Bromley is named after the little yellow broom flower – it grew in profusion in the fields – and the town held a festival every year. This year, we are going to celebrate it again. We will be in the central Atrium of the Glades.
Unless there is a protest, the lovely cupola on Community House (which was the Magistrates Court in the 1940s) will be demolished on this Saturday, 4th May.
Please email our council leader: colin.smith@bromley.gov.uk and tell him not to allow this lovely historic feature to be demolished on Saturday.
The new freehold owners – recently sold the property by our council, to save the council tax payers the cost of repairing the property – would also like to avoid the repair costs. Whether the elegant little tower is protected by virtue of the property being locally listed, is not certain, but what is certain, is that if it is demolished it will not be rebuilt.
The cupola is an essential and iconic part of this historic building, built in 1939 by the architect C Cowles Voysey. The old Magistrates Court is one of an identifiable group of public buildings on Widmore Road and South Street.
The cupola on the former Magistrate’s court in 2019.
Bromley is named after the little yellow broom flower – it grew in profusion in the fields – and the town held a festival every year. This year, we will celebrate it, in the central Atrium of the Glades:
We are very proud that our Chair, Tony Banfield, was one of ten recipients of the Mayor’s award (for contributions in the voluntary sector). Tony has been pivotal in saving our historical buildings and green space in the town centre, in founding the Heart of Bromley Residents Association (HOBRA) in the 1980s, then the Bromley Civic Society in 2007 as part of the national Civic Voice movement.
The Cliff Face proposed to face people driving down Masons Hill.
How the new buildings will tower over the Rail and Police Stations.
The Proposals
The development provides 353 ‘build to rent’ flats in four towers: 24, 19, 12 and 10 storeys. The existing food store is retained, and some commercial space is provided. The development is car free – ie no parking spaces for residents (there might be some disabled spaces). There is parking for the Waitrose store however – reduced from the present levels. There is some new open space provided past the bridge – also a hard landscaped ‘piazza’ at the entrance to the store. The Build to Rent flats are to be controlled and managed by John Lewis Partnership, with a minimum of 10% affordable housing (by habitable room) in the form of Discount Market Rent at London Living Rent levels.
WHAT WE ARE OBJECTING TO:
Note for people thinking of commenting: Objections that simply say ‘…the buildings are too high’ or that express a dislike of tower blocks will carry little weight by themselves. However, look at the paragraphs below for phrases you could effectively make, remembering that your own words will be better than copying ours.
The planning application is at 23/02633/FULL1. Please copy your own ward councillors in on your comments – you want them to feel accountable on this issue – which you can find here. And please copy in the Town centre’s ward councillors (LibDem) at btcouncillors@bromleylibdems.org.uk:
We have collated 12 points which you might want to comment on, against this development:
The Mayor, and Mayoress of Bromley visited the Civic Society’s new exhibition in the Glades at Open House 2023 this year.
Our chair describes the exhibition’s context: “Most people don’t realise the Town is a treasure trove of Arts and Crafts architecture, also Dutch and French influence, Queen Anne, and Neo Georgian – it’s all there! Then there’s HG Wells, David Bowie and Hanif Kureishi… The question is asked will an Invasion of Tower Blocks put an end to all this character and history?”
In May we were contacted by a friend-of-a-friend in the South of France, about a rather stylish antique table. When they bought it, and got it home, they found a note inside:
Where to see it: Martin’s Hill is just two minutes walk from Market Square along Church Road behind Primark where Bromley’s name- sake shrub burst into spectacular bloom from mid April to the end of May.
The name ‘Bromley’ is from the Anglo Saxon ‘Bromleag’ or ‘Broomleigh’ literally meaning a clearing where broom grows.
A walk on Thursday to link with the Library Lates event that evening
Last month we conducted the walk “Bertie’s Bromley” to complement the Library Lates event. Despite the miserable weather, more than 30 people turned up for the walk, which was informative and entertaining. The title is derived from the family name for the famous author HG Wells . He was born on the High Street and described the Victorian Bromley that he grew up in, in his works.
Posted inEvents|Comments Off on Great turnout, poor weather – Bertie’s Bromley walk for the Library Lates
Developers visual of their high-rises towering over our High Street. The red lines are our adjustment for the minimal 2021 changes.
UPDATE! As of today, 7th March 2023, the developers have withdrawn the current application. This is great news. We will keep an eye on the site though.
The Council is currently consulting on the Bromley Town Centre Supplementary Planning Document (SPD) which will govern how large and where future buildings will be, in the town centre. It will provide better control of the development (that affects the character and appearance of the town) by providing detailed guidance – in fifteen Guidance Notes and 8 Character Areas/Sub-Areas. The SPD is a dense document and long read (as it needs to be) but there’s 4 areas we would like you to comment on:
* That the proposals for the Palace Park and Civic Centre will not be watered down, now that the site will be given up
* That the Urban Open Space designation for the Church House Garden Depot (formerly the walled garden) will not be silently removed without consultation – and exactly what can be built there.
!
Have your say
Make your comments – not forgetting to cc us at : chair@bromleycivicsociety.org.uk * by email to: ldf@bromley.gov.uk; * in writing to: Head of Planning Policy and Strategy, London Borough of Bromley, Civic Centre, Stockwell Close, Bromley BR1 3UH; or * via bromley council’s survey monkey link (see our post here on how you might want to fill this in)
The council is consulting on how new buildings should appear, by creating an Urban Planning Guide for architects. Most of this document is good, there are only… the illustrations. These are nearly all cheap, ugly, and very undesirable. Including these will make it very hard to object to schemes like the brutalist-car-park design for Churchill Quarter, because they look just like what the council has used as best-example illustrations!
