On Sunday, the closest weekend to St Blaise’s Day, the Friends of Bromley Town Parks and Gardens held a Well Dressing and Blessing ceremony, at St Blaise’s Well, in Bromley Palace Park.
Over 40 people attended the event, and the proceedings were graced with the town’s Mayor, Cllr Dr David Jeffreys, with his wife.
The well had been dressed by Jan, with an image of the saint wearing his red clock of Martyrdom.
The park, with it’s 4 Grade II listed features, is little known despite being in the town centre, so it was good that so many people visited. Later in the year a trail around all of Bromley’s town parks will be installed, along with 7 info-boards, which will start in the park. Bromley Palace Park can be accessed from Rafford Way, or by going through the car park on Rochester Avenue at BR1 3DD.
Update: Thank you to everyone whose objections meant that this lovely shop front, our piece of heritage has been saved! The application has been refused.
Please object to this proposal to convert a beautiful frontage into a mundane block of flats! It replaces a beautiful Art Deco frontage from 1885, which is a beautiful detail of the town centre Conservation Area.
The proposals were approved. One of the major problems we had with the campaign was the approx 100 supportive comments lodged on the proposals after the first consultation. Most of these were because the authors thought that this proposal would help the local ‘housing crisis’. Unfortunately, it will not.
It will not help local housing need; even the few “affordable” ones will be at 80% of market rates, pricing them beyond local people’s pockets – to be precise this is requiring an income of £51K and costing £1196 a month*.
The public meeting was well-supported and very constructive, but the committee it elected folded a few weeks later. There is still a group on Facebook to continue in attempts to save the building, but only the facade is in the Conservation Area. The rest of the building falls in one of the council ‘Opportunity Sites‘ along with the Hill car park and the Telephone Exchange building – when this site comes forward and is marketed to developers (for high-rise housing), it will be difficult to prevent demolition.
Our theatre building, it has been announced, is at end of life, and the repairs needed will cost more than the council is prepared to pay. Therefore, council has put the freehold of the building on the market for sale.
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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 resumed the custom of celebrating it again. We had our exhibition panels set up in the upstairs of the Glades, with new panels about Broom flowers and Bromley
It was discovered, 9pm on Thursday 2nd May, that the new owners of Community House, planned to demolish the lovely cupola that Saturday (4th May). We did as much as we could to spread the word, so people could email our council leader and other relevant parties to prevent this.
On Friday afternoon, the borough Conservation Officer, Simon Went, had “Preservation Notices” posted on the building and hoardings, and the Cupola was saved! These notices give six months to get the building listed, and full protection in that time.
We are very grateful to everybody who spent the time to email on this issue, and very glad it succeeded.
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.
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.
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.
There is a more recent post, here, as the proposals have finally come to committee, with the planners advising approval.
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.
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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.
This beautiful Art Deco building is thought to have been built in 1885, when it is recorded as the shop for H.J. Luker, a ‘Silk Mercer’.
Happily, the 2024 planning application to turn this into a plain block of flats with a modern frontage was refused.
It has a distinctive Egyptian-inspired classical frontage, which is a much-valued part of the Conservation Area it is in.
In the Edwardian era the store was the Bromley outlet of The International Tea Stores Ltd., (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Tea_Co._Stores) only a few years after Hudson Kearley and Gilbert Augustus founded the company to sell tea direct to consumers instead of through wholesalers.
This building is well-remembered for being Zodiac Toys, a fondly regarded chain of 90 stores, mostly in South London. This shop also sold Prams. Before it was Zodiac Toys, it was Sidney Ross Toys & Pram shop and Youngsters Toys.
“I have fond memories of being taken to Zodiac.” (Matt Perrin in Bromley Gloss)
“Yep, Back in the mid 80’s I used to buy an outfit for my action man every week for 2 quid. Cosy days.”
“It used to be one of my favourite shops as a child, but never got to go in much. I got a a pair of roller boots from there. The blue and yellow ones with the zig zag down the sides. I was most upset when it closed.”
Zodiac toys was formed when Maynards confectionary decided to diversity in the 1970s due to their concerns about being dependent on the confectionary market. They launched their new brand with over 800 “keenly priced lines” in their self-service stores.
