Fox House at 135 High Street, with the Olde Sweet Shoppe.
Fox House is a lovely 1890s building in the terrace just below Market Square.
This building is fancifully decorated, with a gable end and a dome on the roof, though it is not visible when standing in front of the shop on the High Street.
The 1939 council chamber with the decorative square recesses in the ceilingThe 1907 council chamber is now a member’s loungeThe restored 1907 courthouse
The first tour of the Former Town Halls, after their conversion and restoration, took place on Saturday 11th February (these tours are a membership benefit! join here). In 2018 the Old Town Hall on Tweedy Road, and the Town Hall Extension on Widmore Road, together with the courthouse, were sold to CastleForge, to convert to co-working offices. Now the buildings have been repaired and converted, Clockwise (who operate the shared office-space) has allowed some tours of the buildings to take place.
The document is divided into 15 ‘Guidance Notes’, most of which have good proposals. Then it outlines more detail proposals for it’s Areas and Sub-Areas. Please see our (slightly annotated) copy of the whole document:
The Supplementary Planning Document consultation has an option to fill in your opinion on each section via Survey Monkey. It’s not an especially good survey, as you can’t see what you are commenting on – you have to have the document open in another tab, and have taken notes.
The 2023 Supplementary Planning Document for Bromley Town states the NPG aim:
“well-designed places are based on a sound understanding of the surrounding context, influence their context positively and are responsive to local history, culture and heritage. Creating a positive sense of place helps to foster a sense of belonging and contributes to well-being, inclusion and community cohesion. Well-designed places respond to existing local character and identity and contribute to local distinctiveness.”
Section 4.4 of the SPD 2023.
In order to help architects who may not be able to visit the town in person, we have compiled some of the architectural elements found on Bromley’s town centre heritage buildings and conservation area.
A Goup of buildings designed by Ernest Newton, including the Star and Garter
The David Greg building in Market Square, that uses ceramic tiles to add decorative arches, a porthole window, and other embellishments
Bromley North Station. This Edwardian building is one of several with cupolas, as well as an arched entrance, pediment, and delicate iron grill work.
There is a stop on the Bromley Town Centre trail about the Old Bishops Palace (where you can view it from the Eastern Lawn), see here.
View of the Old Bishops Palace, the rear elevation, from the end of the Eastern Lawn, in 2011.The Classical Porch added to the front of the simple Georgian palace building
1000 years of Bishops of Rochester in Bromley
A colourised version of Ken Wilson’s 11th century drawing of what the Palace probably looked like.
The Bishops of Rochester lived at their palace in Bromley from the 12th century until the Church commissioners sold it off in 1856.
The palace, and surrounding land, was sold because the church had reorganised the dioceses (the area each bishop covers) and assigned the lands and parish of Bromley to the Canterbury diocese. As there was a palace at Croydon for the Archbishop of Canterbury, also a convenient day’s ride from the London, the one at Bromley was redundant. About 50 years later the parish of Bromley moved back to the diocese of Rochester.
This article is only a small part of the extensive information on this lovely historic building. It is to be hoped that the beautiful reception rooms will remain in public access given the uncertain future.
Colourised version of The “View of the Bishops Palace in Bromley”, by Hasted, said to have been drawn before the year 1756
This is the lawn and ‘rear elevation’ of Bromley Palace, usually called The Old Bishops Palace. The current building dates from 1775 (Georgian era) but when Charles Coles-Child bought The Lord of The Manor of Bromley, he added fashionable decoration to the brickwork and the arches of the arcade.
Drawing of the dilapidated Medieval palace, as reconstructed by Ken Wilson. Four times it became ruined as the land was too poor to maintain it.
Pulhams had invented an early form of concrete, which looks quite convincingly like rocks – but was much easier to install the shapes and forms that customer’s wanted. It became very fashionable – Sundridge Park paid the for more expensive installation, a gorge, that was top of the range as it included real fossils. Buckinham Palace has several, and Ramsgate installed a convincing cliff at Madeira Walk.
The basic structure was constructed from brickwork, and then the artisan would put a rendering of ‘pulhamite’ over the top, putting in rock-like layers and shapes as he plastered the render on – this was skilled job to make it look like genuine rock outcrops.
The fernery is stop 2 in our Bromley Palace Park trail, see here.
The Fernery in 2006 when surrounded by pea-gravel, before the drain blocked up.
The Fernery is one of the four Grade 2 listed features in the park. When Coles-Child bought the title of ‘Lord Of The Manor’ of Bromley from the Diocese of Rochester, he set about creating a garden worthy of his new position. He engaged James Pulham and Sons to create some fashionable rock features, they used an early form of concrete to create convincing rocks and cliffs – craftsmen sculpted the concrete over a brick frame. It took 5 years to complete the work. The Pulhamite structures are notable for being in a little-altered 19th Century landscape.
An Old an Unusual Bush
Carolina Sweet Bush, a rare flowering bush that has survived from the original historic planting.
Look in the summer and you might see one of the ornate flowers on the Carolina Sweet Bush, a rare flowering bush that is a native of the south of the USA, and was introduced to horticulture, and became fashionable in the 1860s.
The one here has survived from the original historic planting, so this bush is about 140 years old!
Pioneers of Portland Cement:
Annotated photograph of brickwork, with the pulhamite cement styled over the top.
James Pulham (1820-98) was the son of one of the pioneers of Portland cement, and he invented ‘Pulhamite’ rock, a special cement. The technique was to pour the cement over a structure made up of clinker and scrap brickwork, when the cement could be shaped into boulder-like formations. The ‘rocks’ could be made very convincing with a various surface finishes – apparently it deceived naturalist(s) though who the shamefaced naturalist is not named. Our Fernery is a large feature: 15 meters along, and 5 meters from side-to-side.
The other historic structures in the park are listed on the Bromley Palace Park page, here.
If you look on the other side of the fernery there is a path around the north side of the Moat.
Raising the crown of the Yew trees allowed more light into the Fernery in 2023.
Make your views known about… Bromley South and the need for a Masterplan SPD bulletin number 3
The Council is currently consulting on the Bromley Town Centre Supplementary Document (SPD) which provides detailed guidance for new development in Bromley Town Centre. Section 9 of the SPD refers to Bromley South where some tall buildings are most likely to occur. The area includes Site 10 (the whole of the west side of the High Street from the Churchill Theatre down to and including Bromley South Station) Site 30 (the former DHSS building) and the area south of the railway including the Waitrose store and associated parking.
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...
