Brockley

Post to the north New Cross
Post to the east Lewisham
Post to the south Crofton Park


Adelaide Avenue
Much of this area was built up in the early 20th century by Bridge House estates.
St Margaret’s Square this area of green space stands in front of houses as an amenity area

Arica Road
Playground next to Macmillan House with murals alongside

Ashby Mews
Graham Platna Co. Ltd, Ashby Works. Electro Plating. There are now flats on this site. Ashby Works was extant in the 1950s.

Beverley Court
In 1189 the  manor of Brockley was given to a Premonstratensian Abbey the buildings of which were sited here. In  1205 they moved to Bayham Abbey but kept the Brockley holdings until 1526. The foundations of some of the buildings here were discovered during 19th buildings at Manor Farm in
Wickham Road.

Brockley Cross
This road junction appears to run from the junction of Geoffrey Road sand Upper Brockley and to the junction with Coulgate Streets.  In the middle ages it was an unnamed meeting place of three roads. One first ran from here to Deptford. Another was on the line of Brockley Road and ran south. The other had come from Telegraph Hill and went on to Nunhead.  The area was known as Deptford Common from around 1800 and a stream from here flowed roughly along the line of Malpas Road to join the Ravensbourne near Deptford Bridge.
The Croydon Canal is said to have altered the road layout when it was built, so that the towpath became a section of the road.  Canal right through it and seems to have been the towpath for a while. The bridge over the railway is on a site south of its predecessor over the canal, this was immediately south of the lock cottage but there was no road to the west.
11 This was a railway building contemporary with Brockley Lane station. It is said to be the station master's house.

Brockley Road
Brockley Lane Station.  This was on the line built between Nunhead and Blackheath Hill and Greenwich Park. The London Chatham and Dover Railway opened the line late in 1871, with this station in 1872 sited on the embankment above Brockley Cross on the bridge which crosses the line running north from Brockley Station.   From Nunhead, the line branch rose for a short distance, and then fell to the station at Brockley Lane. The platforms were wood, apart from short brick sections on the bridge over the road.  The track level buildings were also of wood and were at the London end.  There were waiting rooms were on both platforms and an office for the Station Master on the down side, and a porter's room on the up.  The line closed for lack of custom in 1917.  The line remained open for freight west of this station and the area to the east used to store carriages. It reopened to Lewisham in 1929 but this station has never reopened.  It was finally demolished in 1982.
28a Brockley Lane Station Entrance. There was a street level entrance entrance on the down side, west of Brockley Road. This now consists of a modern metal gate reached via three stairs and brick piers where the entrance was. It was closed in Great War and never reopened.  A path led into a subway, from which stairs went up to wooden platforms. A building here was demolished after a fire in 2004.  A subway ran under the line from here and is still there.
Brockley Lane signal box. This was east of where the tracks serving the two freight establishments diverged. It closed in 1973.
163 St.Andrew's United Reform Church. This was formerly a Presbyterian church built in 1882 by McKissack & W. G. Rowan of Glasgow.
180 Sainsbury’s and associated flats. This is on site of Brockley Motors which was once the site of Ritz Cinema
Ritz Cinema. This was originally the Brockley Picture Theatre opened in 1913. It was re-named Palladium Cinema in 1915. In 1929 the name changes again to Giralda Cinema and in 1936 when it was closed for renovation. It re-opened as the New Palladium Cinema and in it was re-named Ritz Cinema. It closed in 1956 and was demolished in 1960.
184 Brockley Barge. Wetherspoons' pub which used to be called the Breakspears Arms.  Probably dates from the 1880s.
201 Brockley Sorting Office. In the public area is a plaque “In memory of Sean McGill died 30. 10. 92 aged 22.  He died in a road accident. The office is on the site of the 19th Methodist Church which fronted onto Harefield Road,
240 Brockley Social Club. This opened in 1913.
315 shops on what was a vacant space entering a tennis ground, later the Roundel club
347 Brockley Cemetery Lodge. This is the altered original lodge. It is a, L-plan house with medieval-style touches, built in Kentish rag stone. There is an adjacent cedar tree, Built 1858
Brockley Cemetery Gothic gate piers. The cemetery opened in 1858 for the Deptford Burial Board.
294-296 Brockley Road Co-op. This was St Cyprian’s church. This was built as a mission church called either as St Mary's Chapel or ‘St Cyprian Mission Hall’.  St Cyprian's church itself which stood on Adelaide Road and was bombed in the Second World War and services reverted to the mission. It was sold in 1968 to the Roman Catholic Church and used s a hall and community centre by the Catholics. They planned to build a new church here but this was not done. In 1981 they built a new hall behind which was sold in 2009. The church has now been rebuilt behind the original frontage to form a shop.

