Heritage Buildings of the Upper (North) High Street
We are lucky to have buildings dating from 1700s in the north part of our town.
On one side of the street, with have a complete parade of shops built in 1901 when the high street was widened – imagine how narrow it must’ve been before that!
On the east side, the street includes some of the older, Georgian shops in the town centre. The rear of these shops can be seen from Walters Yard (sainsbury’s car park). The back of these shops include an original Georgian wooden outbuilding, along with a hodge-potch of Victorian outbuildings, some converted to flats.
Of notable mention is the listed Picturehouse cinema , the Bromley Zoo mural on the pathway from the Hill Car Park, the beautiful Weeks and Son shop front at Diners Inn, and the delightful Arts and Crafts Star and Garter public house.
Below is a collection of old photographs, of the north part of the High Street, from yesteryear:
The Star and Garter, an Arts and Crafts fantasy
Picturehouse has restored the Art Deco cinema
Bell motif in restored pargetting
Penguins stepping out of the zoo – part of mural to entice shoppers to the North High Street
The Diners Inn. A sympathetic shop front for the former ironmongery of Weeks and Sons.
Terrace of Arts & Crafts era shops, Nos 220-228.
Queen Anne style bow-windowed shops at No.236
No.219 replaced the building that was Morley’s Academy, attended by the author HG WElls
Astor Cinema and The Star & Garter
The Greyhound
Astor cinema
Art Deco rails on the former tunnel shoes terrace
high-st-north-208-214-art-nouveaux-rail-detail
Fine pargetting on No. 236
North part of the High Street with the Royal Bell before it was rebuilt in 1898
Decorated pillar with date and bunch of grapes
The lodge to Grete house as a shop in 1880s
Art Deco screens, rescued from the Co-op on Widmore Rd and restored in the Picturehouse cinema
The Royal Bell frontage at the millennium, with arches in the shopfronts The Royal Bell is a beautiful Queen Anne...
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The Partridge Public House stands at the junction of Church Road and was originally built for the National Provincial Bank...
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Nos. 196-198 High Street was a dwelling house which became used as a wine merchant towards the end of the...
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College Slip is the passageway which follows the old college wall. In the latter part of the 19th century it...
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Bromley Zoo Mural by artist Bruce Williams, in 2001, was to lead shoppers from the Hill Car ... unfortunately most...
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The Funeral Directors , News Agents and dry cleaners shop occupy two 18th century cottages, part of a terrace originally...
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Designed by the Arts and Crafts architect Ernest Newton (see our page here). The Martins Bank website provides some more...
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Hunters the Practical Jewellers has the finest surviving Victorian Shopfront in Bromley.
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The Diner Inn occupies George Weeks’ 1890s extension to his original shop next door. Its grand Arts & Crafts, Dutch...
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The former Tunnel Shoes occupy the original 1902 premises of Boots the Chemists. The Art Nouveau wrought iron work in...
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The tattooist (No. 217), and the next door shop, occupy an 18th century house, worthy of mention as it was...
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One of the best Arts and Crafts buildings around, with extravagant turret, balcony and decoration. The Star & Garter Inn...
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This shop was the site of Morley's Academy, which was on the upper floors, where the author HG Wells went...
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This is one of a pair of early 18th century lodges at the entrance to the driveway to the Grete...
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Opened on the 21st December 1936, it is one of Odeon's original "Oscar Deutsch Odeon" cinemas, in Art Deco style,...
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The Swan & Mitre is an old coaching inn, of uncertain date but at least early 18th century, which was...
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Until the end of the 18th century the east side of the High Street from The Bell Inn northwards, including...
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