Bromley Borough Local History Society
Registered Charity
No. 273 963
Bromley Borough Local History Society
Borough views C18th & C19th
The Borough of Bromley in the 18th and 19th Centuries
The following is a collection of 12 old prints from around what is now the London Borough of Bromley. A short description accompanies each drawing. In most cases the artist/engraver is unknown.
While somewhat grandly known as Bromley Palace, the predecessor to the current building which forms the centrepiece of the Civic Centre, was this moated manor house set in a 100 acre park. It had a Great Hall, a Great Barn and possibly a courtroom and prison. Although displaced during the Commonwealth years, the Bishops of Rochester returned in 1660. The dedication is to Bishop Wilcocks who died in 1756.
These very grand alms houses were the gift of £8,500 from Bishop Warner after his death in 1666. This print of 1720 has a slightly odd perspective as the building is square, with the two extensions on either side being for the Chaplain and Treasurer who was responsible for the £450 a year to be paid to the clerical widows and £50 to the Chaplain. In 1840 a second "Colleg" was built behind the first, to house unmarried daughters of the widows, along with a new and larger chapel in 1862. Apart from the addition of dormer windows in the roof, the front of the building looks almost the same today.
The Bromley Market House, in the Market Square was a timber building with a red tile roof. The first floor meeting room could hold 200 people and was also used as a court room. It seems likely it was built by Peter Burrell who also built Plaistow Lodge (now Quernmore) and who was married to the heiress of Langley Park. The date of this picture is uncertain, but would have to be between 1730 and 1863 when it was demolished to make way for the first Town Hall.
The Bromley Parish Church of St. Peter and St. Paul. Buildings at this site date back to at least the 12th century although the building pictured here in 1795 was begun 100 years later. Further alterations and additions were made after this date, up to mid Victorian times but, of course, all but the tower was destroyed by bombing on 16th/17th April 1941. The replacement church was completed in 1957.
A view over the Ravensbourne valley towards Beckenham in the centre and the Crystal Palace on the far right horizon. The road heading away from the railway station can be seen curving round Shortlands House, now Bishop Challenor School, while to the left is St. Mary's Church, built in 1868, which was also destroyed in WW II. This helps date the drawing to some time after 1868 and before the Catford Loop line was opened in 1892. Martin's Hill, the viewpoint for this drawing was purchased for public use from the Eccliastical Commissioners in 1878 for £2,500.
From 1773, the home of a John Cater who is buried in Beckenham and whose family name is well known in Beckenham, it was let to others from 1829 and subsequently became a boys' school and then a sanitorium. The park, a private golf club from 1907, passed into public hands in 1929 with the house following in 1934. It's 237 acres is now divided by the railway between Beckenham Hill and Ravensbourne and is managed by Lewisham Council.
Although dated 1843 it has not proved possible to identfy the precise location. Penge Lane was originally a winding route from Penge Common to Sydenham with only a short stretch today between the Crooked Billet to a road junction shortly after passing under the railway, some way south of what was originally called, by Bradshaw at least, Penge Lane station, and is now Penge East.
Langley Park has a long history but this shows the house as it was 1776. After 1903 the house was unoccupied with inevitable damage to the Adam painted ceiling in the dining room and to the frescoes in the large drawing room. The house was then sold as the development of the area began and the mansion became Langley Park Golf Club house in 1910. However, three years later the building caught fire and was completely destroyed. Its ruins eventually disapppeared when Beckenham Grammar School for Girls was built in 1958.
At the time this was drawn the building was known as West Wickham Court and dates back to the late 15th century when built by Henry Heydon, husband of an aunt of Ann Boleyn. The Lennard family then occupied it from 1580 until 1933, although not in the direct male line as in the 19th century it was taken over by John Farnaby Cater who took the Lennard name. After a spell as an hotel, in 1952 it became a College and subsequently a school.
Keston Mark, once the border between the Bromley and Keston villages can be traced back as far as AD 862. Sadly neither the Red Cross Inn pictured here nor its succesor renamed The Mark in 1936 (to avoid confusion with the international charity) exist any more. Rather confusingly, the two arms of the signpost facing us direct travellers to London and Bromley on the left and to Westminster on the right.
Named after historian William Camden, who died in in Chislehurst in 1623, this house was built in the early 1700s and purchaed by Charles Pratt in 1760. A succesful lawyer, he became Lord Chancellor in 1766 and later 1st Earl Camden. He also bought land just north of London, now called Camden Town. In 1805 the owners Mr and Mrs Bonar were murdered by a deranged footman and in 1860 it was purchased by a Mr. Strode a friend of the French royal family, to whom he offered the house when they had to flee France in 1870. Today it is a golf club house.
Replacing an earlier malthouse, the brewery was founded in 1836 by John Fox and was located in Green Street Green High Street, opposite Laxey Road. At its peak there were 110 employees but in July 1909 it all came to an end. As described in Home Front, it became a barracks during WW I but was otherwise unused until being demolished in 1937 to make way for a factory and, in due course, a housing estate.