Church House Gardens – Terraces and Bowie Balustrade
Welcome to Bromley Palace Park and it’s historic features! This location is the first stop on the heritage and biodiversity trail around the historic parks in Bromley Town Centre.
These terraces were designed in 1832 by Abel Moysey, and they provide a visually appealing layered appearance to the side of the little valley. They contain a world-wide collection of cypress trees, original specimen trees from the 1830s and 1920s, and the rockery. Local people say that some of these specimens came from Charles Darwin but the labels to these plants were removed in the 1980s.
The first rockery occupied the south part of the current installation, and on the top of it was the conservatory of Church House. In the 1950s it was remade, including fascinating bits of the bombed Church – these are heavily overgrown at present but the park Friends intend to have a project soon to refurbish the rockery.
The stone balustrade you can see here was originally the boundary between Church House and the gardens.
The balustrade’s claim to fame is that an early photo shoot for local boy David Jones, better known as David Bowie, was photographed with the lads on the balustrade. There is no basis for the rumour that it was an attempt of the band to recreate the photo for the Millennium that broke the stone railings! It is thanks to the effort of the Friends chair (Jeff Royce), LBB officer David Braybrook, and the ward’s LibDem councillor Sam Webber, that the balustrade has been repaired in 2024.
Fun Fact
Though David Bowie never showed any liking for his home town, one of his last videos was filmed in Whitehall Recreation ground. His favourite condemnation is reputed to have been “That’s so f*****g Croydon!”
David Bowie moved to Bromley and attended Raglan Primary school before graduating to Ravenswood School for Boys at 11. Here he formed his first band, the Conrads, with fellow pupils. When he was older he moved to Beckenham and performed in the bandstand at Croydon Road Recreation Ground. Though he never seems to have had any involvement with the town and local charities, he did film part of his “Buddha of Suburbia” video in Whitehall Rec, near Raglan Road Primary school in BR2.
If you wander to the west, there are fine views over the Ravensbourne Valley between the trees.
The Civic Society page on this park, with some old photos, 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, continue uphill and on the other side of the trees, on the level ground at the top, is a Carriage Drive in a loop around the flower bed.
Browse our old photos, in 
from being dominated by tower blocks: Look here and email our ward councillors about:
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