This was the Bishops Palace for the Bishops of Rochester, and later became Stockwell College. These buildings that currently form the seat of our local government is to be split into 3 parts so that the central section can become housing and a hotel:
Site 1A – Civic Centre north section, multi-storey car park, Stockwell building
Site 1B – central belt of the Civic Centre and old Palace grounds
This was Site F in the 2010 Area Action Plan.
70 units. Conflicted by being placed on the Urban Open Space area. Future of the listed old Bishops Palace is not clear, looking like being a hotel. Objections to selling the parkland / urban open space for the housing: here
Local Plans set out a framework for the future development of an area, addressing needs and opportunities in relation to housing, the economy and infrastructure – as well as being a basis for safeguarding the environment and securing good design.
Local Plans also help to guide decisions about individual development proposals, as they are the starting-point for considering whether planning applications can be approved. It is important for all local authorities to have an up to date plan in place to positively guide development decisions.
Bromley Council does not as yet have an up to date Local Plan in place. A report to the Council’s Development Control Committee on the 11 July 2016 endorsed a draft Local Plan, and this was confirmed at the Executive meeting on 20 July 2016. Consultation took place at the end of 2016.
The response to this consultation was reported to Development Control Committee on 12 June 2017 and to the council’s Executive on the 20 June, seeking agreement to ask Full Council for approval to submit the Draft Local Plan to the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) for examination. The Full Council at its meeting on 26 June 2017 approved the Draft Local Plan for submission to the Secretary of State. We now await a date for the examination which will be led by the Planning Inspectorate (PINS).
If you would like to read more about Local Plans, you may be interested to read the letter from the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (who has responsibility for planning matters) to the Chief Executive of the Planning Inspectorate. The letter sets out the government’s current position on examining local plans and links to wider measures that the government says it will be taking to improve plan making.
In October 2010 Bromley Council approved a major plan for central Bromley which will mould development for the next 15 years. We were actively involved in the consultation process—commenting on the plan’s general aspirations and the site specific policies it contains. You can download the AAP documents from the council website. These documents include a map which identifies the various site designations in central Bromley (Sites B, G, K, L etc).
We have voiced our support for many of the aspirations of the draft AAP but raised concerns about the detail and what is proposed for some of the sites. We believe that many of the Council’s proposals are just plain wrong—they are not based on proper evidence and often contradict local and national planning policy aspirations. We know that many people in Bromley share our concern. Our public meeting to discuss the AAP attracted over 150 local residents. If the Council gets this wrong we will be living with the consequences for many years to come.
We will thoroughly review planning applications for each of the sites and make our comments on them.
Introduced in 2011 through the Localism Act, Neighbourhood Planning allows local residents and businesses to have their own planning policies in a Neighbourhood Plan that reflects their priorities, delivers tangible local benefits and has real weight in planning decisions. Neighbourhood Plans can deal with single issue planning policies such as heritage and conservation, or include multiple policies centering on specific site development.
The Queen’s Speech in May 2015 indicated that the Government will legislate to speed up the neighbourhood planning process and make it easier for communities to develop a plan. The Government’s delivery body, Locality, has useful information about Neighbourhood Planning via the link below:
Opened on the 21st December 1936, it is one of Odeon’s original “Oscar Deutsch Odeon” cinemas, in Art Deco style, by George Coles.
TODO replace with one from camera. By Simon Steele.
It seated 1,492 in the main auditorium; with 1,018 in the stalls and 474 in the circle.
In 2006 the Empire chain bought the property, with Cineworld then aquiring it in 2106. They restored the frontage, restored the Art Deco decor, and opened it as a Picturehouse cinema in 2019. The bar/cafe has period decor recovered from the Co-op building in Widmore Road on demolition in 1998 (and stored in our chairman’s wife’s garage in between times!).
David Bowie (the famous musician!) was born in Southwark. His parents then moved to Bromley South (106 Canon Road, and briefly attending Raglan Road School), before settling at 4 Plaistow Grove, where he spent his school years, attending Ravenswood School For Boys. In 1969 he moved out of Bromley, to Foxgrove Road, Beckenham.
