Beckenham Place Park

Beckenham Place Park Visit - Wednesday 14th June 2017

and Sunday 22nd August 2022

Disappointingly very few members joined us for this interesting guided tour under the knowledgeable eye of Mal Mitchell, a Friend of Beckenham Place Park.

Surprisingly, although it has a Bromley post code and from a quick look at the map would seem to form a natural boundary for the Borough, the Park is actually in Lewisham and is managed by that council. It is about to be transformed by £4.7m of National Lottery funding which aims to “regenerate the park for local people” and to take it back to the time of the great landowners who created it in the 18th century, the Cators.

The first four pictures were taken on 21st August 2022 when Mal organised another guided tour to which BBLHS members as well as the general public were invited. The effects of the very hot summer and the drought can be seen in the brown grass and green pond!

Click on an image below to see a larger version - you can then move forward or back using the arrows on either side.

This was an excellent opportunity to record the park and mansion before "restoration" work begins. Not all local residents are happy with the changes which have been drawn up by Lewisham Council which says “the 18th-century pleasure grounds will be reinstated with contemporary design.”

The public golf course closed in October 2016 and now extensive planting of trees is beginning which will alter the current landscape and ecology. Later the original man-made pleasure lake will be re-instated but some fear that because of changes to the water course and the water table the lake will become a large muddy puddle. We shall see!

Our thanks to Mal (and all the Friends of Beckenham Place Park) for their time and effort.

To find out more about the park, its history and ecology go here while details of the HLF funding project can be found here.