Arts And Crafts movement in Bromley

The Bromley area is now regarded as one of the four most important colonies of work by the radical architects of the Arts and Crafts movement.

Bromley Town centre features some particularly fine examples from the Queen Anne style that was espoused by the movement: “The Arts & Crafts, emerging as the artistic and cultural arm of a new social and political awakening toward the end of the 19th century…”

Fine Paregetting on the bay window of the Royal Bell

The movement reinvented the traditional buildings of Kent & Sussex. It was exuberant with many variations, such as ‘Old English’ with tile hung walls and half timbering; ‘Queen Anne’ itself, adopting forms from 17th Century with it’s Dutch influences, tall chimneys, clay tiled roofs, red brick and small paned windows

“The Arts & Crafts, emerging as the artistic and cultural arm of a new social and political awakening toward the end of the 19th century.. this arm held out, through the teachings of Morris, Webb, Lethaby, Crane and others, the promise of freedom from the tyranny of historical styles, and a new English, or Scottish, vernacular, based on functional requirements, naturalism and honest craftsmanship. Where other periods or architectural groupings are described in terms of style the Arts & Crafts is invariably dubbed a movement. ” from the Voysey society page