a passing loop within the otherwise single track.  There are platforms on each side of the two tracks of the loop and the main line trains pass to the north.

Birkbeck Road
The Birkbeck Estate dates from 1870-1910. The Birkbeck Freehold land Society was so called to commemorate the work of Dr George Birkbeck, physician, philanthropist, and pioneer in adult education, who was co-founder of Birkbeck College, University of London, in 1823.

Carlys Close
On the site of Churchfields School

Churchfields
This was previously called Arthur Road.
Churchfields School. In 1889 the Churchfields Charity sold some of Bellrope Field to Beckenham School Board. The resulting school was called Arthur Road School – later changed to Churchfields. Eventually the children moved out and it became an adult art centre and later demolished and the site developed for housing.
Churchfields Primary School. This was built in 1989 by the allotments and the refuse tip.
St.Augustine’s Court. St.Augustine’s was built as a mission church in 1886 and a church and hall in 1910 and consecrated in 1946. The building has now been converted to housing.
Council Depot. This is now the Bromley Council recycling centre operated by Veolia
Churchfields Recreation Ground. The land belonged to the Churchfields Charity and the condition of sale was that it kept the name. It opened in 1907. In 1900 Beckenham Borough had opened a power station on this site fuelled by rubbish and cooled with water from the Chaffinch Brook.

Croydon Road
Holy Trinity Anglican Church stood on the corner with Anerley Roads and opened in 1872. It was destroyed by wartime bombing and replaced by flats. Services were transferred to nearby Christ Church and later a church hall was built on the site. The site is now housing.
Christ church. This was on the corner with Franklin Road and had been built in the 1880s. When Holy Trinity Church was bombed the church became Christ Church with Holy Trinity. Later it was demolished and replaced by housing for old people. There is a new church in Anerley Road on the corner with Maple Road.
59 Conservative Club. Drinking club with some sports facilities – bowling green, etc.
59-61 Nissan dealer in a multi-story garage and office block that includes a Travelodge.  This was built about 1970 at and opened in 1971.
59-61 Dashwood Engineering Ltd, Empire WorKS.. Agricultural machinery factory. This was extant in the 1950s and made lawnmowers among other items for agriculturalists
101 Robin Hood. Pub which closed in 2002 and now demolished. It dated from the 1860s


Elmers End Road
Dexter Works. Roller Skate factory.  This was here in the 1950s

Franklin Road
Site of Penge UDC Depot before the Great War and their fire engine station
Miracle Mills.  This company made heavy milling and pulverising machinery and moved to Penge in 1972 from Chelsea. In 1986 it was taken over by Christy Turner and moved to Ipswich.
Royston School. This primary school was based here but in the 1980s moved to the Kentmere School site in the High Street/Kent House Road
Royston Field.  Recreation Ground. This is now to the rear of Sainsburys supermarket and is a site for community events including Penge Day.

Garden Road
Penge Green Gym - Winsford Gardens. These were once the gardens of Winsford House and include a rose garden and other features from that time. It has more recently become Penge Green Gym, originally set up by the Friends of Winsford Gardens.  They have installed a children’s playground as well as a wildflower meadows, a ring of seating, a sensory garden, insect and stag beetle hotels and turned a derelict pond into a Bog Garden.

Genoa Road
St Anthony of Padua Roman Catholic Church. This is a church of 1925-27 by F. A. Walters, whose son was the parish priest at the time. It predecessor was built in 1898 is still standing beside it, and had the school and chapel. Originally, after fundraising by Canon Bethell, a small iron church was built on a site near the Maple Road corner in 1878. In the 1890s Fr Miller bought another site and built a two storey school with a chapel on the upper floor. In 1925 work began by James Smith & Sons on another building and this is now the present church.

Hartfield Grove
Although this small close has modern housing, it can be found on maps from the mid 19th.

Hawthorne Grove
The Anchor. This pub dated from before 1866 and was on the corner of Hartfield Grove. It was probably part of the Anerley estate development of 1851. For many years it was an off licence and eventually converted to flats. It does not appear to be there any longer, but a rectangle of grass is railed off on the requisite corner.

High Street
162 Odeon Cinema.  This was built for Odeon Theatres Ltd. and opened in 1937. It was designed by architect Andrew Mather with a glass fronted facade and illuminated glass towers either side of the entrance. It closed in 1976 and became a bingo club which closed in 1990 and the building was demolished in 1994.
164 - 166 The Moon and Stars. This is a purpose built Wetherspoon's pub which opened in 1994.
Penge Congregational Church. This was built in 1912 to designs by P. Morley Harder under its minister, Barson of Penge, and is a landmark on Penge High Street. Barson, from Hackney was “theological liberalism’s South London Congregational standard bearer”.
The Kings Hall Electric Theatre. This opened as a cinema by 1910, in what had been a public hall. It was taken over by the Hyams Brother’s circuit in 1920 and rebuilt by Cecil Masey for them. It had a 1Manual Hill, Norman & Beard pipe organ from 1925. It was taken over by Denman/Gaumont British Theatres in 1929 and re-named Kings Hall.  It was eventually named the Gaumont in 1955, and closed in 1958. It was demolished and the site is now flats and shops.
Pool River. The road crosses Pool River although there is not much sign of it.  It appears to flow under Tesco’s car park and then down a widened side alley to houses. It is the boundary between Penge High Street and Beckenham Road.