Like other sons of Bromley he does not seem to have had any affection for the town of his birth; however, like all true natives (and converts), when something disgusted him, it is reputed he would say “That’s so [insert your epithet here] Croydon”
At his Plaistow Grove family home, 1958/9.
At the bandstand in Croydon Road Rec, Beckenham.
Here’s a picture of him with his early band, the Konrads, on the balustrade in our Church House Gardens, thanks to Bromley Bowie (who are recommended for more information, as is the page from South London Guide).
Until recent years, Primark in Bromley high street was an Allders department store, and before then it was home to Medhursts, a large independent department store, founded in 1879.
A young David Bowie was a frequent visitor to Medhursts, calling in on the way home from school, enjoying the latest releases in a listening booth of the record department, before buying some of them at a discounted price from a sales attendant he befriended.
Here’s David Bowie himself recalling those days and some of the records he bought from Medhursts in an interview he gave for Nokia in 2006, when he listed some of his favourite albums:
“Medhurst was the biggest departmental store in Bromley, my British hometown in the early sixties. In terms of style, they were to be pulverized by their competitors down the road who stocked up early on the new ‘G-Plan’ Scandinavian style furniture. But they did have, unaccountably, a fantastic record department.
“Run by a wonderful ‘married’ couple, Jimmy and Charles, there wasn’t an American release they didn’t have or couldn’t get. Quite as hip as any London supplier, I would have had a very dry musical run if it were not for this place. Jane Green, their counter assistant, took a liking to me and whenever I would pop in, which was most afternoons after school, she would let me play records in the ‘sound booth’ to my heart’s content till they closed at 5.30 p.m.
“Jane would often join me and we would smooch big-time to the sounds of Ray Charles or Eddie Cochran. This was very exciting as I was around thirteen or fourteen and she would be a womanly seventeen at that time. My first older woman. Charles let me buy at a huge discount enabling me to build up a fab collection over the two or three years that I frequented this store. Happy days.
“Jimmy, the younger partner, recommended this Mingus album one-day around 1961. I lost my original Medhurst copy but have continued to re-buy it throughout the years as it was re-released time and time again. It has on it the rather giveaway track ‘Wham Bam Thank You Ma’am’. It was also my introduction to Roland Kirk.
The Fabulous Little Richard – Little Richard – 1959 Specialty
“Unusually subdued, these performances were recorded by Richard at his first Specialty sessions in 1955. It was sold to me discounted by Jane Greene.
James Brown – Live At the Apollo – KING 1963
“My schoolmate Geoff MacCormack brought this around to my house one afternoon, breathless and overexcited. ‘You have never, in your life, heard anything like this” he said. I made a trip to see Jane Greene that very afternoon. Two of the songs on this album ‘Try Me’ and ‘Lost Someone’, became loose inspirations for Ziggy’s ‘Rock and Roll Suicide’. Brown’s Apollo performance still stands for me as one of the most exciting live albums ever. Soul music now had an undisputed king.
So, where Bromley Primark now stands was once Medhursts, a department store where a young David Bowie bought his vinyl. Also, 13 years before becoming Medhursts it was the birth place of HG Wells. There’s a plaque to commemorate this on the front of the building.
“Thanks Amanda for info and photos! Photos showing the site from 1935 (before construction), 1940, 1950’s, 2007, and 2014.
“Bromley’s first cinema opened in 1909 in a converted theatre. But by the 1930s large scale development all around the area created a demand for a much grander venue. The Gaumont, one of the thirties’ “super cinemas”, was built on the site of a music college and a health centre and was one of the many signs between the wars that Bromley was changing from a market town to a London suburb.
“Designed by William E. Trent, it opened in 1936 and included a cafe and an organ, on the junction of the High Street and Ravensbourne Road. The most impressive external feature was the flat topped tower on the corner over the entrance, which sported a large vertical sign spelling out the cinema’s name in neon on both sides but after the War it lost the battle with its main rival the Odeon. It would run a Saturday morning children club for sixpence they could watch films, also the odd extra event was also run for children.
