The Railway Tavern Public House was built in 1879, by Berney & Sons who also designed the Star & Garter public house in the High Street.
On the side facing the station, there’s a panel with the initials N & C for the brewers Nalder and Collyer. There are visual references to shells (from the heraldic device of the scallop shell for the Rochester Diocese) and the brewers can be seen in plaster motifs and terracotta panels. It stands opposite Bromley North Station.
College Slip is the passageway which follows the old college wall. In the latter part of the 19th century it was still a country lane leading to open fields. The early 19th century cottage on the north side was the home of the nurseryman who grew his plants on the adjacent site. The nursery was originally purchased by the College in 1830 to prevent development of the site. This use continued until 1984 when the land was bought by the Council and named College Green. The rear of Bromley College can be seen across the Green.
James R. Pocock of The Seedsmans Cottage:
James R. Pocock was a gardener and a bee-keeper. Horsburgh records that “he moved about 1892 to the little cottage in College Slip, renting the Nursery ground from the College trustees.
He was sexton to the Parish Church for several years, giving up the post because he disagreed with chanting the Litany on the grounds that one could not sing and at the same time call oneself a miserable sinner. ” He died on 24 August, 1909, and an obituary notice with a portrait can be seen in the Bromley Record for October, 1909 [BBHLS Bromley History Booklet 2]
Note the red K2 type telephone kiosk at the junction with College Road which dates from 1927 and is one of a series of cast iron kiosks designed by Giles Gilbert Scott. Other cast concrete and cast iron kiosks by the same architect followed, culminating in the 1936 K6 series which were not superseded until 1968
The later models had little rectangular windows, compared with the square ones that this kiosk displays.
College Green pocket park used to be a plant nursery attached to the 17th Century colleges.
The photos below are of college slip and the seedsman’s cottage:
The Swan & Mitre is an old coaching inn, of uncertain date but at least early 18th century, which was popular with carters carrying farm produce and fish, resting on their journey to the London markets. It dates mainly from the early 19th century. In older accounts it’s sometimes referred to, as just The Swan.
The Swan and Mitre
Swan & Mitre Pub is timber built with a Georgian brick frontage and portico. It is Grade II listed and of immense historical importance being one of the three coaching Inns upon which the town’s prosperity largely depended.
The interior contains decorative mirrors which once adorned the dressing room of the Music Hall artiste, Marie Lloyd. Until relatively recently a hanging sign depicted a swan and a bishop on a stage, a witty variant of the Actress and the Bishop joke in reference to the Bishop of Rochester’s endowment of Bromley College immediately opposite.
In 1855, John Harradine took over the Swan and Mitre, and 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, to see Dr. Scott, but had no need of crutches when they left.
Until the end of the 18th century the east side of the High Street from The Bell Inn northwards, including part of the side of the college, comprised land called Grete House. This was a large private estate now covered by Walters Yard. During the Napoleonic Wars part of the area became known as ‘Prison Yard’. A temporary building on the site was used to hold French prisoners being marched through the country in the periods between 1797 and 1815. The yard is said to be named after John Walter, who ran a smithy which enjoyed a high reputation locally.
Nos. 196-198 High Street was a dwelling house which became used as a wine merchant towards the end of the 18th century. George Pamphilon became the owner in 1865 and in 1876 he rebuilt the premises. The timber shopfront reflects the design as it was in the 19th century. Note the lettering on the arch to the right and the grape detail on the pilasters. The building is being refurbished as a restaurant.
George Pampilons name carved modestly in doorway arch
Decorated pillar with date and bunch of grapes
The name Pamphilon is displayed above the right hand entrance which was formally an opening to an ancient rear courtyard of stables, incorporated into the main building in a few years ago, but suffered partial demolition in 2019 contrary to planning permission.
George Pamphilon was also an importer of Champagne from Epernay in France and this is celebrated in the carved bunches of grapes above the external columns (pilasters).
The Partridge Public House stands at the junction of Church Road and was originally built for the National Provincial Bank in 1927 by architects Gunton & Gunton. It became a Public House in 1995.
This building is a superb example of the ‘Neo Georgian’ wing of the Arts and Crafts movement. Architects of this style were reviving architecture of the late Stuart period, so details of this building are similar to the Bromley College to the north, built 250 years earlier.
Essentially only the tower still survives of the Medieval church, of St Peter and St Paul. It was originally at/before 1226, then rebuilt in 1327, and in 1824-30, only to be gutted in the “Bromley Blitz” bombing raid of 16th April, 1941.
The building now occupied by Primark, was built as a high-end department store for Fred Meadhurst’s. The name ‘Medhurst’ is inscribed high above the central entrance.
View of Market Square from the Greig building, looking at the former Medhurst building
Fred Medhursts emporium
Medhurst’s started in 1879 as a drapery shop by Fred Medhurst, and built up from the first shop at 49 High Street, being so successful that successive adjoining shops were bought as they became vacant, expanding the business until it took up a large part of the west side of the High Street.
One of these shops was number 47, which had been the unsuccessful Atlas House, owned by the father of the famous author HG Wells. It was where he spent his childhood years (see more details here).
Eventually, Medhurst’s had this fine Art Deco /classical style department store built, in 1930, and traded as a family-owned business until it was sold to a large chain in 1969.
‘New Cut’ row of shops along the High Street, bought by Medhursts. Includes No.47 formerly Joseph Wells Emporium
Medhursts was a household name in Bromley by the 1930s, with some of the staff, milliners and dressmakers living on the premises. The store front has changed little to this day, and the old name is still just visible, carved high up on the stonework.
The store then became Allders, and is now occupied by Primark.
medhursts advert 1940s
This classy building was erected in 1888 by the local butcher David Harris. It was designed by Walter Albert Williams and built in the Flemish style (so details are lifted from medieval cities like Bruge) of the Arts and Crafts movements. His butchers shop occupied the corner unit with the other 3 shops being rented out.
Look closely at this building and you can see dragons and putti (like cherubs) in the carved stone decoration. Very medieval.
Having grown rich during the boom years after the coming of the railway in 1858 and not content with this magnificent display of civic pride, the following year, Mr Harris brought professional theatre to Bromley by building the Grand Hall later known as the New Theatre where BHS now stands.
Above the first floor window are terracotta carvings which include the letters ‘C’ and ‘H’ for Covell & Harris (the butchers). Also notable are the little dragons on one side and the oriel window, with a medieval style statue above.
David Harris (the Harris out of Covil & Harris) then occupied the corner section with three other units rented out. Having grown rich during the boom years after the coming of the railway in 1858 and not content with this magnificent display of civic pride, the following year, Mr Harris brought professional theatre to Bromley by building the Grand Hall later known as the New Theatre where BHS now stands.
Market Square is the centre of the Old Town which, until the coming of the railway in 1858, comprised a single street (down the side of market square). It has been re-laid out, twice, in it’s history.
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...
