Bromley North

Post to the south Bromley South


Bromley
The name means "the heath where broom grows". The manor was an extensive estate, with farms, orchards and woodland. In 1845 the Ecclesiastical Commissioners sold it to Coles Child, a wealthy businessman who modernised the farm and main house. In 1870 his son, sold some of the land to builders and developers

Bromley High Street
The town developed around the market place and the London to Hastings turnpike with coaching inns an important part of the local economy. Until the railway opened in 1858 it was a country town with a single street with houses and shops leading to the Market Square.
Methodist chapel. This was set up by the second group of Methodists locally, originally in Market Square/Upper High Street and later in the Lower High Street building a church here in 1874. The church was demolished in 1964 to allow for construction of The Glades. A stone war memorial was in the church from 1922, and which was moved to a new Methodist church in 1965, but could not go to College Road in 1990, and was lost. This has now been recreated and was dedicated in 2011. Behind the church were a school and a Sunday school.
72-76 Metro Bank. This is on the site of Bromley House, which was an 18th house a demolished in the 1930s. The door case and portico were saved
The Glades. This is a shopping Mall opened in 1991 with 135 shops and designed by Chapman Taylor and Partners. It includes 42,000 square metres of shopping floor space, parking spaces and twenty flats, designed as upper and lower malls which take advantage of the sloping site to give direct access via Elmfield Road and White Hart Slip, and Widmore Road, and through existing shops into the High Street. Car parking is generally above the shopping levels, although there are spaces below The Pavilion leisure centre. . It is partly owned by the London Borough of Bromley.  It was called The Glades following a local competition but was for a while rebranded as Intu. It was extended in 2006.
92-102 Ravensfell Parade. This is on the site of Ravensfell house built after 1858. The shops form the 1920s-30s are on what was the extensive front garden of the house
Russell & Bromley. This shoe shop occupies Ravensfell House which
102 Russell and Bromley. The rear is part of Ravensfell House, rebuilt in 1858.
Aberdeen Buildings.  This is a terrace of 8 shops which was built for Amos Borer in the French Empire style built 1887-9.
111 Barclays Bank occupies Tweed Cottage, Barclays Bank Tweed Cottage, Tweed Cottage, a late 18th house formerly the home of Thomas Dewey later Alderman Dewey, Mayor of Bromley, Baronet and local dignitary. The house marks the southern boundary of the pre- Victorian town, it being open land from here on.
117 Burger King. This is on the site of Importers Coffee House, an 18th town house with a 1930s mahogany panelled coffee house included. It was demolished in 1987
Bromley Central Library.  The original library was built by Bromley Council on land left to the Borough by Emily Dowling of Neelgheries. The original library was built in 1906 funded by the Carnegie Foundation. It was demolished in 1969 and reopened by Prince Charles with the theatre in 1977.  It was designed by Deputy Borough Architect Ken Wilson.
Churchill Theatre. This is on the site of Neelgherries and Church House Gardens. .it was designed by Aneurin John, Borough Architect 1970 and opened by Prince Charles in July 1977. It runs a programme of plays and events with auditorium for nearly 800. There is a shop and a restaurant overlooking a landscaped garden.
Neelgherries. This was a house standing on the land now covered by the Churchill Theatre and the library. It was owned by. Emily Dowling who it to Bromley Council in 1900, for use as an "institution or establishment for the public benefit".  In the 1850s George Sparkes moved here. In 1865 her married Emily Carpenter daughter of a local gamekeeper.  Neelgherries was then numbered at 16 High Street and named after the hills of Nilgiris in Madras where Sparkes had worked as a judge for the East India Company. He died in 1878, leaving everything to Emily who then remarried a Mr, Dowling and she eventually left it to the borough
Stream. A stream runs under the library, and legend says it that it was cursed by a gypsy not to interfere with its course. It had to be diverted for the library
123 Marks & Spencer. Four of the bays here were built by Marks & Spencer in 1904 on the site of Redwood House.  The rest was added in the 1950s.
128 Hotters Shoes. This is the last remaining 18th building left since the massive demolitions in the 1970s & 80s.
145 Top Shop/ JD Sports. This is in a 1964 brutalist building by Owen Luder which replaced the White Hart Coaching Inn
White Hart Inn. This dated from 1509. It was extended in 1803 as a posting house with stabling for 100 horses and also assembly rooms where political and parochial meetings, concerts and lectures were held until the opening of the town hall in Market Square in 1863. The White Hart was demolished in 1964 and replaced by a Littlewood store
Fire Engine Station. Shown at the rear of the White Hart in the 1890s
The Lyric Theatre opened here in 1899 – the number given as 111 -, built over a swimming bath (which was apparently never used).  It showed films from 1908 along with live shows. In 1909 it re-opened as the Grand Hall Cinema but closed in 1911; re-opening in 1914 owned by W.F. Jury. In 1924 it was taken over by Living Picture Palaces Ltd` and was re-named Grand Theatre. Seats were punt in the old baths and it continued to show films plus variety acts. In 1934 it was taken over by Provincial Cinematotgraph Theatres controlled by Gaumont British Theatres. They continued with cine-variety house but closed it in 1937.  It then became a live theatre venue, but in 1940, was requisitioned by the Government as a food store. It re-opened in as the New Theatre but was burnt down in 1971. The remains were demolished and the site is now a bank