In the 2000s the building housed Calligulette, a fanciful Mediterranean restaurant that painted a lovely classical mural on their wall that faces onto the slip into Walters Yard.
We have an update from the Liberal Democrat councillors which throws more light on the Council’s recent statement on the future of the Churchill Theatre building:
“
Following many months of uncertainty, Bromley Council has just agreed to accept an offer from a developer for the leasehold of the Churchill Theatre site.
The developer’s proposals include a commitment to work with Trafalgar Group to ensure the theatre remains in the current building – something Bromley Liberal Democrats have campaigned for since plans to sell the site were first revealed in November 2022.
Signatories of our petition will recall the Conservative-run Council’s rationale for selling the site, which had fallen into disrepair on their watch and was supposedly “nearing the end of its design life”, with the cost of necessary repairs spiraling out of control.
In response, 5,585 local residents signed our petition and made their voices heard, helping to secure this outcome. Under the agreement the building will be refurbished and made structurally sound, giving Trafalgar the assurances they need to keep the theatre in its present home.
There are details about the deal that we can’t share with you yet, and there will be concerns about whether the Council have secured best value for this site, whether there are sufficient guarantees to ensure the theatre’s future, and whether it really was necessary to spend £15m to move the library now that it seems that the building wasn’t actually “end of life”.
But initial signs are that this is a positive outcome that couldn’t have been achieved without the support our campaign received. Thank you to everyone who helped our campaign. “
Yours sincerely, Graeme Casey, Julie Ireland and Sam WebberLiberal Democrat Councillors for Bromley Town
9/1 The Lime Avenue, former Gatehouse, and Palace Farm
Welcome to our heritage and biodiversity trail around the historic parks in Bromley Town Centre. This is the last stop! However, the first stop is just down the alleyway here.
On the other side of the road you can see a row of trees that survived from the original entrance drive to the Old Bishops Palace (see stop 1/6 of the trail). The trees on this side were lost to the bypass. They look much younger in this picture! You can see the parkland fencing on the right hand side, whilst the left hand side was the back of properties along the High Street.
The Bromley Oak.
This tree has survived in the town centre, from being a sapling in a field hedge, to being at the back of the garden (of the house demolished for the Woolworths/Poundland building with a large semi-circular drivewau) in the corner with Love Lane, and now in the verge of the bypass.
The Bromley Oak in Autumnal colours
The alleyway running down the side of the former Civic Centre site is an old path that led to the Palace farm (about half a mile away). When Charles Cole-Child bought the Manor of Bromley from the Church Commissioners, he experimented with the cash crop of hops, so his home farm had three large ‘Oast houses’ which were used to dry the hops – apparently if they are not dried these flowers crumble and lose their flavour.
There was a lovely Arts and Crafts arch and gatehouse near here, designed by Richard Norman Shaw in the 1860s. This was part of the work done by the new Lord of the Manor, Charles Coles-Child, when he bought the title, rights and privileges – as well as the old palace – from the Church Commissioners.
Fun Fact
The bypass is built over the old Lovers Lane, an ancient and leafy track that led down to the Tigers Head Inn (now Crown of Bromley), complete with several ghosts!
All the stops in the Bromley Town Centre Parks Heritage & Biodiversity trail can be found on the page about it here.
To continue the Heritage Trail, go down the alleyway, and when it emerges onto Rochester Avenue, turn right into the former civic centre. Cross the car park diagonally to the large beech tree. Just down the old Carriage Drive is St Blaise’s Well.
College Green, the K2 Telephone Kiosk (Box) and the National School.
Welcome to College Green. This location is a stop on the heritage and biodiversity trail around the historic parks in Bromley Town Centre. There is a page on College Slip and College green on the Bromley Civic Society site here, it talks about the locally famous seedsman who lived in the little cottage you can see, J.R.Pocock.
College Slip
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The park was formerly a plant nursery, to supply food to the Clergy widows living in the (collegiate) Colleges.
