Crofton Park

Post to the north Brockley
Post to the west Honor Oak
Post to the east Ladywell


Beecroft Road
Beecroft Garden Primary School. The school was opened in 1894 as Brockley Road School. It was built on land previously owned by Christ’s Hospital. The school building was badly damaged in the Second World War by a V1 rocket and was demolished. It reopened as Brockley Primary School in 1951. Brockley Primary School was demolished in 2012 and again rebuilt now as Beecroft Garden Primary School.

Brockley Cemetery
This square covers only the south west section of the cemetery. The rest is in squares to the north and east.
Brockley Cemetery is joined to Ladywell Cemetery and they were  opened within one month of each other in 1858 and are sited on adjacent plots of previously open land. Until 1948, they were completely separate, being divided by a wall. Brockley Cemetery, formerly Deptford Cemetery, lies to the west. In the area covered here there were once two chapels – Church of England and Dissenters – which are now demolished. The most south west area was dedicated as a burial area for Roman Catholics, with a mortuary chapel, also now demolished.
War Memorial. This consists of a curtain wall positioned behind the memorial Column. There are the names rank and date of death of one-hundred-and-sixty-five soldiers inscribed on its panels. A separate panel gives the names of those remembered from the Second World War buried elsewhere in the cemetery.

Brockley Footpath
The footpath runs from Brockley to Nunhead. This easternmost section starts from Brockley Road, originally alongside the Brockley Jack, and running up what is now Cypress Gardens, crosses Buckland Road to the railway footbridge on Eddystone Road.

Brockley Grove
This is an old lane, as Brockley Lane running between Brockley and Ladywell.
Crofton Park Baptist Church. In 1900 a new Sunday school began in Crofton Park. They bought land from Joy Farm and by 1909 the foundation stone was laid for a church building. Soon they converted the adjoining farm building into a new sanctuary. As housing estates were built around the site In the 1930s the church expanded. A new church was planned for 1960.
Brockley Grove Service Centre. Recycling point.
Brockley Hall. This stood on the corner with Brockley Road. In the mid-19th it was occupied by the Noakes family who were brewers  in Bermondsey, but also farmed here. The house was demolished in 1931 after Maude Noakes had died. Brockley Hall Road, Bearsted Rise, Horsmonden Road and Sevenoaks Road were built over the grounds.

Brockley Mews
Housing built on the site of Brockley Cottages.  In the 1980s there was said to be a ruined cottage on this site and there had once been one of the other side of Brockley Way. It is thought these were railway cottages built for signalmen

Brockley Rise
Stillness Junior School.  Formerly Stillness Road School, this is a Bailey school from 1905 built by the London School Board. It has impressive gateways.  There was a bad fire here in 2010.
Kings College Sports Ground. Money  raised from the sale of a ground in Surrey helped fund a replacement clubhouse in 2013. This was previously Guy’s Hospital Atheletic ground and had been since the 1890s..  Stillness Junior and Infant Schools use the ground on a regular basis. T he ground is also is home to Guy’s Rugby club and King’s and Alleyn’s Hockey club. The Guys Rugby Club claims to be the oldest in the world.

