Bromley Civic Society

Come to Fresh Eyes on Bromley, at the Little Theatre!

Posted on 2 July 2026 by campaignr

Join us to hear some stories about Bromley town centre – its origins, culture, characters, green spaces … and what the future might look like.

Part of the Bromley Little Theatre Community Festival A free event: Get your tickets here: at https://bit.ly/4vmYUAO

If you are aware you will care! There’s more to the town centre than shops and we hope to show you different ways of seeing it.

There’ll be a series of short illustrated presentations with discussion and feedback. Heritage, architecture, culture, characters, green open spaces, current changes and future development will be covered. Topics could include:

When the Co-op came to Bromley;
Two butchers with civic pride and the buildings they created; Where’s the Broom in Bromley?
Bromley’s Hidden Parks and Gardens
When was Bromley’s Golden Age of Architecture?
Wells, Bowie, and who were the Bromley Contingent?
Where’s the music in Bromley today? and
What’s happening to Bromley town centre…an Invasion of Tower Blocks?
There’ll be a tea break and there might even be some poetry!

Book through the link Eventbrite link above, through the Bromley Little Theatre website www.bromleylittletheatre.org or with the QR code below.

Posted in BCS news, Events | Tagged talk | Leave a comment

Broom Day! Sunday 10th May…in The Glades, in the High Street and on Martin’s Hill

Posted on 20 April 2026 by campaignr

🌼 Join the Celebration

Come together, to admire the spectacular golden bloom of broom in springtime in Bromley! Gather your friends and family, dress in green and yellow, and be part of this joyful revival of Bromley’s heritage.

We’ll see you there!

Here’s some pictures from previous years (Thanks to Your Bromley for the photos)!

Posted in BCS news, Events | Tagged Broom Time, Broomtime, Martins Hill, The Glades | Comments Off

Plans – Bad and Good for the old Civic Centre

Posted on 13 January 2026 by campaignr

Development of the old Civic Centre – now to be called Bishop’s Place.

Details of the proposals can be seen on the planning application: 25/05307/FPA

The consultation deadline has officially passed but not to worry – there’s still plenty of time to make comments before it is considered by Bromley Council.

Continue reading →

Posted in BCS news | Tagged Bishops Palace, Bromley Palace Park, Old Bishops Palace | Comments Off

Park Friends continue the ancient tradition of Well-dressing & Blessing for St Blaise’s Well

Posted on 4 February 2025 by campaignr

On Sunday the 1st February, the Friends of Bromley Town Parks and Gardens, held a traditional well dressing and blessing. Thanks to Father Saju from St Josephs RC church for conducting the blessing, the service and talk about the well. Despite the rain, 50 people turned out to mark the occasion!

St Blaise was a 4th-century Armenian bishop and martyr, celebrated as the patron saint of throat illnesses, wool combers, and wild animals. His most famous miracle was saving a child with a fish-bone caught in his throat.

Continue reading →

Posted in BCS news, Blog | Tagged Bromley Palace Park, parks, St Blaises Well | Comments Off

Thank you – it was refused – Write as we don’t want a block of flats here!

Posted on 16 December 2024 by campaignr

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.

Continue reading →

Posted in Campaigns | Tagged 201 high-st, Campaign, Heritage Buildings, High Street (North) | Comments Off

Churchill Theatre future is secured (again) and Library move seems unnecessary

Posted on 23 September 2024 by campaignr

The council has announced that they have accepted an offer from a developer for the freehold of the Churchill Theatre ‘site’. They state that this secures the future of the Theatre for the town

The site was left in covenant to the Council by Emily Dowling, which limits the uses of the sites to those that would improve the people of Bromley. Here is a more detailed explanation. 1901: https://www.bromleycchurchill-theatre-what-is-the-future-how-is-it-affected-by-the-terms-of-the-lands-endowment

Continue reading →

Posted in Campaigns | Tagged Central Library, Churchill Theatre | Comments Off

Waitrose’s Bromley Cliff Face proposals approved.

Posted on 20 July 2024 by campaignr

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*.

Continue reading →

Posted in BCS news | Comments Off

Threat to our Art Deco cinema – public meeting on 11th July

Posted on 8 July 2024 by campaignr

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.

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Posted in BCS news | Tagged Picture_House | Comments Off

Our Chair receives the Mayor’s Award for 2024

Posted on 14 March 2024 by campaignr

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.