The Gaumont was closed by the Rank Organisation on 18th Feb 1961, showing Bradford Dillman in “Circle of Deception” and Richard Basehart in “None but the Brave”(For the Love of Mike). The building was gutted internally and converted into a department store. Debenhams took over in early 1960’s. By 2009, the building has been sub-divided into several stores, one being Habitat, which was located at the former entrance to the Gaumont. Most recently Dreams Beds occupies the site”
2007 Outside queue and inside view1940sBefore constructionDetail of the balconies (September 2019)September 2019
“On Saturday mornings many of us attended the Gaumont cinema at Bromley South where, for sixpence, we would sing popular songs before watching features like Zorro, Hopalong Cassidy, Roy Rogers and Dick Barton – Special Agent. At one time we had yoyo championships on stage and my pal Pete Gilbert, another Raglan Road pupil, won a dart board and I won a cricket bat which I still have.”
Locally listed 1960s style with pleasant proportions, and a framed rectangle section at the front, and coloured panels. It is the work of architect Bertrum Carter, and was the second rebuild for Dunn furniture store and funeral services, who had traded in Market Square since 1710.
The previous building, a rebuild after the 1909 Market Square fire, was a fine 1920s Arts and Crafts black-and-white framed building incorporating a series of yards and sheds at the back, which housed not just the furniture that Dunns sold, but the workshop for their funeral business. There is much fascinating detail of the building and the family business at their site here…
Rebuilt after the 1909 fire, the Arts and Crafts building that was lost in WW2
This black-and-white building was bombed and burnt down in the 16th April 1941 raid that also destroyed Bromley Place and the town centre churches.
The store after the bombing raid of 16th April 1941 which also saw the loss of Bromley Place, the parish church and St Marks, and more. Photo from the ROC association.
The business became best known for its furniture design and had a large shop in the Market Square which was destroyed by bombing in 1941 (see Royal Observer Corps Association page). There’s an account of housewives salvaging the soap from the former Brickpit (now Havelock Rec) here…
Somewhat avant-guard Swedish chairs from Dunns
Following the bombing Geoffrey Dunn traded on the bomb site using a temporary building for furniture sales, then rebuilt the shop and continued trading for another 40 years before eventually closing in 1980.
Extract from the obituary of Geoffrey Dunn – Daily Telegraph 8 January 1998 at the age of 88… at KentCrawlersKlub website
“Geoffrey
Dunn was a handsome man with a striking profile who was always impeccably
dressed. He was a brilliant raconteur.
The
campaign for good design, which Dunn supported, came into its own during the
Festival of Britain in 1951. He served on the Council of Industrial Design
(which became the Design Council) and the Duke of Edinburgh’s Design Award. He
was also a life fellow and gold medallist of the Royal Society of Arts…
Geoffrey
Edward Dunn was born at Bromley, Kent, on July 20 1909 and educated at
Woodbridge, Suffolk. His father, Edward… kept a tight rein on the business
and did not easily indulge “Mr Geoffrey’s” taste for modern
furniture. During the war, the Dunn’s
building was set on fire by an incendiary bomb. Geoffrey Dunn is supposed to
have shouted: “Let it burn!”
The destruction of the building gave him the opportunity he needed to change the character of the shop and accommodate a new attitude to design… After wartime service on minesweepers, Dunn rebuilt the business in new premises designed by his friend, the modernist architect Bertram Carter [there’s a stub article on wiki here]. The [1954-57] building was praised by Nikolaus Pevsner, the architectural critic, for its intricate and fascinating interior…
With
no family to carry on the business, Dunn asked Heals to take over upon his
retirement in 1976, hoping the standards he had set would be preserved. Heals
eventually had to sell off the Bromley shop, even though it was still trading
successfully. During the 1980s, Bertram Carter’s building was occupied by a
branch of Brentford Nylons.”
Striking octagonal building on Widmore Road. The listing describes it as “Christian Science Church. 1928 by E Braxton Sinclair in an inventive Neo- Classical style with brickwork and doors reminiscent of Art-Deco cinemas”.
The peripheries have been converted to housing, along with the neighbouring police station, but the main building seems to be gently decaying.
It’s hard to imagine Bromley when the lower high street was fields or suburban villas, but some of these photos bring those distant eras back. Even when the railway came to Bromley in 1850s, it took another 40 years before it became part of London, here’s a description from one of HG Well’s books (see our page for more):
Browse our old photos, in 
from being dominated by tower blocks: Look here and email our ward councillors about:
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