Our theatre building, it has been announced, is at end of life, and the repairs needed will cost more than the council is prepared to pay. Therefore, council has put the freehold of the building on the market for sale.
Previously, they had announced that the company operating the Theatre, Trafalgar group, was going to buy the site and redevelop it. The generally accepted view was that this would mean one or more tower blocks of flats, probably at 18 storeys or more, with some kind of Theatre provision in the basement. In all of this, it is not clear if there will still be a Repertory Theatre (one with the equipment required to stage West End productions on tour) in Bromley going forward. The local ward councillors have run a campaign and petition to keep a repertory theatre in Bromley (LibDem ward councillors campaign & petition).
Meanwhile, the council is paying about £12m to convert the former Top Shop building (a brutalist Owen Luder building on the High Street) as they are moving the Library there (originally this would have given Trafalgar group vacant possession apart from themselves).
It is not clear what will happen to the local archives, or the material from the Bromley Museum that was closed (in Orpington Priory) about a decade ago.
The Land is actually an Endowment with Restrictive Terms
The site was donated to the People of Bromley for the education and entertainment, by Emily Dowling. The rules of the endowment were quite strict, and the council were not allowed to build it’s own offices on the site, as they wanted. Instead, the Carnegie library was built. Subsequently this was demolished to make way for the current the Churchill Theatre building (after the New Theatre was burnt down). It’s not sure if the future new owners of the site will be informed of these restrictions.
Browse our old photos, in 
from being dominated by tower blocks: Look here and email our ward councillors about:
*