162 Primark – this is in the old Medhursts Store dating to 1879 when Fred Medhurst bought several adjacent properties. It was also later occupied by Allders. The Medhurst name is still shown on the building. There is a blue plaque to HG Wells who was born here. The Primark store includes the site of 47 where H.G.Wells was born in 1866. There is a blue plaque commemorating this. A new road called the ‘New Cut’ was built here in 1832 removing a bend in the High Street. 47 was built after this and was Joseph Wells’ shop where his son was born.
172 Dated 1898. Architect Ernest Newton. This was part of the same group as the Royal Bell Hotel.
175 Royal Bell Hotel. This was built on the site of a posting house called The Bell Inn and known to have been extant in 1646, but which was demolished in 1897. In the late 18th it handled two daily coaches for London. It is mentioned in 'Pride and Prejudice'.  It was designed as part of a group by Ernest Newton in 1898.  It has panels of pargetted strapwork, lead-covered bows, and Tudor gables. Inside are a chimneypiece, and a staircase with brass and alabaster balustrade.
Surgery of James Scott, surgeon. In the early 19th 1794-1829 his surgery stood opposite the Royal Bell. He become an authority wounds after surgery
179 this was originally Martins Bank and circular motifs show ‘M’ and 1898.
180-184 HSBC/ ex-Midland Bank. This was built in 1888 as shops. It was designed by Walter Albert Williams, in the Flemish style. On 180 is a cherub.  On 182 is "Anno 1888 Domini" plus a mermaid and merman. On 183 is carved fruit grasped by fabulous beasts and "established over a century" with the letters 'C' and 'H' for Covell & Harris, butchers
181-183 part of Bell group. 181 is the only shop in Bromley to have kept its original shop front.
194 Partridge. The Partridge was built as the National Provincial Bank in 1927 by Gunton & Gunton. It became a Public House in 1995 and is a Fullers house.
196-198 Pamphilion Pub. This was a house which was used as a wine merchants business at the end of the 18th. George Pamphilon became owner in 1865 and rebuilt much of it in 1876.  The timber shop front is the same design as in the 19th. On the arch is an inscription and grape details. It is now a pub.
208-218 onion shaped Dutch gables. Part of a terrace built in 1902, the building was once occupied by Boots the Chemist
204-206 Barrel and Horn. This was previously called Tom Foolery. It is a Fuller's Pub with club sofas and oak tables 
205 Greyhound. Pub dating from the 1840s. It became a Pizza Hut but was reopened by Wetherspoons in 2011. It has a large frontage onto Walters Yard
219 Astor Cinema. This was the first purpose built cinema to operate in Bromley. It opened in 1911 as the Palais de Luxe. In the 1920s it was enlarged and the facade was modernised. In 1934 it was taken over by Gaumont British Theatres under Denman Theatres. In 1940, it was closed and taken over by the Government as a food store, and in 1948, it was used as a demonstration facility for large-screen TV experiments. It re-opened in 1949 as the Palais de Luxe Cinema with new operators and some restoration work by Harry G. Payne. In 1954, new owners re-named it Pullman Cinema and in 1959, another operator re-named it Astor. It closed in 1977 and became an independent bingo club. It was partly demolished in 1985 and completely in 1988. There are now shops on the site
227 The Star & Garter was built in 1898, although appears to have originated in the 1840s. It is a half-timbered neo-Tudor building with etched glass, lincrusta ceiling. Wood panelling inside and tiled entrance. Outside is a relief Star and Garter plus St George and the Dragon. There is also an octagonal turret with a wooden cupola. Windows are based on Sparrowe's House at Ipswich. It was designed by Berney and Sons for Nalder and Collyer, of Croydon when it was intended to be a hotel
242 Empire Cinema. This was the Odeon, an original Oscar Deutsch Theatre which opened in 1936.  It was designed by George Coles in an Art Deco/Art Moderne style. It has a narrow frontage on the High Street with a curved recess flanked by rounded wings and a curving canopy with the Odeon name mounted on top. In the 1970s it was tripled and changed again in 1988 and 2001. In 2006 it was taken over by Empire Cinemas Ltd. and re-named and in 2016 taken over by the Cineworld chain.
269-262 Swan & Mitre. This is an early 19th coaching inn with mid 18th stables.  There are mirrors and seating from the old Gaiety Theatre inside.
Bromley College. The College was founded in 1666 by the Will of John Warner, Bishop of Rochester to provide housing for “twenty poore widowes of orthodoxe and loyall clergiemen.” It was intended that the college should be built in Rochester, near the Cathedral but land was apparently not available and with a special Act of Parliament, it was built in Bromley in 1672, near the Bishop’s palace. It consisted of twenty houses built around a quadrangle with a chapel and houses for a chaplain and a treasurer. It was once thought that Christopher Wren was the architect but it was Captain Richard Ryder, one of his surveyors, who was responsible for the design and construction. A second quadrangle was built in the 18th from bequests of Maria Bettenson of Chislehurst and William Pearce, a London merchant. The Colleges have had a close connection with Magdalen College, Oxford. Pillars around the quadrangle are thought to have been recycled from the Royal Exchange. The chapel needed enlargement with the addition of Sheppard’s College but the foundations were inadequate and so it was rebuilt a second time in 1862. The Porter’s Lodge was built and a clock tower added.  In the mid-1970’s changes were made to the buildings and the trust deed changed so that ordained women could be accommodated. In 2004, the trustees for the maintenance of the colleges and the accommodation up to the standards required under national legislation.
Sheppard’s College was founded in 1840 for the unmarried daughters who had resided with their mothers in Bromley College and who became homeless when their mothers died. It was named for Sophia Sheppard, the widow of Dr Thomas Sheppard.

