Penge

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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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