Bromley Gloss - London Borough of Bromley - Current, Upcoming, Historic

Bromley Gloss - London Borough of Bromley - Current, Upcoming, Historic LONDON BOROUGH OF BROMLEY! PLUS occasional pieces on ANYTHING from ANYWHERE. You Can Share EVERYTHING Local Bromley Borough & there Abouts to This Page.

This Page: facebook.com/BromleyGloss Featuring LONDON BOROUGH OF BROMLEY plus occasionals about ANYTHING from ANYWHERE. Photos, Videos, Gems, Legends, Info, History, Nostalgia, Topical, News, Muses, Music, People, Artists; Places, Facts, Memories, Long Lost, Alternative; Surprises, Stores, Stories, Sport, Fashion; Events, Comedy, Nightlife, Nightclubs; Pubs, Peculiarities, Pick'n'Mix! All the Bes

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Debz: facebook.com/dzadewalsh
Page Founder/Manager/Editor/Narrator, Researcher - Historical/Topical, Post Creator, Administrator, Videographer/Photographer. Bjorn: Page Researcher, Videographer, Photographer
Dave: Page Researcher; Historical Detail, Current Affairs. Lucas: Page Researcher; Historical Detail, Current Affairs.

The Broadway, Bromley High Street, looking South, circa 1905.
26/07/2026

The Broadway, Bromley High Street, looking South, circa 1905.

A Suffragette procession in London, undated. In the background you can see a banner with Bromley printed on it. Thanks a...
26/07/2026

A Suffragette procession in London, undated. In the background you can see a banner with Bromley printed on it. Thanks again to Felicity who wrote: ‘One of those Suffragettes would have taught at Bromley County School. There was a mistress there who was dismissed for her activities with them’.

“THE CROWNS” 👑👑 OF WIDMORE ROAD BROMLEY. Photo shows the Widmore Road facade of The Glades Shopping Centre. It was built...
26/07/2026

“THE CROWNS” 👑👑 OF WIDMORE ROAD BROMLEY. Photo shows the Widmore Road facade of The Glades Shopping Centre. It was built in the late 1980s and opened in 1991. The Glades architecture was intentionally themed and designed by Chapman Taylor and Partners to avoid harsh "brutalist" blocks, instead using features that borrow directly from the local town heritage. The two distinct "crowned" towers were, first, designed to pay homage to Widmore Roads demolished and lost to WW2 grand historic architecture, and second to disguise The Glades upper level carpark.

Building regulations and local planning guidelines required the massive bulk of the concrete car park structure to be hidden from the street view. The two towers and their steep mansard roof lines basically function as a decorative screen, so that all you see from the street is a traditional, grand facade that blend perfectly with other Victorian architecture of Widmore Road. The Glades was an instant hit, we have included a couple of internal photos from the early days.

SAVED FROM THE WRECKING BALL. Now home to Ravenstone Estates, 201 Bromley High Street. Over the decades it has housed e...
26/07/2026

SAVED FROM THE WRECKING BALL. Now home to Ravenstone Estates, 201 Bromley High Street. Over the decades it has housed everything from nightlife like Bar 201, Greater Than Gatsby, and Caligulette, back to iconic childhood favourites like Zodiac Toys and Sidney Ross. This classic piece of the high street recently survived a developer's attempt to level it entirely for a generic four-story block of flats. Thanks to Bromley Civic Society and a wave of local objections, the council firmly rejected the application, keeping this historic architecture right where it belongs.

GOING GOING GONE, HOUSE ON LONDON ROAD BROMLEY🧱The prominent Victorian building near the top of London Road Bromley Nort...
26/07/2026

GOING GOING GONE, HOUSE ON LONDON ROAD BROMLEY🧱

The prominent Victorian building near the top of London Road Bromley North has officially been demolished. While it spent its final years operating as a local healthcare and support hub, its roots run deeper into Bromley's civic past. It once served as the towns official coroner’s office. Situated just a short distance from the historic London Road Cemetery, which opened in 1877, the building was a central piece of the area's early municipal infrastructure. Fascinating that the original basement repository remained intact and still accessible through every single subsequent change, staying untouched until the bulldozers finally moved in. With the old brickwork cleared for a new residential development, a piece of local history has officially vanished from the streetscape.

