The town pump is in the corner of Market Square, with the Darwin mural behind it.
It stands 25 yards from its original site beside the old Town Hall Chambers. The Mural is by artist Bruce Williams and replaced one celebrating the life of HG Wells in 2008.
Above: current mural celebrating Charles Darwin.
The mural also features famous local men, the author HG Wells (please see our posts about his childhood life in Bromley), and John Lubbock. The rocky outcrop that John Lubbock stands next to, bears similarities to the one created at Crystal Palace in Sydenham, to illustrate the new Victorian concept of ‘Deep Time’ (which we would call layers of geological time) and also recalls the Ichthyosaurs from the cliffs at Lyme Regis, a recent discovery at the time Charles Darwin was writing. The reconstructed rock outcrops (as well as the Dinosaurs) in the Crystal Palace grounds, were for the fashionable educational Victorian family outings – Crystal Palace has been cited as the world’s first theme park.
The artist, Bruce Dickinson, said in an interview with Tincture of Museums here, about painting the mural “As part of the research we went to Down House many times. They let us go ‘beyond the ropes’, we were just left to roam in his study. We literally got to flick through his books for ideas. It was really exciting to touch things he had handled and tinker around on his desk. There is even reference to the walk he did every day in the painting.”
Darwin’s home at Downe House, was just outside the village of Downe, five miles south-south-east of Bromley town centre. It while Charles Darwin lived here, with his family, he wrote his famous Origin of Species. It is said that he used to shop in Bromley, going to Mr Baxter’s Chemist shop, for supplies for his experiments on plants.
John Lubbock lived at High Elms, five miles south-east of the town centre (half a mile from Downe House; he was a friend and correspondent of Charles Darwin). He brought in bank holidays when he was governor of the Bank of England.
The previous mural, by Brian Barnes, celebrated another famous resident of the borough, the author H.G.Wells. The mural depicts one of the giant tripods featured in HG Wells novel ‘War of The Worlds’ towering over a gothic-styled building. This building was the ‘Old Town Hall’ (see more here) that stood in market square when ‘Bertie’ was growing up here. Both this building and the ‘Island’ row of shops, were demolished to allow a wider road through the town centre.
The town pump was originally more central in Market Square, but Market Square has been re-laid out twice in it’s history (see here)
Browse our old photos, in 
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