Bromley
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Map of Kent
Beautifully hand-drawn and coloured, dating from around 1840
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Bromley books (6 available)
Bromley memories
Read and share memories of Bromley and Kent inspired by Frith photos
Angela's Memory of High Street
I worked at Market Square Cafe in 1949, fond memories of working for the Arpinos Family. Left in 1950 went to Margate to work and met my husband and I went by Rydam Boat to the USA (Mississippi) in 1955 and was married. Any one from Alsbury Road School can contact me at bobbyjones96@hotmail.com to catch up on memories.
Contributed by bobby jones
Clock at the entrance to the garden
During the 1950's we lived in Bromley. We regularly walked through this park, and every year, perhaps I think sometimes several times a year, the design on floral clock was changed. It was full of bright plants, but was fascinating to a child as the hand moved. I have a feeling there was a special one the year the Queen was crowned.
Contributed by Heather Fenton
Wolf and Hollander
There were a few sizeable department stores in Bromley, including Harrison Gibson and Wolf and Hollander (whose flag you can see waving on the left). I am pretty sure it was Wolf and Hollander that suffered an extraordinary fire in the early 1960's - the smoke was visible for miles around. I was in the crowd watching it from the street itself - a significant operation with many firemen struggling to control the blaze, which lasted for hours.
Contributed by Martin Jones
Additional info...
Hi Martin,
It was in fact Peter Frampton who lived there at number 12. His dad was the head of the art department at Ravenswood School for Boys (then Bromley Technical High), and I went to school at Pickhurst Primary with his younger brother Clive. I was in Peter's bedroom one day and saw his electric guitar hanging on the wall, must have been before he got famous though because I was about 10, so it was about 1965/66.
Contributed by Richard Holt
Woodlea Drive
I used to come down and up this road from the bus stop every day to and from school. One of the boys who grew up in this street (a house on the right as I remember) started playing for a very influential rock band called the herd. It was either Andy Bown or Peter Frampton - Andy Bown I think. They were at the forefront of psychedelic Bromley, and he was a pretty stylish resident. They are both still making great music.
Contributed by Martin Jones
57 Pickhurst Park
My family moved here, to no. 57, just beyond the tree on the right, a year after the photo was taken. At the time of the photo the houses were still being built (ours was probably not yet up), to the right (in the wedge with Pickhurst Lane) were a number of survivng wartime 'prefabs', and beyond was a stretch of farmland, almost as far as Bromley South. Within, I would say, two years of the photo being taken, all that farmland had been built over.
Contributed by Martin Jones
Extracts From Bromley & Kent books
Around this time the former classics teacher of the town's high school, Miss Richmal Crompton, was famed for being the author of the Just William books. It is more than likely that as a Bromley town resident she bought her bread from the Hovis bakers, right, or visited Wymans shop nearby.
An extract from from"Kent Revisited Photographic Memories".
A prosperous row of shops indicate the popularity of this desirable suburb so near to the capital. No doubt the watchmaker P H Ede, left, or H Samuel the jeweller's, right, supplied local businessmen with the obligatory gold timepiece and chain for their waistcoat pockets. The New Theatre (left) was destroyed by fire in 1971 and was replaced in 1975 with the large Churchill Theatre.
An extract from from"Kent Revisited Photographic Memories".
Nestled in the rear slopes of the North Downs, the village derives its ancient name from the Saxon word ‘wudmeresthorn’, meaning ‘thornbush by the boundary of the wood’, and was mentioned in the Domesday Book. This 1930s mock-Tudor shopping parade still stands on Rectory Lane as it winds its way south to the junction with the Chipstead Valley Road, where the buildings of the Woodmansterne Treatment Works, belonging to the Sutton and East Surrey Water Company, are just visible.
An extract from from"Around Cheam, including Sutton, Ewell, Banstead and Epsom Photographic Memories".
Much of Banstead High Street was rebuilt during the 1920s with a series of shopping parades. The leafless lime tree in the middle distance occupies the spot where the village pond once existed, while All Saints’ churchyard is concealed behind the trees on the extreme right.
An extract from from"Around Cheam, including Sutton, Ewell, Banstead and Epsom Photographic Memories".
The station, on the branch line from Sutton to Epsom Downs, opened in 1865, and the white stuccoed house, now a builder’s offices, dates from around the same time. The small confectionery kiosk was one of a trio servicing the requirements of commuters, with other branches at Sutton and Epsom. The roof of the station no longer bears the white lettering, and the building is almost a mile from the town centre itself. The road almost immediately makes another sharp bend over the railway line below, before passing the Cuddington Golf Clubhouse and continuing on to East Ewell.
An extract from from"Around Cheam, including Sutton, Ewell, Banstead and Epsom Photographic Memories".