The tattooist (No. 217), and the next door shop, occupy an 18th century house, worthy of mention as it was the premises of two Bromley notable historians and printers, each producing from this shop an invaluable histories of Bromley – Thomas Wilson in 1797 and John Dunkin in 1815.
The row of 5 windows is distinctive in old photos of the High Street.
This shop was the site of Morley’s Academy, which was on the upper floors, where the author HG Wells went to school, after he had graduated from the Dame school on south street. It was demolished in 1902 and replaced with the current building.
The Funeral Directors , News Agents and dry cleaners shop occupy two 18th century cottages, part of a terrace originally of five.
They are typical Kentish vernacular style with the characteristic double pitched roofs clad with Kentish clay peg tiles.
This lead cistern says that it was installed by Bishop of Rochester, Joseph Wilcocks. He carried out renovations and improvements to the palace. Thanks to Bromley Borough Local History.
The whereabouts of the cistern is not now know, it was last on the land that the council has sold for housing development.
Bromley Zoo Mural was designed and painted by artist Bruce Williams in 2001 to lead shoppers from the Hill Car park via Naval Walk to the High Street – see that the penguins have already escaped and are making their way to the supermarket to get some fish! Look behind the tree trunks and you can see a panda and lion lurking – a variety of animals are presented in cunning trompe l’oeil (trick the eye) scenes.
The mural is best viewed in the winter when the leaves don’t obscure it so badly. When the Park Friends have enough volunteer days they will cut the shrubbery back to reveal the animals.
Unfortunately some it has been lost, when a wall behind the cinema was unstable and replace. It is hoped to replace it, this time on boards that can be removed if the walls change again. The artist has agreed to this, but funding needs to be found.
Naval Walk is so-named because it had a club for ex-Servicemen there.
This is one of a pair of early 18th century lodges at the entrance to the driveway to the Grete House, a Tudor mansion and its lands occupying all of what is now Sainsburys store and car park.
In the nineteenth century the lodge was the premises of Daniel Grinstead, one of a long line of seedsmen connected with the Mill at Southend, Downham. DG was a considerable entrepreneur and land owner. As director of the Bromley Electric Light Company he built, in 1898, a huge electricity generating station behind here with a tall chimney which belched black smoke over Market Square for 40 odd years.
Currently it’s a tattooists.
The Diner Inn occupies George Weeks’ 1890s extension to his original shop next door. Its grand Arts & Crafts, Dutch influenced architecture, displays both his personal success and civic pride. Note the name above the front gable and advertisement on the side wall all in enduring ceramic tiles.
This shop was built in 1901/2 when the east side of the high street was widened. It replaced an old house that was notable as having been the premises of the famous Bromley based surgeon, Dr James Scott. So respected was he that special stage coaches, known as the Scott Coaches, regularly plied for London the Bell Inn opposite for the convenience of his affluent patients.
Peter, writes in his reminisces, on the page of memories for Havelock Rec, of the manager of the store in the 1950s:
“I had a regular delivery (of broken coke) to the lady next door at No 109 Homesdale Road, called Mrs Stokes. Her husband was the manager of a large Ironmongers in the High Street called Weeks. Manager or not, he still had to come in the house through the back door AFTER HE HAD CHANGED INTO HIS SLIPPERS AND CLEANED HIS SHOES FOR THE FOLLOWING MORNING. But she was very kind to me. I still remember her giving me a lovely shiny Half a Crown for my birthday in 1943 I dropped it between the floor boards when we were hiding in the cupboard under the stairs. My parents continued to live there until my mother died. Then I moved my father to live near me in Crawley, and he sold the house to a Mr Hennesey in 1986 – I often wondered if he found my half Crown.”
In the Victorian times, Dr James Scott’s (1779-1848) had a surgery, on Bromley High Street. His surgery stood opposite the Royal Bell Hotel, where the Diners Inn (formerly George Week’s shop, as a ceramic tile panel attests) is now.
He was nationally famous and renowned, gained his notoriety on account of his specialism and success in the treatment of diseased joints and ulcers.
As Dr Scott’s reputation spread in the early 1800s, sufferers of these chronic and painful conditions from all over the country would make their way to Bromley. Many came to London and stayed in hotels, traveling down to Bromley for the day by coach. Others stayed at The Bell, The Swan and Mitre, The White Hart or one of the many other Bromley Inns. When John Harradine took over the Swan and Mitre in 1855, he found a huge collection of crutches in the loft. They had belonged to those people who had badly needed them when they arrived in Bromley, but had no need of crutches when they left. For several years Dr Scott’s annual income exceeded £10,000, a massive fortune in that period. And more than well deserved.
People from far and wide would literally sing his praises for allowing them a normal life free from terrible pain and suffering. Dr Scott was also partly responsible for the growth of the town. Families who could afford to travel the length of Britain to come to Bromley for treatment were often upper middle class, and thus many decided to live permanently in the town of Bromley, buying up houses until demand outstripped supply. New developments were built as a direct result of this. The houses on Bromley Common between Homesdale Road and St Luke’s Church date from that period.
Thanks to Bromley Gloss for this information.
Hunters the Jewellers has the finest surviving Victorian Shopfront in Bromley.
A similar design for the tailors, Walter Tarry in the Upper High Street, was saved from destruction in the 1970s and is now on permanent display at the Museum of London at the Barbican.
However, the owner has retired, so it is likely that this shop front will be lost soon.
Down Glassmill Road, the other side of the River Ravensbourne from Martins Hill, is the grassy park of Queens Mead.
It has a protected view, though this looks like it will not survive much longer:
The line of buildings that are very likely when ‘Site G’ is built (and more expected to the left of these blocks, when extra storeys are added on the redevelopment of the Hill Car park)
Browse our old photos, in
from being dominated by tower blocks: Look here and email our ward councillors about:
* High rises in the Local Plan
* housing and a hotel on the civic centre (old palace)
and
* 16+ high rises from the draft Master Plan down the Lower High Street
* and there's others...