Church Road
St. Peter and St. Paul. It is not known when the first church was built here but it is recorded in 1126 and it was made a parish church in the 12th. In 1824 it was rebuilt though the old tower was retained and it later survived the blitz. A new church included Stones from Rochester and Canterbury cathedrals and using local flints. It was consecrated in 1952 designed by F. Harold Gibbons .was dedicated by the Bishop of Rochester in 1957. A Norman font and a 14th door in the tower remain. There is also a bronze plaque in the church which records the names of the fallen parishioners in the Great War. The new bells of the church incorporated some of the metal from the original.
Church Rooms. These were added as an extension to the church.
Graveyard. Entered by a repositioned lych gate from 1855. The churchyard contains a pink granite obelisk to Coles Child, Lord of the Manor and Tetty Johnson's grave survived the blitz but the gravestone was broken. There are mature lime and horse chestnut trees.  Stones in the churchyard have been recorded by the Kent Archaeological Society.
War Memorial.  This was designed by Sydney March, is in a rose garden surrounded by a beech hedge. The cross is made of Portland stone with figures of Saint Michael, Saint George, Victory, and Peace
Church House Lodge.
Church House.  The remains of a medieval building have been found here and this may be the site of the original Bromley manor. This was the Rectory in the 16th. In the 18th it belonged to Dr Abel Moysey and later his son improved the grounds, adding lawns, steps, shrubberies and fish ponds. From 1865-1889 it was the home of R. Langdon who funded Henry Bessemer’s development of steel manufacture. It was rebuilt in 1832 and stood at the end of a drive from the road. It was used as a Council restaurant in the 1920's, and the house and gardens were opened to the public in May 1926.  During the Second World War the house was used as a Royal Observer Headquarters until 1941. It was destroyed in Second World War bombing in 1941. A terrace the south of the building remains as a balustrade, which ran along the back of the house, over- looking the pond.
Church House Gardens. Church House Gardens and Library Gardens are now one public park but were originally two sites. They are situated slightly back from the High Street, behind the Library and Churchill Theatre.
Library Gardens, this was made up of the grounds of 'Neelgherries', and the former grounds of Church House. The Gardens were laid out by Mr J Stenning under the supervision of the Borough Engineer, and opened to the public in 1906. Church House Gardens were landscaped by Abel Moysey.  The two open spaces have a dramatic topography with a lake at the foot of planted slopes. The boundary wall of Neelgherries remains on the lower slopes. Two spring-fed ponds make up the lake. There are specimen trees and shrubs dominated by rhododendrons and azalea as well as birch, beech and ash, along with many ornamental trees, such as a Maidenhair tree, Atlas cedar and a collection of Pines. A model boating pond was built in 1933 using the Bromley Unemployed Works Scheme. An octagonal pond was tuned into a paddling pool in the 1980s.
Church House Gardens. The rockery below the terrace was created from masonry reclaimed from the bombed church. There is also a section of Tudor wall with bee-bole thought to be from the kitchen garden wall of 'Grete House' and the wall was moved to Church House Gardens. A rustic bandstand on the lake was burnt down in 1969 and later replaced by a concrete platform which too has gone. Tiered concrete seating on the bank is of the lake is designed as an amphitheatre and built in the 1920s as a job creation project. It was remodelled in 2008. A modern playground has been provided adjacent to the pool. Many common birds can be seen and heard in the Gardens. 