Figures 14, 16, 17 and 18. Over–scaled, out-of-character extra high buildings are ok if you call them playful’ to ‘break up the massing’! These developments would be too high for any site in Bromley, and their inclusion suggests that similar proposals would gain ready approval.
We would like to see these examples removed and replaced:
Figures 14, 16, 17, and 18. Examples of buildings that are too tall for anywhere in the borough (and the ‘decorative’ ones fail to use any good local examples or heritage features – brutalist balconies and random brick ends are not what we want to see in Bromley)
Figures 15, 32, 34. Poor choice of decorative features – especially balconies (no heritage features) – and failing to use good local examples. Sticking brick ends out of a wall is not depth and quality – try ‘vernacular’ features such as Kentish hung tiles and black weatherboarding
Figures 6, 23 and 25. These do demonstrate new buildings at a ‘human scale’ and ‘conformable’ to existing low level development, but… they are cheapskate, plain, short on windows and heritage features are completely absent. Use Trinity Village or the Bromley Hospital site developments, they are both better than these.
Figures 30, 31, 32. These ignore local heritage and take the cheapest interpretation of the 1960s. Appropriate for the Hayesford Park estate, but not suitable for a borough-wide guide.
It is late to object (as the author is not a planner and has a job to earn a living) but you can still write to ldf@bromley.gov.uk. Please cc your email to us at chair@bromleycivicsociety.org.uk, and to the town centre councillors at btcouncillors@bromleylibdems.org.uk. You can write to Head of Planning Policy and Strategy, London Borough of Bromley, Civic Centre, Stockwell Close, Bromley BR1 3UH.
In Bromley, the council has policies designed to stop ‘Protected Views’ from being destroyed by developers. In practise, this is not always the case. Two protected views that are on the line with current planning proposals:
(1) The East side of the Ravensbourne Valley, notably from Queens Mead
This protected view is subject to planning proposals from Churchill Quarter, 2-4 Ringers Road, and the former maplins site.
(2) View of Keston Ridge from the Broadway (lower High Street)
The protected view of Keston Ridge from the Broadway, the Lower High Street (Google July 2021)
This protected view has already been partially blocked by the new Police station, but the proposals for 1 Westmoreland Road will completely close it.
The Old Bishops Palace was surrounded by a moat in the Medieval era. Moats were a status symbol for a mansion. Moats like these were not a serious military deterrent, though households inside a moat were more secure than otherwise. The main fashion for adding moats to properties was from the 1100s (The Anarchy) – when the defensive merits would have been important – through to the Tudor era and later, when it was mostly for prestige.
The series of ponds that made up the ‘Moat’ on the 1826 map of the area.
Fish Ponds
By the end of the medieval period, though the Palace was “mostly surrounded” by the ‘moat’ (as quoted in 1756 national newspaper articles about the rediscovery of the Well) it was actually spit into a number of fish ponds, spread out in a ‘d’ shape. It was the maintenance on one of these ponds, de-silting it, that lead to the Chalybeate waters being spotted.
Pike were a very popular fish in the Middle Ages
The fish ponds were normally stocked with fish such as pike, tench, eels and bream.
Fish ponds, and their fish, were very important for the medieval diet – especially ecclesiastical households, were meat was not permitted for about 150 days of the year, which the Bishop and his household would have complied.
Freshwater fish would be given as gifts, to royalty and liege lords. In 1461, the household accounts of the Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield lists that they paid for ¼d for herring, but 6d for tench.
There were a number of mills recorded in the Doomsday Book along the River Ravensbourne in Bromley, but the only one that survived until the modern era is this one.
It is often called ‘Glass Mill Pond’ as there was a glass mill on the higher bank. In Georgian times it ground pre-made glass, some of which was shipped over from China, into the convex lenses that were fashionable in large houses. They scattered the light, and frequently had little paintings on the rear and fancy lattice frames.
The mill also ground glass for scientific instruments.
Two Regency Gilt Convex Mirror by Thomas Fentham CoWorking in a glass mill in the Victorian ageWorking to cast shaped glass in the Georgian age
Currently, Thames 21 are carrying out restoration work on the river, which will include recreating the pond, separated from the river by a bank, over which the river can wash when the water levels are high. As this section has not been dredged for 30 years, there has been a lot of silt to remove.
The Ha-Ha was an important part of the park, as it kept the local farmer’s livestock – ie cattle – out of the gardens so they didn’t eat all the ornamental plants! If correctly built, at over 8 foot high (including a ditch in front of it) the Ha-Ha should also keep out deer.
The recently revealed Ha-Ha, is a fine brick example, added by James Pulham when his company built the Fernery, Cascade and Folly for the (new) Lord of The Manor of Bromley, Coles Child.
Originally a feature of formal French gardens of the early 18th century, the ha-ha was first described in print in 1709 by the gardening enthusiast Dezallier d’Argenville in his La Theorie et la Practique du Jardinage (The Theory and Practice of Gardening). According to d’Argenville – and his first English translator, John James – the ha-ha derived its name from the success of the optical illusion it created from a distance on viewers of the garden: the concealed ditch and wall would ‘surprise the eye coming near it, and make one cry,‘Ah! Ah!’’
Browse our old photos, in
from being dominated by tower blocks: Look here and email our ward councillors about:
* High rises in the Local Plan
* housing and a hotel on the civic centre (old palace)
and
* 16+ high rises from the draft Master Plan down the Lower High Street
* and there's others...
