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Post to the west Crystal Palace
Albert Road
Cator Road
Victorian Villas
Alexandra County Primary School. 1952. In 1900 a school had been opened in Parish Lane. This was
the Alexandra School, and in 1954 the junior school moved to new buildings in
Cator Road.
Alexandra Recreation
Ground named after the queen opened 1891. This is built on the site of
Porcupine Field sold to The Metropolitan Assocation for Improving the
Dwellinjgs of the Industrious Classes by the Duke of Westminster. Their only
estate in a more rural area.
Edward Road
106a plaque on
the wall
Green Lane
Co-op store,
'Justice for All', Penge and Beckenham Co-op, weather vane 1900
Factory for Small
Electric Motors Ltd
Groves Estate
Built by the council after the Second World War. Now run
by the Broomleigh Housing Association.
High Street
Otto House
Royal Watermen and Lightermen's
Almshouses. 46
houses built in 1839/40. Arch with chapel, meeting room, clock, weather vane,
cast iron hand pumps. The most prominent building in Penge – a two-storeyed
ranges round three sides of a quadrangle reaching a climax in a gate-tower at
the back, with battlemented turrets and ogee lead caps. Built by George Porter
when Tudor was the inevitable style for almshouses. The buildings were restored by the Waterman's
Company in 1920, and have had a further treatment with Greater London Council renovation in 1975. ‘For the reception of decayed watermen and
lightermen’.
Police station
stables at the back, pavement built in Penge
74 Queen Adelaide
99 Crooked Billet
131 Finlay
156 Pawleyne Arms
164-166
Moon and Stars. Spacious Wetherspoon's, built in 1994, incorporating interesting
external architectural features and extensive wood and stone panelling inside.
Bridge Tavern under a Victorian arched brick railway bridge.
Kentwood Boys School.
Now adult education. In 1931 the boys moved from
the Technical Institute at Clock House to a new purpose-built building in Penge
High Street, and became Beckenham and Penge Grammar School. It went from
strength to strength, and made a name for itself in the district and beyond,
but then was moved, in 1968, again to new premises, and has become Langley Park
Boys' School. When the Grammar School
vacated the building, a new school for boys took over the premises, and is
known as Kentwood.
War memorial. This rough hewn
granite Celtic cross at the entrance to the High Street Recreation Ground,
opposite St John's Road, was unveiled on 25th September 1925 by Councillor F.
P. Hodges. The memorial cost £237/10s, excluding the foundations.
Railway bridges. One
carries the London and Croydon and was atmospheric. The other is the line from
Sydenham to Crystal Palace low level. 1854
Howard Road
9 Organic and
wildlife friendly, designed to incorporate many native species, but without
sacrificing aesthetic standards. Wetland areas, nectar border and newly-built
wild bee house.
Kent House Road
Alexandra Infants School In 1900 Alexandra School in Parish Lane was expanded in 1929 by a
new school for the Infants
Named after a farm to the
north on Kent House Road. Farmhouse from 1240 close to old boundary of Kent and
Surrey. Demolished in 1950s
Kenilworth Road
26 Small
contemporary garden on 2 levels, designed in 1995 to be easily maintained and
have a strong Mediterranean theme. Circular paved and gravelled area planted
with many rare Mediterranean native shrubs, perennials and bulbs. Euphorbias
and cistus surround olive tree and mosaic water feature.
Kingswood Road
Boundary marker
Lennard Road
Holy Trinity
Church. 1878. Geometrical tracery. Founded by Francis Peek in memory of his
parents. Ground given by Cator. Stunted pyramid spire added 1883. By E. F. Clarke Ragstone.
Maple Road
101 Lord Palmerston
149 Hop Exchange.
Previous name was 'The Market Tavern’
Mosslea Road
19-21 Good
Shepherd Mission & Lady
35 Harriet
Staunton starved to death
Parish Lane
Alexandra. Pub on the Roque map where it is shown
as the Porcupine
Alexandra School. In 1900 a school was
opened in Parish Lane to serve the Penge end of Beckenham, and to relieve the
pressure on Beckenham Parish School. This took children of all ages. By 1954 it
was a Secondary school taking only boys, but under the post war reorganisation
it was closed in April 1968 upon the opening of the new Kelsey Park School, to
which the boys were transferred. The Victorian building was then demolished,
and upon the site has been erected the Anne Sutherland accommodation for the
elderly. One of the original gateposts and one boundary wall are all that now
remains of the old school.