Brockley Tips
This appears to be the area north of Endwell Road and alongside the railway to the east. This may have been an area where spoil from the canal was dumped.
Brick Field, this was owned by W. V.Nichols in the 1880s/

Chelwood Walk
Chelwood Nursery School. This was originally Honor Oak Nursery School which opened in early 1939, being renamed Chelwood after the war.

Coulgate Street
The southern section was once called Railway Approach, The road was once part of Brockley Lane
Croydon Canal.   The canal was roughly on the line of the railway which bought it out and replaced it.  It is thought that the grassed area in the bend of the road is on the line of the canal. A lock was sited here by the end of the grassy embankment near the footbridge on the west side of the street. When the railway was built spoil was dumped into the old canal and the embankment is thought to be the remains of this.
1, 2, 3 labourers’ cottages built in 1833. It is thought that these may have fronted the canal – they are only one room deep.
Flats on the site of the Post Office Sorting office.  This had a plaque on it for ER VII 1901 and included two halls and offices. The date was also on the rain water heads.  Some parts of the wall and entrance piers remain. Postmen’s office
Brockley Station.  This lies between Honor Oak Park and New Cross Gate stations on Southern Rail. Trains run here from London Bridge and go to Caterham, Guildford and Dorking and also on the loop to Victoria.  Since 2010 it is part of by London Overground for trains running between Highbury and Islington and West Croydon, The line was built by the London and Croydon Railway which opened in 1839 on the line of the Croydon Canal. This station was added and opened in 1871 - it is said that the station opened then to beat the opening of Brockley Lane Station which is on a line above the station which crosses it. Originally there was a two storey gabled station building on the up side and another single storey red-brick building on the down side. This was replaced by a system-built CLASP station which is a two storey flat roofed utilitarian structure composed of concrete panels.
Footbridge. Iron lattice girder bridge which goes across the railway built in 1904
Mural. The 4-paneled mural is called “The Wall” and was created by Louis Henry for the 2004 Brockley Max festival. It originally showed scenes of historic Brockley but has been damaged since.  Other murals have been added and alternations have been made for subsequent Max Festivals.

Cranfield Road
St Peter's Church Hall.  Opened in 1879 and originally provided Bible study for domestic servants, space for an Orchestral Society and the Microscopical Society. It also included a Book Club. It is now an Indian church.
St Gregorios Indian Orthodox Church This is what was St Peter’s Church hall. The church is also called the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church, founded by St. Thomas, one of the twelve apostles who went to India in A.D. 52. St. Gregorios Church is the first such parish church in the United Kingdom and is the mother church of all others there.

Dalrymple Road
Footbridge over the railway. There was no bridge here for the canal and this is a 1830s bridge widened. It was replaced in the early 1990s/
Railway. Under the bridge the Catford Loop line crosses the main line. The loop runs between Brixton and Shortlands and carries trains to Sevenoaks.