Continue reading →

Posted in BCS news, Blog | Comments Off

The Curious Case of The Table

Posted on 10 July 2023 by campaignr

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:

Continue reading →

Posted in BCS news, HG Wells locations, memories | Tagged H.G. Wells | Comments Off

UPDATE! The monster Council co-development and its chain reaction of tower blocks down the High Street

Posted on 7 March 2023 by campaignr

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.

PREVIOUSLY we said…

Continue reading →

Posted in BCS news | Tagged Churchill Quarter, High Rises, Site 10, Site G | Comments Off

Future Buildings in Bromley Town – How High? – The Supplementary Planning Document (SPD)

Posted on 14 January 2023 by campaignr

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:

* Churchill Quarter (link)
* Tall Buildings (Guidance Note 11) (here)
* Conservation Area and Protection of Heritage Assets (Guidance Note 9)
* The Need For A Masterplan (link)
* 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)

Continue reading →

Posted in Campaigns | Comments Off

Borough Wide Urban Design – What should new buildings look like? Not like this

Posted on 18 December 2022 by campaignr

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!

Some buildings resembling brutalist car parks — 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.

Continue reading →

Posted in Campaigns, SPD_item_post | Tagged Local Plan, planning, SPD, SPD Consultation, Urban Design Guide | Comments Off

Protected Views

Posted on 7 September 2022 by Admin Bromley Civic Society

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:

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Posted in Explain | Tagged Protected View | Comments Off

Residents spoke – 86% said NO to more Tower Blocks! Analysis of the responses to the 2020 Supplementary Planning Document (SPD) consultation

Posted on 21 May 2022 by campaignr

Continue reading →

Posted in Campaigns, SPD_item_post | Tagged planning, SPD, SPD Consultation, Supplementary Planning Document | Comments Off

Reminisces – Zodiac Toy shop

Posted on 27 June 2026 by campaignr

Zodiac Toys, is a fondly regarded chain of 90 stores, mostly in South London. The shop at 201 High Street Bromley 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 commenting 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.” (from Zodiac site)

“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.”

Toni Coggin on Bromley Gloss post comments: “Omg… there was a bus stop outside this toy shop where every day I caught a bus from. In the window display there was a lovely Teddy. When I had enough money I went in to buy him and the shop assistant came out with a teddy and I insisted I wanted the one in the window that I had seen for ages. I still have that teddy today and I’m 67.”

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.

high street n pub sign with dog on it — 1960s number 205 High St, The Greyhound sign n zodiac

Posted in memories | Tagged 201 high-st, memories, Zodiac-toys | Leave a comment

Reminisces – Yachting Pool, Medhursts and Kennedys by Richard

Posted on 27 June 2026 by campaignr

Richard Edmunds memories: Kerry F Hood you are asking something now. I think it [yachting pool in Church House Gardens that’s now the Sandpit] was round, but this was 70 years ago. It was a boat with a sail that my dad would have bought, I assume. I remember it wasn’t very deep so if the wind stopped blowing you could walk in and get the boat back. My grandmother ran the railway signal pub by Bromley south station and we would walk up the high street and my mum would pop into Medhursts to buy something, and I’d be fascinated by the system which shot the money and receipt upstairs and seconds later it would return through a tube with the change.
There was a McFisheries and a coffee roasting shop on the way back, and best of all a Kennedy sausage shop. Still the best sausages ever. Saturday morning pictures were a favorite at the picture house in the high street. As I got a bit older we were allowed to get a bus from outside the other big department store to Charlton Athletic games.

octagonal pool from upslope, with children. — The yachting pool in Church House Gardens (now the sandpit) before being washed away in 1967.

Posted in memories | Tagged Church House Gardens, kennedys, medhursts, memories | Leave a comment

Lost Heritage: The Carnegie Library

Posted on 6 May 2026 by campaignr

The Carnegie Library replaced Neelgharies house, bequethed to the council by Emily Dowling, second wife of George Sparkes. She had required the site to be used to benefit and better the townspeople. The generous philanthropist, Andrew Carnegie, provided funds to construct a purpose-built library on the site, provideing a valuable service (libraries were not normally free, and were usually provided by book shops). This survived until the council demolished it in 1969 for a new Central Library (after finding they could not build their own offices there), opened by Prince Charles (now King Charles III) in 1972.