College Road
Main road into Bromley from Plaistow 1929. Once marked the northern edge of town
Farwig Place. Johann Farwig came from Newington Causeway where he had a metal working company in 1832. He built these houses as a small development for his work force and for the surrounding area.
The Farwig. This is now a Co-op shop. There was originally a carriage pull-in to the left side of the building, which was later filled in as a small shop and in the 1960’s became incorporated into the pub area
Royal Oak. This pub was on the opposite corner to the Farwig and was a Rowley’s House. It was also said to have been founded by Mr. Farwig.
County Court. This appears to be a post war building.
Methodist Church. Church and ancillary buildings opened in 1990. They are on the site of what was the National School.
National School. This became the Church of England Primary School which moved here in 1855. It has since been demolished and moved to London Road in the 1980s. The school had originally been set up in the Gravel Pits on the edge of Bromley Common in 1716.  This became delapidated and the coming of the railway to Bromley south made it important for the school to move. A field in College Slip was given by the Bishop of Rochester. It was effectively three schools – boys, girls and infants and there were cottages for all three head teachers. The main school has a bell turret on it,
K2 Telephone box 

College Slip
College Slip is the passageway which follows the old College wall and runs west from North Street.  Up to the end of the 19th it was a country lane leading to open fields.
Imperial and Steven's Nursery. This was based on an early 19th cottage on the north side of the slip. The nursery itself was the adjacent open space. It was purchased by the College in 1830 to prevent development there. In 1984 it was bought by the Council and named College Green.
White mulberry tree, this is an 18th tree which was given to the town of Bromley. The flower bed around it was built by the Friends of Bromley Town Parks and Gardens in 2008. I
Green Gym – this volunteer group has installed here: 6 fruit trees; an insect habitat wall; a ‘dead-wood’ hedge; two timber pergolas.

East Street
Constructed between 1860 and 1880, and follows the line of an ancient footpath.
45 Railway Tavern.   Built in 1879 as a hotel probably by Bereny & Sons for brewers Nalder and Collyer who are noted on terra cotta signage at first floor level.
41 Market Parade. Kent House. This was the site of the Bromley and Crays co-operative Society complex of  Grocery, Boot repairs, Drapery, Bakery, Stabling and Assembly Rooms built in 1887, They were eventually taken over by the South Suburban Co-op and this became their headquarters building.
Liberal Club. This appears to have been adjacent to the Co-op and to have offered smoking, reading, writing, bagatelle and billiard rooms as well as a library contains and draughts, chess, and other games
26 East Street Evangelical church. This is shown as a Gospel Hall in 1900 with Sunday Services and weekday classes.  Open Brethren 1930s
27-29 Drill Hall. This opened in 1872 built by Payne and Balding, for use by the Bromley Volunteer Rifle Corps and it was subsequently used for town and other events, having a sprung dance floor. It was also Strong’s Gymnasium and used by the Post Office as a Sorting Office. .  It was converted to a pub, in 1996 by the Firkin Group as the Philatelist and Firkin – and the regimental insignia was then removed from the frontage.  It is now O’Neill’s bar
19 Local Board offices. This was at the junction of East Street and West and built in 1867 on land donated by Coles Child. This was the body which administered Bromley from 1867 when the parish adopted the Local Government Act and a board of twelve members was formed. It was replaced by an Urban District Council in 1894. The building is now an estate agent.
The adjacent building of 1904 housed the offices and showrooms of the West Kent Electricity Board. It was repaired after a fire in the 1980s.
15 In 1900 this was the Vivid Cycle Works
12 Telephone Exchange in 1900,
3a Chimichanga  Restaurant. This is in old Post Office building which was built in 1896 and enlarged in 1913 It is in a free classical style with terracotta facings. It had previously been in in Market Square but needed to enlarge.
2 Bourdon, Cycle manufacturers. William Bourdon made small 'ordinaries' here in the 1880s.