GROWING UP IN BROMLEY EARLY 2000s. Love this list by Jade who wrote: “Only those that grew up in Bromley in the early 2...
23/07/2026

GROWING UP IN BROMLEY EARLY 2000s. Love this list by Jade who wrote: “Only those that grew up in Bromley in the early 2000s will understand these ❣️

👩🏻 1. Girls were all kitted out in clothes from Tammy Girl

👩🏻 2. You partied in Blush. Yes that underage disco where you followed your crush around whilst wearing half a tub of wet-look hair gel on your head

👩🏻 3. Every Friday evening you went to ‘splash’ at the Pavilion Leisure Centre, which was an adult free zone for a couple of hours and the swimming pools were packed with hormonal teenagers

👩🏻 4. Getting turfed out of The Glades if you were wearing a school uniform

👩🏻 5. Hanging out in Virgin Megastore listening to all the new CDs - probably along the lines of Sean Paul, Britney Spears, Girls Aloud or garage music

👩🏻 6. You borrowed fake ID to gain entry into Delanos nightclub, don't deny it - we all know you did

👩🏻 7. You brought your school shoes from Dolcie's and dolly shoes were the style

👩🏻 8. You persuaded your mum to buy something from fashion store Jane Norman so you could use the bag for your school P.E. kit

👩🏻 9. You tried to get into The Bell millions of times when underage and failed miserably

👩🏻 10. You always hung around in Churchill Park, Norman Park, Foxes Field, Chislehurst Rec or any other green space because there was absolutely nothing else to do

👩🏻 11. You always looked forward to the panto at the Churchill Theatre even if you tried to pretend you were too cool to go to it

👩🏻 12. You purchased "smelly" gel pens from WHSmith and spent most of your time inhaling strange fruity aromas rather then using them to write in your homework book

👩🏻 13. Every boy couldn't wait to turn sweet 16 to get a moped and drive around the borough trying to do a wheelie and sounding like a broken hair dryer

👩🏻 14. Only shopping in Woolworths for sweets, which was basically the most exciting candy experience since W***y Wonka closed his factory

👩🏻 15. You would buy a £1 bus pass and hop on and hop off buses all day with your mates like a group of enthusiastic, really loud, annoying tourists

👩🏻 16. You turned yourself upside down on the hearts and diamonds ride at the Bromley Common funfair - people weren't too heavy on health and safety regulations back then

👩🏻 17. You went to Langtrys nightclub in Beckenham for your 18th birthday

👩🏻 18. The food court down by Boots in the Glades was the place to be!”

🌿 STORY BEHIND BROMLEY'S COAT OF ARMS Granted on 20 April 1965, the London Borough of Bromley when merging five local au...
21/07/2026

🌿 STORY BEHIND BROMLEY'S COAT OF ARMS

Granted on 20 April 1965, the London Borough of Bromley when merging five local authorities, chose a clean unified design rather than combining the older arms.

The Five Merged Authorities: The central silver flower has five petals to represent the five merged entities:

Municipal Borough of Beckenham
Municipal Borough of Bromley
Orpington Urban District
Penge Urban District
Part of Chislehurst and Sidcup Urban District

The Shield: A green field i.e. the background color of the shield, reflects the area's wooded landscape.

The Acorns: These honor Kent’s iconic oak trees and represent the new borough's growth.

The Crest: Crossed swords mark local military establishments, paired with a scallop shell from the Diocese of Rochester.

The Supporters: A silver dragon links Bromley to Greater London, while the White Horse of Kent honors its former county.

A permanent visual record of the 1965 boundary changes 🛡️
______________________________________

Local history note: Prior to 1965, Chislehurst and Sidcup were combined under one local district. When the borough boundaries were redrawn, the old district was split: Chislehurst joined Bromley, while Sidcup went to Bexley.

Ancestral Mathematics
20/07/2026

Ancestral Mathematics

FORMER LAURA ASHLEY STORE August 2018, at 54-62 Bromley High Street. This prominent high street unit has sat empty since...
19/07/2026

FORMER LAURA ASHLEY STORE August 2018, at 54-62 Bromley High Street. This prominent high street unit has sat empty since the nationwide collapse and closure of Laura Ashley in 2020.

WOLFE & HOLLANDER
The historic Art Deco building it occupied in Bromley was originally constructed in the 1930s for Wolfe & Hollander, a well-known furniture shop, and features a distinctive brick and stone facade with a landmark clock. The upper levels are now undergoing major changes. Bromley Council approved a redevelopment project to construct a three-storey vertical extension on top of the original structure for residential use, preserving the historic frontage while the empty retail spaces below await their next chapter.

FOLKLORE
The building’s iconic facade clock is said to have played a role in World War II. N**i propaganda broadcaster William Brooke Joyce aka Lord Haw-Haw explicitly called out this building in a radio transmission, mockingly announcing that "the clock on Wolfe & Hollander's in Bromley High Street was running five minutes slow and would not be there tomorrow!"

STANDING PROUD
The building survived the subsequent Blitz bombing that night, and the clock is still embedded in the masonry today.


Window into the past. This WW2 Ration Book dated 18 July 1941 belonged to Mr Frederick Eugene Hecquet of 238 Burnt Ash L...
19/07/2026

Window into the past. This WW2 Ration Book dated 18 July 1941 belonged to Mr Frederick Eugene Hecquet of 238 Burnt Ash Lane, Bromley, Kent. Back in 2019 Maria spotted it on an American website where it was being sold as a vintage wall poster. Thanks again for sharing💜. It is incredible how an everyday item from the past transforms into such a special piece of history today.

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