Nicely proportioned victorian 2-storey building — The Carnegie Library of Bromley

Bromley Gloss (in 2026) writes: Carnegie Public Library; in the Edwardian era it was pride of the town. Demolished in 1969. It had been donated by one of the greatest industrialists and philanthropists of his era, Andrew Carnegie. A significant number of Carnegie library buildings are still standing in Britain today. Many continue to be used for their original purpose, though a number of them have been repurposed, intact. Many that survive have been given listed status which continues to help protect them from short sited demolition as happened in Bromley Town. Of the approx. 660 built, 437 remain standing and are rIghtly deeply cherished by their local communities. Many of the surviving libraries have dedicated “Friends of” groups that raise funds for repairs, host community events, and lobby for the buildings’ preservation. Bromley’s Carneigue Library was not given this chance once conservation-skeptic town planners and developers set their sites on it.

Bromley Town Centre Park Trail – Stop 3/1 (Library Gardens of Neelgharies House)

House at the end of a curved garden path — View of the Carnegie Libary from Neelgherries garden (now called Libary Garden)

Posted in Historic_Buildings, Lost Heritage | Tagged Carnegie Library, Central Library, Library Gardens | Comments Off

2 Green Men and the Parish Church

Posted on 22 April 2026 by campaignr

Bromley Parish Church dates from the around the 1090s or 1110sAD when the Bishop of Rochester decided that the parish should worship in their own building rather than the chapel of St Blaise within the Bishops Palace. Our page on the building is here and the church has a page on its history here

However, all the church apart from the tower was destroyed in a German bombing raid, on the 16th April 1941. Church House, St Marks Church, and the Dunns store in Market Square, were among the buildings that were also destroyed that night.

On rebuilding the church, the architect included masonary from the medieval church within the walls, and two Green men can be found.

(1) enter via the car park entrance nearest Primark. Go around to the end wall of the church, and it is about 10 foot up on the right of the window.

(2) continue round to the back of the building, and the second one is above the first doorway:

Green men were quite a popular church decoration in the medieval era, and many churches have them. They were a folklore symbol that combined pre-christian fertility symbols with the Christian themes of resurrection and rebirth at Easter. They also expressed the Medieval sense of humour. It’s also a popular pub name, and there are Jack in the Green festivals held in some towns, along the lines of the Broom Day here in Bromley. There’s a page about them here, from Historic UK, that also says that the stone masons might have been hedging their bets!

Posted in pre-victorian | Tagged Green Man, The Parish Church | Comments Off

High Street No. 42 (former Wilkinsons Opticians) – Heritage Building Profile

Posted on 17 January 2026 by campaignr

Look at this building and you can see the charming villa it once was. One of the string of villas built along the High Street when the railway came in 1858.

This building is proposed to become a high rise block with complete demolition.

Posted in High St & Broadway, Historic_Buildings | Comments Off

We celebrated Broom Day 2025 on 3rd May!

Posted on 23 April 2025 by campaignr

Saturday 3rd May.

Bromley (formerly ‘Broomleag’) gets its name from the profusion of broom that flowered on Martin’s Hill. The broom had all but disappeared by the 1980’s but it has revived and in recent years there has been a spectacular display of yellow flowers across the hillside.

Continue reading →

Posted in Events | Tagged Broom, broomtime_2025, guided-walk, walk | Comments Off

Bromley Civic Society

Come to Fresh Eyes on Bromley, at the Little Theatre!

Broom Day! Sunday 10th May…in The Glades, in the High Street and on Martin’s Hill

🌼 Join the Celebration

Plans – Bad and Good for the old Civic Centre

Park Friends continue the ancient tradition of Well-dressing & Blessing for St Blaise’s Well

Thank you – it was refused – Write as we don’t want a block of flats here!

Churchill Theatre future is secured (again) and Library move seems unnecessary

Waitrose’s Bromley Cliff Face proposals approved.

Threat to our Art Deco cinema – public meeting on 11th July

Our Chair receives the Mayor’s Award for 2024

The Curious Case of The Table

UPDATE! The monster Council co-development and its chain reaction of tower blocks down the High Street

Future Buildings in Bromley Town – How High? – The Supplementary Planning Document (SPD)

Have your say

Borough Wide Urban Design – What should new buildings look like? Not like this

Protected Views

Residents spoke – 86% said NO to more Tower Blocks! Analysis of the responses to the 2020 Supplementary Planning Document (SPD) consultation

Reminisces – Zodiac Toy shop

Reminisces – Yachting Pool, Medhursts and Kennedys by Richard

Lost Heritage: The Carnegie Library

2 Green Men and the Parish Church

High Street No. 42 (former Wilkinsons Opticians) – Heritage Building Profile

We celebrated Broom Day 2025 on 3rd May!

HISTORIC BUILDINGS

OLD PHOTOS

Save our Town Centre

Bromley Civic Society

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