The Lime Avenue, former Gatehouse, and Palace Farm
Welcome to our heritage and biodiversity trail around the historic parks in Bromley Town Centre.
This post is a work in progress.
On the other side of the road you can see a row of trees that survived from the original entrance drive to the Old Bishops Palace (see stop 1/6 of the trail). The trees on this side were lost to the bypass.
The Bromley Oak.
There was a lovely Arts and Crafts arch and gatehouse near here, designed by Richard Norman Shaw in the 1860s.
The alleyway running down the side of the former Civic Centre site is an old path that led to the Palace farm (about half a mile away). When Charles Cole-Child bought the Manor of Bromley from the Church Commissioners, he experimented with the cash crop of hops, so his home farm had three large ‘Oast houses’ which were used to dry the hops – apparently if they are not dried these flowers crumble and lose their flavour.
Fun Fact
The bypass is built over the old Lovers Lane, an ancient and leafy track that led down to the Tigers Head Inn (now Crown of Bromley), complete with several ghosts!
All the stops in the Bromley Town Centre Parks Heritage & Biodiversity trail can be found on the page about it here.
To continue the Heritage Trail, go down the alleyway, and when it emerges onto Rochester Avenue, turn right into the former civic centre. Cross the car park diagonally to the large beech tree. Just down the old Carriage Drive is St Blaise’s Well.
Browse our old photos, in 
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