College Slip, K2 Telephone Box & College Green Pocket Park – Heritage

path with trees along wall — College Slip from the High Street

College Slip is the passageway which follows the old college wall. In the latter part of the 19th century it was still a country lane leading to open fields. The early 19th century cottage on the north side was the home of the nurseryman who grew his plants on the adjacent site. The nursery was originally purchased by the College in 1830 to prevent development of the site. This use continued until 1984 when the land was bought by the Council and named College Green. The rear of Bromley College can be seen across the Green.

James R. Pocock of The Seedsmans Cottage:

James R. Pocock of The Seedsmans Cottage

James R. Pocock was a gardener and a bee-keeper. Horsburgh records that “he moved about 1892 to the little cottage in College Slip, renting the Nursery ground from the College trustees.

He was sexton to the Parish Church for several years, giving up the post because he disagreed with chanting the Litany on the grounds that one could not sing and at the same time call oneself a miserable sinner. ” He died on 24 August, 1909, and an obituary notice with a portrait can be seen in the Bromley Record for October, 1909 [BBHLS Bromley History Booklet 2]

K2 Telephone Kiosk – Heritage

Note the red K2 type telephone kiosk at the junction with College Road which dates from 1927 and is one of a series of cast iron kiosks designed by Giles Gilbert Scott. Other cast concrete and cast iron kiosks by the same architect followed, culminating in the 1936 K6 series which were not superseded until 1968

The later models had little rectangular windows, compared with the square ones that this kiosk displays.