Edison Road
The road seems to date from the 1960s and was a development of the access drive to the Vicarage, which has now gone
St Paul’s House. This appears to date from the 1970s and is shown on maps as ‘Church Hall’. It has been used by the Red Cross and the NHS and a number of charitable causes
Telephone Exchange. Post war building.

Farwig Lane
24-34 Russell & Bromley. Posh shoe shop chain founded in 1873. Originated from 19th shoe makers in Eastbourne. In 1905 operations moved to Bromley which is their head office. They now have branches all over the UK including London’s west end
Farwig Lane Methodist Mission. A division within the High Street Methodists produced the Methodist organisation centred on the Farwig Lane area, which grew into the Farwig Lane Mission during the 19th

Freelands Grove
Freelands Hall. In 1900 this was a Gospel Hall for Darbyite Plymouth Brethren. It is now private housing.
Northlands Day Centre. Multiple Sclerosis Charity in what was St.John’s Parish room and Sunday school

Freelands Road
Trinity Reformed Church. This was originally Presbyterian. It is a prominent red brick church, with a 118 foot spire, which was founded in 1895 by 5 émigré Scots and designed by John Murray. In the 1920s the neighbouring market garden on the corner site was purchased and is now the site of the car park and main church hall. In 1972 Trinity joined the union of the United Reformed Church and in 1995 we celebrated its centenary. The church included a Sunday school as well as a session house, vestry, and lavatories, and a basement kitchen. It was lit with electricity throughout from its first opening.
Unigate Milk Depot. This was on the corner with Freelands Grove and in the 1900 belonged to Hanley Brothers, cow keepers. The site is now housing,
31 Freelands Tavern. Pub which probably dates from the 1870s

Harwood Avenue
This suburban residential road previously turned north at right angles at its western end. This stretch of road was lost in the construction of Kentish Way. There is now a wall and a walkway in this area

Horsley Road
4 built in 1931 as a bakery.

Kentish Way,
This road was built to divert the A21 in a relief road away from the High Street. It was built from 1985 and the section from Tweedy Road to Masons Hill opened in 1992. The line of the road covered Harwood Avenue. Love lane and Rafford Way
Queens Gardens. In 1897 on Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee Coles Child donated two fields for use as a public garden. A plaque records this. It was originally named Victoria Gardens to commemorate the Diamond Jubilee and later Queen's Gardens. Previously this was the White Hart Field belonging to the pub and where the coaching horses grazed. It later became the Cricket Field, the venue of the Bromley Cricket Club where county matches were played until 1847. The park was refurbished in 2000.
Iron gates on the south west side of Queens Gardens. They date from the 1850s and were the gates to Plaistow Lodge in London Lane. They were given by the owner, Lord Kinnaird, as the entrance to Queen's Gardens in White Hart slip off the Market Square. They were moved here in 1990 when part of the park was taken for the Glades Shopping Centre.
Maze. This was on the edge of Queens Gardens and was bulldozed in 2014.
Bridge. This footbridge crosses between the Glades Shopping Centre and the Civic Centre.
Pavilion Leisure Centre. Mechanised sport, etc with a family play zone, leisure pool, bowling and a gym
Trees. These are along the boundary to Queen's Garden and were part of the boundary planting to the old Palace estate along what was Love Lane. They were part of the original avenue of Limes along the carriage drive to Bromley Palace. The rest were all cut down in 1987 when the road was built
Bromley Oak. This large oak tree stands on the edge of Kentish way and was once alongside Love Lane

Love Lane
This once ran on the line of what is now Kentish Way and coincided with the old drive to the Palace which ran from a gate it what was Widmore Lane. Some of the verges and trees remain in Kentish Way.