Howard Road
Although the road had been laid out by the 1870s a large site on the north side was a brick field. Later laid out with houses it remained residential until after the Second World War.
Londex Electrical Engineering works. The main Londex site was in Anerley, and this Howard Road site was eventually moved to a site in Oakfield Road. Londex of 207 Anerley Road, London. Dating from the early 1960s they made c specialized electrical control equipment; and were taken over by Elliott Automation and then GEX.  In 1974 they designed, and installed a continuous counting machine to monitor printing presses for the Daily Mirror

Kent House Road
Harris Primary Academy. This opened in 2013. The site was that of Beckenham and Penge Grammar School. This had evolved from Beckenham Technical Institute of 1901 and had moved to new buildings here in 1931. In 1969 it moved away and became Langley Park School. Meanwhile what had been Oakfield Road Boys' School moved into the former Grammar School buildings and was renamed Kentwood School. This closed in 1987.  It then became Royston Primary School which had previously been in Croydon Road and this has now become the commercial ‘Harris Academy’. It had also previously been an Adult Education College.

Maple Road
54 Maple Tree.  Has previously been called the William IV and the Crown. It is a privately-owned free house, but normally only serves Wells & Young’s beers.
Button Factory. This was started in 1931 by Italian Mr Belometti and Mr Speroni using buildings which had been a van delivery business.  They brought ten Italians to teach workers here. In the Second World War the founders were interned and later died. There was a fire in the derelict buildings in 1969. There is now housing on the site.
61 Golden Lion.  The Golden Lion was the badge of the Lion of Flanders. The pub dates from the 1870
101 Pizza restaurant with picture of pizza man over the door. This was previously the Lord Palmerston pub

Melvin Road
Melvin Hall. This was a hall for to Holy Trinity C hurch. When the church was destroyed the hall was bought by Penge Council. It became a centre which provided a hot meal and a meals on wheels service as well as social contacts for elderly people and others. In 2016 Bromley Council said it was surplus to requirements so and residents applied for it to be an Asset of Community Value. It re-opened as a Community Hall later that year.
Melvin Road National School. Dated from 1870. It later became Penge Secondary School for Girls.

Oak Grove Road
Depot for the South Metropolitan Electric Tramways behind the houses in the area now called Tramway Close. Built in 1906 and closed 1936.  It could house 15 vehicles. Tram tracks still in road surface and buildings were still extant in the 1980s

Pool River
The Stream, also known as the River Wilmore or the Shire Ditch, marked the boundary not only between Beckenham and Penge, but also between Kent and Surrey or London, whichever county Penge was in at the time. Its source is believed to be in South Norwood Lake. The stream winds across this area, largely underground and crossing roads unseen

Ravenscroft Road
St.Michael & All Angels. Neo-Byzantine ‘of all things’. 1955-6. by W. H. Hobday & F. J. Maynard. St.Michael and All Angels begun in 1899, but it was not opened until 1906. After being destroyed by a Second World War fire a new church was built facing Ravenscroft Road, and was consecrated in 1956.

Royston Road
85 The Royston Halls. Penge and District Trade Union and Social Club – club with Ballroom and other facilities.
Frank and Peggy Spencer. This was the home of the ballroom dancing school of Frank and Peggy Spencer. They ran this for many years and Peggy was also a regular TV dance commentator as well as a leading coach for competitive Latin dancers, and was influential in both Ballroom and Latin American work. For 40 years, her teams appeared in the Come Dancing TV programme,

Snowdown Close
The Hub. This building was a Citizens Advice Bureau and later used as a community hall operated by Christ Church.


Sources
Beckenham Anthology
Binfield. East Midlands Call
Cator Masonic Lodge. Facebook Page
Closed Pubs. Web site
Bygone Kent 
Field. London Place Names 
Ideal Homes. Web site
Inman and Tonkin. Beckenham.
Kent County Council. History of Kent County Council
London Borough of Bromley. Web site
Melvin Hall. Web site
National Archives. Web site
Penge Green Gym. Web site
Penge SE20. Web site
Pevsner and Cherry. South London
Pevsner. West Kent 
Pub History. Web site
South East London Industrial Archaeology
St.Anthony of Padua. Web site
Thorne. Old and New South London
Virtual Norwood. Web site
Wikipedia as appropriate