Dragonfly Yard
This was Martin’s yard. Martins were dairymen based in Endwell Road

Drakefell Road
This stretch of the road was once called Penmartin Road.
Brockley Cross Business Centre. Once the side of a siding to the coal depot, Martins Sidings. This was entered from Mantle Road.
Endwell Works. Harefield, manufacturing chemists. Pre 1970

Endwell Road
100-106 Tea Factory. Flats in what was Bridge house. This is said to have been in the late 1940’s and later extended by the London Tea and Coffee Company whose original warehouse had been destroyed in the Second World War.  It appears to have been occupied by the Economy Tea Co. which dated from 1934. It was used for blending and packing tea.  The original brick building has been extended with a tower and roof addition.
111 Tele Nova moved here in the 1960s producing specialist radio and telecoms items. In the 1980s they became part of ASCOM and have since moved away.
115 Howarth Timber
115 Co-op bakery. Royal Arsenal Co-operative Society. This is now Howarth Timber.
J. W. Pindar factory. They were druggists’ engineers. In 191l the made a pill cutting machine for Beechams in the US.  Later they made suppositories etc
Rail Bridge
Brockley Cross Business Centre. This is also accessed via Drakefell Road.
Launderette and dry cleaners with signage. David Bowie is said to have made a film here. It has been suggested that the building was constructed for Martin’s Dairy.

Foxberry Road
Mural –this is of Bob Marley, created by Dale Grimshaw for the Brockley Max.
76-78 Elim Pentecostal Church- this was St.George’s Church built in 1893 by Balham Brothers to the designs of Gilbee Scott as a daughter church of St James, Hatcham. It was never consecrated.  It has red facing bricks with additions in London stocks. There is an open trussed timber roof. There was no bell. It was sold in 2003 to the Pentecostal church. To the south was a church hall built in 1887 and said to be on the site of a forge.
84 Greens of Brockley. Kneller Iron Works also listed in Kneller Road. The site is now new housing.
Mission Hall. This stood adjacent to the Kneller Iron Works before the Second Wold War.

Geoffrey Road
The eastern end of the road was once St.Peter’s Road
The Old Stables. This was the site of Little Brockley Farm

Harefield Mews
This has its original granite sett surface
Cranfield Works. In 1893 this was Photophane Company, Photo-Mechanical Art Printers. They remained there until at least 1920.

Harefield Road
Wesleyan Methodist Chapel built in 1876. This was later replaced by the sorting office building.

Howson Road
4 Brockley Police Station. Now closed and sold off and converted to flats. It was built in 1881-3 to the designs of John Butler Surveyor to the Metropolitan Police. The building has a main entrance on Howson Road and a return frontage on Kneller Road with a large yard area to the rear. When closed it still had its original layout with reception, waiting room, charge room and offices on the ground floor, a canteen in the Kneller Road wing and the cells in the opposite wing, with the sergeant’s family quarters upstairs. There was a drill yard to the west.
St. Mary Magdalene Church.   This began as a mission in 1905. The  church  was  built  by  the  diocesan  builder Mr  Romain  to designs in the Roman style by the architect Young Bolton, It opened in 1899. It is in brick and the front has a Celtic cross and a circular window in the centre. There is a niche with a statue of St Mary Magdalene.  In 1906 the Augustinians of the Assumption were put in charge of the church and remained until 1997. In 1917 a Calvary was unveiled as a War Memorial was designed by Joseph Dutton and is on the street corner. In 1920 it became an independent parish. In 1940 much of the church was destroyed in bombing along with the presbytery. It was restored by 1950. In 1997 the Assumptionist Fathers left, and the parish was placed under the care of the Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity.
St. Mary Magdalene Catholic Primary School. This was built at the same time as the church.

Ivy Road
This is an ancient right of way and one of the oldest thoroughfares in Lewisham. It now runs alongside the cemetery wall.
Cemetery wall – in the wall is the rear of a chimney, thought to be for cremations.

Kneller Road
Kneller Iron Works. This firm was present from at least 1916 and seems to have still been extant in the 1970s when they were making hospital and care home trolleys and equipment. Galvanized mild steel and steel sections. Owned by Henry Green. A long wall with alcoves must have been the boundary to their site.
Brockley Police Station. Rear entrance for vehicles and boundary formed by a high brick wall.