In the Victorian era it supplied both vegetables and bedding plants to the town, and when it was closed in the 1980s, it had been the longest running plant nursery in London. The house on the alleyway is the Seedsman’s Cottage, where the gardener lived.
On the opposite side of the road, where the Methodist Church now is, was the Parish School, built in 1854. It was designed by the eminent architect James Piers St Aubyn, who also designed the romantic additions to Saint Michael’s Mount in Cornwall. It suffered sudden weekend demolition in 1980s as part of the Glades development, to thwart attempts to save the building. There’s a page on the school here.
Fun Fact
The local famous author, HG Wells, described the town’s education in his autobiography:
“Bromley was served by a National School… It was the mere foundation of an education…Even that … had been achieved against considerable resistance. There was a strong objection in those days to the use of public funds for the education of “other people’s children,” … [of the teachers] crudely trained mechanical grant earners of the contemporary National School … that my mother’s instinct was a sound one in sending us all to this antiquated middle-class establishment.”
The Phonebox is and iron-framed K2 model, designed by designed by Giles Gilbert Scott. Though this is ‘K2’, it is the oldest model found, as K1 was a concrete prototype that did not leave the headquarters.
The original Telephone box, called Kiosk 2 (because K1 was a grey concrete prototype)
All the stops in the Bromley Town Centre Parks Heritage & Biodiversity trail can be found on the page about it here.
To continue the Heritage Trail, cross the road and go down leafy North Street. At the end, go past the Railway Tavern and turn down East Street. In another 100 meters turn left up South Street, then right down Court Street. Cross the street diagonally and go down next to the car park, this emerges into Queens Gardens. Turn left here, and continue to the edge of the park by the crossing.
Many long term residents are suprised to be told that Bromley has a zoo, and then when it is revealed to be a mural, determine to find it themselves.
Bromley Zoo is a much loved and playful installation in Naval Walk, an alleyway off the north 1901 terrace of Bromley High Street.
A panda and lion lurk among the shrubbery and a variety of animals are presented in cunning trompe l’oeil (trick the eye) scenes. The artwork, by Bruce Dickinson in 2001, was part of the Bromley North Village Project which aimed to help reinvigorate a tired area of Bromley high street, to lead the shoppers from the car park to the High Street shops, see more here.
All the stops in the Bromley Town Centre Parks Heritage & Biodiversity trail can be found on the page about it here.
To continue the Heritage Trail, turn left down the alleyway to Bromley High Street. Turn left and in 50 meters you can turn right down College Slip. At the end of this is the K2 Telephone box.
Welcome to Martins Hill. This location is the second stop in this park, on the heritage and biodiversity trail around the historic parks in Bromley Town Centre.
Deadmans steps is another old name where the origin has been forgotten, but some local history experts think that the name is due to the steps being on a Medieval “coffin way”. The bottom step is where the coffin would have been unloaded, to be carried on people’s shoulders, because the hill was too steep for the horses to continue.
It was a requirement (and revenue) in the medieval era to only bury people at the Parish church, which in some cases could be quite a way from where people on remote farms lived. The funeral would be held at the Lych Gate of the church before the body was buried in ‘the ‘hallowed ground’. Lych is a corruption of ‘Liche‘ which was early English for a dead body.
Fun Fact
It was believed that ghosts would travel the Coffin Ways at night – Shakespeare in Midsummers Night Dream says “Now it is the time of night That the graves all gaping wide, Every one lets forth his sprite, In the churchway paths to glide.”
Deadman’s steps is also known locally to be haunted: a badly injured man in breeches and waistcoat can be seen lying in a pool of blood at the top of the steps.
The Swan Inn in 1869, belonging to Mr P Norman FSA. Nalders and Collyer were local brewers who built The Railway Tavern and rebuilt the Star and Garter.
The road at the bottom of the steps used to be called ‘Swan Hill’ – as the inn at the top is called The Swan and Mitre. Locals say that the swan represents the bishop’s mistress, but unfortunately not which Bishop it was (or even which actress!). The Bishops of Rochester have been Lords of the Manor in Bromley for over a thousand years. However, the Swan and Mitre public house is connected with an actress, Marie Lloyd, and her dressing-room mirrors are still there.