Market Square
This is a partly pedestrianised area in the centre of the town. It is the location of the original Charter Market which was granted as a weekly market in 1205 to the Bishop of Rochester by King John, the weekly Charter Market is still held. A timber framed market house once stood in the square which was demolished in 1863 and replaced by a red brick town hall building – which housed the police, the local board, the literary institute and meeting rooms. This was itself demolished in 1933 and the market moved to Station Road. The buildings in the square were then replaced by the present half timbered block
1 - 5 date from the latter part of the 18th
12-13 Cafe Rouge. This is a yellow brick building of 1883 with sunflower motifs built for Collins, outfitters.
14 –19 date from the latter part of the 18th.
22 Lakeland & Argus shops. The Dunn family had traded here since at least 1710.  Their premises were a shop with a furniture store at the rear. In 1909 the shop at 20 Market Square was burnt out and Dunns later bought adjacent buildings and   in 1928/they built an Arts and Craft style three story department store which was destroyed by bombing in 1941. The current building replaced it and it was sold in 1967 to Heals. This is designed by by Bertram Carter in 1954-7 and was set back from the street line with an off-centre picture window on the first floor. Subtle shifts in levels, made possible because a temporary building of 1948 was enclosed by the new shop.
27-28. this shop with a ceramic facing was designed for David Greig and Sons, selling dairy produce and groceries. It was built in 1912 their company name and the date of 1912 was high up on the building.  It is now in use as by different businesses
36  Duke’s Head pub. This pub dated from the 1840s and was named for the Duke of Cumberland.  The building is now a bank
Mural. This shows the work of Charles Darwin who lived in the area covered bogy then borough. A previous mural commemorated HG Wells.
Town Pump. This cast iron pimp once stood against the market hall building and was moved to Church House Gardens in 1933. In 1985 it was returned to stand near the mural,

North Road
10 Red Lion.  This pub has original tiling and an old fireplace. This is a Harvey’s house.

North Street
22 this was the print office for the Kentish Times.
Bromley Little Theatre. Community theatre established in 1938 in a 19th bakery. This is an amateur membership theatre presenting 11 shows a year and others in the theatre bar

Northside Road
The road was built post-1960s which runs round to the back of Bromley North Station to car parking and bus station facilities, including a canteen,  on what were sidings and goods yard. It circles round Northside House office block

Palace Road
90 Anglesey Arms. This is a Shepherd Neame house.
64 White Horse pub. With brown glazed tiling on the ground floor. Dating from the 1870s this was a Crowleys of c/Croydon House, and later Charringtons.

Park Road
St.John the Evangelist.  This was initially a chapel of ease serving a fast growing new district and in 1872 an iron church which came from Isle of Wight was opened in Park Road. The present building by George Truefitt opened in 1880 on the corner of Park Grove and it became part of a separate parish. The building was damaged in the Second World War II but it was later restored to look as it did when it was first built.
19 Crown and Anchor pub. This was once a gay bar.
Bromley Baptist Church.  The church dates from 1863 and the foundation stone was laid in 1864 in the presence of Charles Spurgeon.  It was designed by R. H. Moore.The church has a memorial to the dead of two World Wars.. Community hall extension built in 1993

Rafford Way
This is now under Kentish Way

Sherman Road
3 Mission Care Support Centre. This is an organisation providing care homes with a Christian ethic which grew out of the Bermondsey Medical Mission.
Royal Mail Delivery Office. This is on the site of a Baptist church was taken over by the Salvation Army in 1906. In 1934 it was proposed to build a cinema here, and the Army left. The cinema was, however, never built.
Northpoint. Serviced flats. This block was originally known as Sherman House and was used by Bromley Social Services and a number of NHS and related organisations. Nine storey block by Owen Luder. Built in 1968.

South Street
Constructed between 1860 and 1880, and follows the line of an ancient footpath.
8 is where Mrs. Knott's dame school was attended by H.G. Wells as a young boy between 1871 and 1874. This is commemorated by a plaque on the front wall
Fire Station. This was designed by Stanley Hawkings, Borough Engineer, and was completed in 1905.
22 Community House. This was built as Bromley Magistrates Court.  Built in 1939 by C Cowles Voysey
9 Bromley Marble – marble supply