Penge
Penge is for most people a joke, an epitome of the dreary
suburban non-place. Means 'head or
chief wood' - a place at the head or end of the wood. ‘Pange’ 1204,
‘Pengewode’ 1472. ‘Wudu the hatte-
-'the wood called' ‘Psenge’ 957, ‘Penceat’ 1167', ‘Penge’ 1206, that is 'wood's
end, top of the wood', from Celtic ‘penn’ - 'head, end' and 'wood', with the
addition of Middle English ‘wode’ - 'wood' in the 15th-century spelling. Penge
was originally pasture 'seven miles, seven furlongs and seven feet in circumference'. This interesting name may suggest the survival
of a native British population to the south of London after the Saxon
settlement. Penge was originally a woodland swine pasture of the manor of
Battersea; indeed it remained a detached part of Battersea parish until 1888
when it was transferred from Surrey to Kent.
In a charter of 957 it says that the Penge woods were 7 miles, 7
furlongs and 7 feet in circumference.
Penge Lane/Hardings Lane?
Site of toll gate
-toll house was there in 1910;
Railway little
spur from Crystal Palace to Penge. Had been laid for building of Crystal Palace
site. Small locomotives for Crystal Palace Co.;
Atmospheric
railway flyover should be Davidson Road timber viaduct replaced
Princes Road
Southey Road
St.John's Road
King William's Naval Asylum. Technical style. 12 almshouses for widows of naval officers.
Founded in 1847, designed by Philip Hardwick. More Tudor almshouses round an
open-ended square. Red brick and stone, with black diaper patterns. Quite
humble, but not only more correct than Porter could manage to be, but much more
sensitively designed. Hardwick was rare in his generation, an architect who
handled all styles with equal distinction. The buildings were erected at the sole cost of Queen Adelaide as a
memorial to King William IV.
Level crossing
when Penge Lane station opened in 1863
Station Road
Penge East
Station. 1863. Between Kent House and Sydenham Hill on South Eastern
Trains. Before this called Penge Lane?? And renamed
Penge from that date. Opened as
Penge Lane Station built by
the. When the line was built a level crossing was built where the line crossed
the old alignment of Penge Lane (now Newlands Park Rd and St John's Rd), but no
station was built. An 1885 map shows
that a station had been built, known as Penge Lane Station. When the level
crossing was closed Penge Lane was diverted down what are now Thesiger Road,
Parish Lane and the current Penge Lane. As parts of Penge Lane adopted new
names, the station name became inappropriate and was changed to Penge East. From here the 'up' line goes through the Penge
Tunnel to Sydenham Hill Station. There
was no problem here with room for the station buildings, and there still isn't.
The station was built on a green fields site and size reflects the importance
of the line to the company. The station retains its original Gothic building of
1863 on the south side with projecting end pavilions with a lower recessed
section between them. The platforms are linked by an old bridge. 1873 opened LCDR .1923 renamed ‘Penge East’
Old level-crossing keeper's
cottage on the south side
platform.
Tiny station house, partly on the platform east of the
footbridge.
1 Park Tavern
Path to both
stations was from the main road. Built there was a gatekeeper’s lodge with 6
windows all with different cills. Road built in the 1860s and follows what was
Penge common;
Canal west of the
railway remained in water as a fishing area
1 Park Tavern
Rail line
one track of the first line to serve Crystal Palace
leaves the line coming out of Sydenham
Station. It opened for goods in March 1854 to carry exhibits and building
materials into the south side of the grounds.
Flyover– when the spur to the Palace was built the
down line was carried over the main line and this is an example of an early
flyover.
Stodart Road
26 Small sloping
town garden on different levels. Mature shrubs and trees provide green oasis.
Rose arches, clematis, honeysuckle and tiny pond. Shady area with ferns, hellebores and symphytum. A cottage garden in
an urban environment.
Tennyson Road
Victor Road
Wordsworth Road
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