All the stops in the Bromley Town Centre Parks Heritage & Biodiversity trail can be found on the page about it here.
To continue the Heritage Trail, go down the steps and up the hill to the junction. At the car park entrance, turn right down the uphill side of the car park, and the Bromley Zoo mural is on the wall to the left.
Welcome to Martins Hill, this is Bromley town’s war memorial This location is the first stop in this park, on the heritage and biodiversity trail around the historic parks in Bromley Town Centre.
Broom flowers on Martins Hill
The origin of the name Martins Hill is lost in time, but the likely explanation is that the martins (a bird like a swift or swallow) used to circle in the thermals created by the slope. There used to be a lot of sand martins in Bromley, they nested in holes in the sandy banks and walls of various gravel pits.
Martins Hill entrance with the war memorial, formal beds, and lodge.
War Memorial by Sydney Marsh
Originally there were some formal beds and a drinking fountain at the top. After the war the memorial was moved to the bototm of the hill (Queens Mead Recreation Ground) and the sculptor Sydney March (who also designed the National War Memorial of Canada) created the rather splendid memorial there today. It is made from Portland limestone, and the figures are Liberty, Victory and Peace.
Fun Fact
Martins hill was the first public park in Bromley, but only after a campaign to save what was left! An anonymous supporter wrote this ditty about it:
“On this, the people’s piece of land, May builder never ply his skill. May never innovating hand deprive the town of Martin’s Hill.”
The path coming up the hill to this spot, the bends at the bottom were a drovers road up to the market square, where there were butchers. Without refrigeration, the butchers shops slaughtered the animals in the yard behind the shop.
Broom flowers
Programme for the town’s annual Broom Day celebration
Martins Hill is the last place that the Broom – the flower Bromley is named after – can still be found. Initially abundant, the park was the only place left after all the area came into cultivation. Bromley has started holding the Broomtime festival again on the 2nd weekend in May (normally; it may vary).
The Civic Society’s page on Martins Hill, with some more old photos, is here.
The Friends page on Martins Hill with lots of information about the acid grassland and Field of Hope daffodils is here.
All the stops in the Bromley Town Centre Parks Heritage & Biodiversity trail can be found on the page about it here.
To continue the Heritage Trail: (1) longer route – go down the path lined by lime trees along the top of the park until Deadmans steps, down to the road, are reached. (2) shorter route – retrace steps to the gates, turn left down the road to the High Street. Turn left up the High Street, then right into Walters Yard. Go left and right to the front of the supermarket, then left to the far corner of the car park. The gap here takes you to the K2 phone box.
Welcome to Bromley Palace Park and it’s historic features! This location is the fourth stop in this park, on the heritage and biodiversity trail around the historic parks in Bromley Town Centre.
On this site there was a fine gothic house, with a tower, large conservatory, and large terraced Garden. Looking out towards the Church, you can see the former Carriage Drive – with the circular end for horse-drawn carriages to drop their passengers at the door. You can also see the walls of the former walled kitchen garden (currently a depot, though there’s proposals to build flats there).
Church House bombed out in 1941
On the night of the 16th April, 1941, in WW2, a German bombing raid dropped an incendiary bomb on the house and it burnt to the ground. All the churches in central Bromley were also bombed that night, and a large store in Market Square. The rubble from the parish church blocked access to the house, so firecrews could not reach it and fight the fire.
The Carriage Drive flowerbed, by Tony Banfield in 2010.The Parish Church of St Peter and St Paul in October 2023. The Church that ‘Church House’ is named for.Cypress tree silhouetted against the Ravensbourne Valley, January 2022.
In recent years the flowerbed in front has won awards.
All the stops in the Bromley Town Centre Parks Heritage & Biodiversity trail can be found on the page about it here.
To continue the Heritage Trail, follow the little path (on the right hand side of the Carriage Drive) and on your right there is a rocky cliff – this is the fernery.
Yours sincerely, Graeme Casey, Julie Ireland and Sam WebberLiberal Democrat Councillors for Bromley Town 
Browse our old photos, in 
from being dominated by tower blocks: Look here and email our ward councillors about:
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