Stockwell Close
Bromley Civic Centre. The Civic Centre consists of buildings grouped around the Bishop's Palace.  It became the Civic Centre in 1982 after Stockwell College closed and was opened by the Queen in 1986. The Council Chamber, east of the courtyard dates from 1985. More buildings were added in 1988 - 1991. The Council Chamber, office block and car park were designed by Chris Winterburn of Architects’ Joint Practice.
Bishops’ Palace...  In the 8th King Æthelbert II gave land and the manor here to Eardwulf, Bishop of Rochester and later kings added to this and it remained with the bishops after the Conquest.  It is thought that a manor house was built here around 1100. Various improvements were made but in 1774 it was pulled down through disrepair and rebuilt.  The north facing frontage displays the arms of Bishop Thomas quartered with those of the see of Rochester.  In 1845 the Palace was sold to Coles Child who enlarged it. It was remodelling by Norman Shaw in 1863 and Ernest Newton in 1903 and 1920.
Palace Park. This was extensive, and included the area of Queens Garden separated by Love Lane. What remains is on the south side of the Old Palace, including the lake. Lawns with some mature specimen trees survive and include Lebanon Cedar, lime, beech, holly, yew, and oak, augmented with modern ornamental cypresses.  By 1865 Coles Child employed James Pulham to create what a fernery at the north end of the lake, and a waterfall to the south. ‘Pulhamite’ rock-work was developed by Pulham and 1840s he used it in the construction of artificial rock-work using clinker and scrap brickwork to produce boulder-like formations. The fernery is in a bank with a central cleft through which water flowed into a basin and thence to St Blaise’s Well. The waterfall rockwork is in the dam and has a central cleft through which water cascades to a basin
St. Blaise's well. In the palace grounds was a Holy Well and Oratory to St. Blaize and this was a place of pilgrimage. Blaise was the Bishop of Sebaste in Armenia, martyred in 316 A.D and the patron saint of wool combers. The chalybeate well was said to have healing properties.  The well was rediscovered by the Bishop's domestic chaplain in 1754 and excavations found steps and planks round the spring. Coles Child built a structure round it but this was destroyed in a snow storm in 1887.
Ice house. The ice house probably has a late-18th core, modified in the 19th when a summerhouse was added. It is in red brick with a tarred roof. The east side has a 20th pointed arched opening for use as a canoe store. The north side has two charging holes with curved sides, for shovelling ice in from the lake. Inside there were originally two chambers but the division has been removed,
Ha-Ha wall. This is a three foot high retaining wall of yellow bricks. This maybe original, or a Pulmanite feature.
Folly.  Near the entrance is a small folly built in the 19th including a representational Norman arch with zig-zag mouldings. This was found when the lake dredged but it may be part of the Pulham design,
Stockwell College. The College goes back to the late 18th and Joseph Lancaster’s school in Borough Road. This became a teacher training college and in the 1860s partly moved to a site in Stockwell – hence the name. In 1935 they might the Bishops Palace and the 18th house was adapted and extended to provide accommodation for 114 women students. In 1940 they were evacuated to Devon, and returned to Bromley in 1945 where much of the building had been destroyed in bombing, and big public air raid shelters had been built alongside the site. High blast walls obscured the windows and the grounds had been turned into allotments. By 1960 around 200 students were following one or two year training courses leading to the Teacher’s Certificate. In 1960 the College to was sold to Kent County Council, to fund expansion at Borough Road. More extensions were built in Bromley and in 1960 the courtyard was formed. Then College closed in 1980.
Sports grounds for the college stood to the north of the site, to the east of what is now Kentish Way

Station Road
Council Depot
Market Place.  A weekly market was held in Station Road and had been resited from its original location in Market Square until 2012. This is now a car park.

Tetty Way
The name 'Tetty' Johnson. She was Dr. Johnson's wife, Elizabeth, who was buried in the church in 1752. The road winds down hill past the backs of shops and flats alongside the flint wall of the churchyard.

The Old Courtyard
Dunns depository built in the 1890s and now flats

Tweedy Road
Named after a local resident John Newman Tweedy, who lived in Widmore House, which stood on the site later used for the old Town Hall buildings . The road was developed in the 1889s  on the line of an old footpath
The Old Town Hall,. It is in two parts the earlier paett half on Tweedy Road was built in 1906 as a version of the design by R Frank Atkinson that won a competition in 1904. It is simple building with a council chamber on the first floor. The extension was built in 1938. It is to become a hotel and restaurant
The School of Art and Science. This dates from 1878 and was later extended. In 1898 the clock tower building was added along with the town’s first library later superseded. The words Art and Science are part of the decorative relief terracotta panels and the white horse motif  for Kent. The opening included a display of the first working telephones ever made. The School with its classrooms, together with the later laboratories and studios was originally privately run. As Bromley College of Art it moved to Rookery Lane in 1965. The building later contained the Citizens Advice Bureau, the Council's careers service and Relate’s counselling service.
Bromley North Station  Opened in 1878 it is the terminus of line from Sundridge Park and Grove Park. The line was originally constructed by Bromley Direct Railway Company which was absorbed into the South Eastern Railway Company within a year. The original timber buildings consisted of  “ a wooden shed for the booking office and waiting room, and another for the goods office, with a disused railway carriage as extra office space” . The station was rebuilt before the electrification of the line in  1925 by Southern Railway with a coppered cupola and a booking hall with a large concourse and a glass roof. There is a bookstall and iron gates in front of the platforms. The service now consists of a shuttle service to Grove Park.
Station Forecourt – the rebuild included a forecourt on the site of the old turntable.
Goods yard, This had a separate wooden office and an adjacent coal yard.  It closed in 1968 and  is now the bus station.