Brockley Road
Christ’s Hospital property marker. This is an iron post in the hedge opposite the cemetery entrance. Dated 1807.
Crofton Park Station. Opened in 1892 this lies between Catford and Nunhead stations on South Eastern Trains  as part on the 'Catford Loop' West Hampstead Thameslink to Sevenoaks route, originally an alternative route for the Chatham line between Brixton and Shortlands..  Crofton Park appears to be an entirely made up name invented for this station, which is actually in Brockley. It was opened by the London, Chatham and Dover railway in 1892 and is the most traditional of all the stations along the Loop. It is a mirror image of Bellingham Station although here the façade is London-facing. The station building is at an angle to the platforms which led to a long footbridge and there was no goods yard here. However this station has changed little since its earliest days, leaving it as the Catford Loop’s most architecturally complete site. In 1945 a neary V2 caused a fire here. There were no casualties but a train lost its windows as it was passing through the station
Signal Box. There was a Saxby & Farmer cabin at the country end of the up platform. This was demolished in 1959.
Crofton Park Library . This was opened in 1905  funded by Scottish American industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie The architect was Alfred L Guy,. It is part of Lewisham Library Service but is volunteer run by Eco Communities. over the door is the motto “Salus Populi Suprema Lex” from the crest of the Metropolitan Borough of Lewisham .
Rivoli Ballroom – built as the Crofton Park Picture Palace in 1913 and designed by Henley Attwater with a simple barrel-vaulted auditorium.  In 1918 was re-named Crofton Park Cinema and by 1931 it had been re-named Rivoli Cinema.  It remained an Independently operated and owned cinema and closed in 1957. It re-opened in 1959 as the Rivoli Ballroom and remains open as this. It has a sprung maple dance floor. The interior and exterior fittings have the same, 1950's and 1960's look and it is used as a TV and film location
Brockley Green. This extended from the junction with Brockley Grove – and the traffic island which seems to be the last remains of it – until the junction with Brockley Rise to the south.  Brockley Hall stood on the junction with Brockley Grove.
Toilets.  A toilet block in the centre of the road designed by H.R.Watt has now been converted to an esatate agent’s offices.  It is said to be on the site of the farm pond, hence the curve in the road.
Brockley Castle.  The predecessor pub to the Brockley Jack may have been called the Castle Inn.  It was a wooden hostelry building alongside the current pub and alongside Brockley Green and described in the Enclosures Award of 1810.  The pub sign was said to have been painted on a ‘mammoth bone’ or a whalebone and that the pub was named after Jack Cade or a highwayman.  It was demolished for the new pub in 1898.
410 Brockley Jack pub.  The pub was rebuilt in 1898 by the brewers Noakes. High up on the south gable are the words “Noakes Entire” – referring to a mix of beers. At the front there is a foundation laid by Wickham Noakes and on the top front gable is a representation of the whale bone sign from the original pub. . It  is now a Greene King house. It is said that the function room upstairs once housed the largest 6- lane Scalextric track in South-East London, and regular 24-hour "Le Mans" sessions were held   the rear When function room has been used for various things, such as a dance hall, a snooker room and a music venue but is now a small theatre founded in 1994 and providing a regular professional programme.
St. Hilda. Brockley was originally in Lewisham parish but as the area was developed in the late 19th it was seen that a new parish needed to be created and a church provided.  A temporary church was opened in 1900 and plans for a permanent church drawn up and funds raised, as well as funding for fixtures and fittings, which included an organ. It was designed by Greenaway & Newberry, in ‘Arts and Crafts Gothic’.  There is a stunted tower with an octagonal parapet decorated with brick and stone chequer work.
Vicarage. This was built on an adjacent site to the church. It was destroyed in 1944 bombing and rebuilt in 1951.
War Memorial. This is in the churchyard and is a granite celtic cross surmounting two plinths with names of dead on base. It was designed by Greenway and Newberry and is inscribed “To the glory of god and in loving memory of those from this parish who have laid down their lives in the great war A.D. 1914-1919. Their name liveth for evermore.”  It was unveiled in by General Sir Ian Hamilton
Brockley Farm. This was on Brockley Road about half way between Brockley Jack and Brockley Rise. The farmhouse was a16th house called Forest Place. It was demolished in 1870.
Brockley Green Farm. This belonged to Christ’s Hospital was purchased by the London and Croydon Railway in 1836.

Brockley Way
Brockley Way continues the Brockley Footpath towards Nunhead.  It is thought that it would have crossed the Croydon Canal here – the high embankments and deep cutting may indicate a canal origin –although there is some discussion on the actual line of the canal
Croydon Canal. It is thought that this crossing maybe the site of Lock 22.
Crematorium Gates

Courtrai Road
This dead end road once led to a bridge over the canal and railway and was then called Dead Lane. It was gone by 1914.
8a Celestial Church of Christ, Mercyland Parish

Crofton Park Road
Follows the line of an old lane.
St.Andrew's Works, Amplion radios . this was on the site of what is now Ladywell Heights. This was Alfred Graham and Co. making loud speakers for wirelesses. It appears that a plan to build a factory here by prestigious Wallis Gilbert, was never carried out. In the 1950s the site is described as a ‘cooperage’ and by the 1960s a ‘depository’.

Croftongate Way
New housing on the site of allotments

Croydon Canal
The canal ran north-south through this area. It opened in 1809 from Croydon and joined the Surrey Canal at New Cross. It was never a success and closed in 1836. The London & Croydon Railway Company bought it and used some of the route for their line. Although the railway built on this section there is some dispute about the actual line of the canal and the sites of a number of locks and, also, what, if anything, remains of it

Cyprus Gardens
New housing to the rear of the Brockley Jack and on the line of the Brockley footpath.

Eddystone Road
39-43  Beaufoy-Roberts Hall.  Honor Oak and Brockley British Legion Hall. It is however a social club and hired out for events.
Bridge over the railway which carries the Brockley footpath, a water main taking water to the reservoir in Oxleas Wood is carried under the bridge

Roscastle Road
Playground

Stondon Park
22 Lewisham Council / Labour Party plaque to Jim O’Connell, 1852-1929, 'Irish socialist and author of The Red Flag'. He was Secretary of the Workmen’s Legal Friendly Society, and lived here 1915-29
1 Estate agent’s shop with clock outside.  This is now a veterinary practice

Turnham Road
Honor Oak Community Centre. The Honor Oak Community Association manages the Centre and provides facilities and activities as well as room hire, etc.

Sources
Barton. London’s Lost Rivers
Beecroft Gardens Primary School. Web site
Brockley Central. Blog. Web site.
Canals from Croydon to Camberwell
Cinema Treasures. Web site.
Clunn. The Face of London
Crofton Park Baptist Church. Web site
Friends of Brockley and Ladywell Cemeteries. Web site
Hidden London. Web site
South London Club. Blog. Web site
Ideal Homes. Web site
Kent Rail. Web site
Kings College. Web site
Lewisham Local History Journal
London Borough of Lewisham. Web site
London Borough of Southwark. Web site
Monk. Brockley
Skinner. Form and Fancy
Spurgeon. Discover Deptford and Lewisham
Stillness Primary School. Web site
Sydenham Forum. Web site
St.Hilda’s. Web site
Walking London One Post Code at a time. Blog. Web site
White. Watering Places in Lewisham
Wikipedia. As appropriate. Web site