Cemetery
Cemetery. This square covers a portion of the northern area of Deptford Cemetery and Ladywell Cemetery. The two Cemeteries were opened within one month of each other in 1858 and are sited on adjacent plots of previously open land. The area is shown in 1745 as 'Brockley Wood.  In the 19th it was owned by the Earl of Dartmouth and called 'Great Field', previously Strodes or Shrouds or Northfield.  They were common fields or Lammas Lands. They are owned and managed by Lewisham Council and are important wildlife sites. Until 1948 they were completely separate, divided by a wall but were merged in 1965, and the wall was replaced by a grassed ridge planted with a line of trees.

Malpas Road
247-243a Land  from the lock cottage stretches into what became Malpas Road and is marked by the four houses of 247-243A .. When Malpas Road was built in the 1890’s a gap was left here

Mantle Road
Railway Bridge crossing a deep underpass
Maypole Court. This was the Maypole Inn dating from the 1880s and closed in 2014.
Martin’s Siding. This was on the north side of the Brockley Lane Station. A goods line was opened in 1885 for 36 wagons and leased to London North West Railway which sub let to coal merchant Charrington Warren Ltd.   The entrance was in Mantle Road. , Martins were dairymen based in 4 Endwell Road. Closed in 1970
Great Northern Railway coal depot. This was by the up side of Brockley Lane Station for 40 wagons and serviced coal trains from Farringdon Street and Loughborough Junction. Closed in 1970.
Brockley station had an entrance here.

Revelon Road
Drumbeat School. Drumbeat is a special school for children and young people with autism.  It opened in 2012 for 6th form students
Meadowgate School. This was a community special school. The school was on the area blasted by a V1 in 1945. The school has been demolished and replaced

Roundel Close
Housing on the site of tennis courts and then the Roundel Club.

Seymour Gardens
Partly on the site of the Great Northern Railway coal yard

Shardeloes Road
Canal locks 11 and 12 may have been at the end of this road. The retaining wall in the southern part of the road shows the cutting which gave a level section between the locks,
Old lock house. A lock-keeper’s cottage was on the east side of the canal opposite Millmark Grove on the site of garages. This cottage survived until the early 1940’s.

St.  Asaph  Road
John Stainer Community Primary School. This was built in 1884 by the London School Board.  and was originally ‘Mantle Road School’ – the school predating the construction of St. Asaph Road.. In 1954 some of the school was demolished and the school was renamed. There has been some expansion of buildings on the site recently.

St.Margaret's Road
Fire hydrant iron pavement cover. Made by James Simpson & Co.
Phone box.

St.Norbert Road
This is basically the main road through the Honor Oak Estate.
48 Golden Dragon.  Fifties built estate pub in a parade of shops with a basic interior, apparently unchanged for many years. Closed in 2009 and demolished/

Tack Mews
This is on the site of stables which were the last remnants of Manor Farm.,

Turnham Road
Turnham Primary Foundation School. This is the primary school for the inter-war Honor Oak Estate, and it is to be assumed that the school was built with the estate.

Upper Brockley Road
On the 1870 OS map, this is the one and only road shown.

Wickham Road
St. Peter’s Church. This was built 1866 -1870 in the grounds of the 12th Premonstratensian Abbey, using ‘sea-worn stones from the coast of Kent’ and designed by . Fredereick Marrable. The tower was completed 1890 by A. W. Blomfield..  There is a lot of expensive polychrome decoration. A hand-wound clock in the tower is by Smiths of Clerkenwell.  On inside walls are memorials to dead of the Great War.
St.Peter's Centre to the rear of the church

Sources
Brockley Barge. Web site
Brockley Central. Web site
Brockley Cross Action Group. Web site
Cinema Treasures. Web site
Disused Stations. Web site
Field. London Place Names,
Lewisham Local History Newsletter
Lewisham Local History Transactions
London Borough of Lewisham. Web site
Monk. The Muffin Man and Herring Barrow
Municipal Dreams. Web site
Remnants of the Croydon Canal. Web site
St George. Web site
St.Gregorios Indian Orthodox Church 
St Mary Magdalene Church and school. Web site
Retracing Canals to Croydon and Camberwell.
Spurgeon. Discover Deptford and Lewisham
St.Peter’s Church. Web site
Transpontine. Web site
Wikipedia. As expedient.