Walters Yard
Walters Yard. This is a pathway named after John Walter who ran a smithy here. Until the end of the 18th this part of the High Street from The Bell Inn northwards, was comprised land for Grete House. During the Napoleonic Wars this included 'Prison Yard' which referred to a temporary building on the site used to hold French prisoners.  It is now a back road and largely a supermarket car park.
Borough Electricity Works. This was built here in 1898 and designed by Ermest Newton. This was a coal fired power station which operated 1898 -1931.  It was set up by the Bromley (Kent) Electric Light and Power. Ltd and taken over by the Council in 1927.
Sainsbury's. The ceramic panels recall the ornate Dutch gables of the original Fire Station building and other buildings

West Street
This road was constructed between 1860 and 1880, and follows the line of an ancient footpath.
1 This was originally West Kent Electricity Board opened  in 1904 to house the offices and showrooms of the electricity works.. Ity was renovated in 1987 by Brian Meeking and Associates. It is now an estate agent.
2 Chinese Restaurant. This is the original fire station used 1897 - 1910

Wharton Road
Central School for Girls.  This appears to have been an extension of the church schools set up in the 19th and appears to have been a selective school offering s ‘commercial’ education to girls. It seems to have been renamed Bromley Day Commercial School for Girls  and was badly damaged by a flying bomb landing in the playground. The school later to moved Bullers Wood where it became a girls ‘technical’ school.
Bromley School of Art, (Building Department). The buildings are shown as this on maps of the 1960s and as Ravensbourne College of Art in  of 1971.

Widmore Lane
In 1850 Widmore Lane consisted of a number of timber cottages plus the old Three Compasses public house.
10 Arkwright's Wheel.  Originally called the "Three Compasses" it dated from pre-1840s. The current building dates from 1911 in the Arts & Crafts style replacing an ancient hostelry. It changed name some time in the 1970s and then to "Scruffy Murphy's."  It is now an Italian restaurant.
Christian Science Church. This  was designed in 1928 by E Braxton Sinclair  and is a fusion of classicism and Art Deco based on the design of a Roman tomb. Thus a Mediterranean cypress tree as part of the integral landscaping. It has a steel frame construction, clad in brown brick with red brick dressings..
Stable block To the rear of the shops is one a stable block now in use as an architects’s office
United Reformed Church. Rebuilt on land adjacent to the original church as a first phase of The Glades development in 1989.
Town Hall Extension. In two independent parts, at right angles to one another.  The earlier section is  in Tweedy Road and the second,facing Widmore Road. Behind a disciplined exterior is a reinforced-concrete construction . Inside is a top lit imperial staircase of marble with metal handrail dominated by four fluted nymphs clad in green marble.
Homeopathic Hospital. This was moved to Queens Garden in 1900.
118 Bromley, Chislehurst and District Maternity Hospital. This was founded in 1917 by Mrs Mann in the house which had been the Homeopathic Dispensary. Expense incurred in protecting the building in the Second World War and loss of staff caused financial difficulties.  In 1944 the Hospital was closed following bombing. It reopened in 1945 but closed soon after because of financial difficulties.
Bromley  Hospital Widmore Unit. The hospital took over the Maternity Hospital in 1945 and became its antenatal department.  A large pre-fabricated hut was built in the grounds to create  extra space.  It opened in 1948 and closed in 1971. The Hospital building has been demolished and a nursing home complex for people with learning disabilities was put on site. This has since closed..

Sources
Blue Plaque Guide
Brewery History Society., Web site
British Listed Buildings. Web site
Bromley and Sheppherd’s Colleges Web site
Bromley Heritage Walks. Web site
Bromley MS Society. Web site
Bygone Kent 
Cinema Treasures. Web site
Cox. Kent Cox
Friends of Bromley Town Parks and Gardens. Web site
Grace’s Guide. Web site
Historic England. Web site
Ideal Homes. Web site
London Borough of Bromley. Web site
London Gardens online. Web site
London Footprints. Web site
Lost Hospitals of London. Web site
Nairn.  Modern Buildings
Pastscape. Web site
Penguin. Kent 
Pevsner and Cherry. South London, 
Pevsner. West Kent 
Pub History., Web site
Reconnections. Web siite
Swan and Mitre. Web site
Trinity URC Church. Web site
Walk Around Bromley
Wikipedia. As expedient.