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LONDON BOROUGH OF BROMLEY! PLUS occasional pieces on ANYTHING from ANYWHERE. You Can Share EVERYTHING Local Bromley Borough & there Abouts to This Page.

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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.

01/11/2026

BROMLEY HISTORY: APPRENTICES, AIR TUBES & LOST ROW OF CHURCH ROAD. This view captures Church Road circa 1910, showing a row of buildings that vanished from the town centre in the 1960s. On the left is E. Clarke & Son and further down, the shop front of "The Little Shop" is just visible.

PRIMARK FOOTPRINT. These buildings stood where the side of Primark runs today. While the main Art Deco storefront on Market Square opened in 1930, Fred Medhurst already owned a portion of this row. The surviving properties were eventually absorbed, and the entire block was cleared in the early 1960s to make way for the side extension to the department store.

GRUELING LIFE OF A DRAPER'S APPRENTICE. As the business expanded, Medhursts became much more than a simple drapers shop, growing into a grand department store. Yet behind the polished storefront, working in a drapery business during the Edwardian era and later involved rigid discipline. A young H.G. Wells worked as a draper's apprentice in Bromley and went on to write about the grueling conditions across multiple semi-autobiographical novels. Staff typically lived "above the shop" in cramped communal dormitories, working 14-hour days under a strict system of financial fines for minor infractions like speaking to a colleague or failing to stand for an approaching customer. This nationwide punitive practice came to slow end between the 1910s - 1940s. It took a combination of aggressive trade union strikes, landmark government laws, and the social upheaval of World War I to finally break the system.

REVOLUTIONARY CASH TUBES. Inside the store, transactions relied on a pneumatic cash system, a technology that first came about in the late 1880s. Sales assistants did not process money directly; instead, they placed the customer's cash into a small metal capsule. This canister was propelled by air pressure through overhead tubes to a central cashier's box, which shot the correct change and a stamped receipt back down the line a few moments later. While it feels like ancient history now, local residents may remember that the "whooshing" tube system survived well into the lifespan of Co-op Department Store on Widmore Road.

30/10/2026

🍺 TWO PINTS OF L***R AND A PACKET OF CRISPS: PUNK ANTHEM BORN IN CHISLEHURST 🍺 Ever rushed into a pub right before last orders, waving cash, only to be brutally denied? That exact heartbreak at the Crown Inn in Chislehurst inspired one of the greatest punk-novelty hits of all time: ‘Two Pints of L***r and a Packet of Crisps’ by Splodgenessabounds.

Max Splodge recounted the chaotic origin story: “One night I rushed into the Crown in Chislehurst waving a pound note, trying to buy 2 pints of l***r and a packet of crisps. The bell rang and the bloke wouldn’t serve me. The next day I put down a drum track and bass line and just shouted, ‘Two pints of l***r and a packet of crisps please!’ Mike Reid ended up playing it on Radio 1 and it started selling 17,000 copies a day.”

Formed in Keston, Bromley, the band released the track in 1980. Amazingly, it was just the B-side to their debut single ‘Simon Templar’. But thanks to the legendary John Peel blasting it on the airwaves, it completely eclipsed the A-side—propelling the single all the way to number 7 in the charts. (⚫ Definitely check out that ‘Simon Templar’ track too—it is brilliantly naughty!)

You can still find the Crown Inn standing proud on School Road, Chislehurst (BR7).

30/10/2026

ARMY & NAVY: AN EXTENSIVE SELECTION IN THE HEART OF TOWN. Managed under the House of Fraser portfolio, the store functioned as a traditional multi-floor destination where you could buy almost anything for the family and the home under one roof. Its eventual closure in 2004, followed closely by the loss of the town's flagship Allders store, marked a noticeable shift for the local high street.

APPAREL, BEAUTY, AND ACCESSORIES. For personal styling and everyday essentials, shoppers could find sections dedicated to ladies' fashions, jewellery, lingerie, menswear, tailoring, children's attire and school wear, alongside a main shoe department and standard cosmetics, skincare, and perfumery counters. Plus a bespoke wedding and bridal registry service, and a specialised bag and luggage department.

HOBBIES & DECOR. The store also catered to daily needs and hobbies with practical areas for haberdashery fabrics, wool, sewing machines, stationery, accessories, toys and games. Plus sections dedicated to crockery, cutlery, ornaments, lighting, and bedding.

HOME GOODS, APPLIANCES, AND LEISURE. The retail experience extended significantly into home styling and household goods, utilising a secondary building linked via a pedestrian walkway over Ringers Road. In these home sections, visitors could browse showrooms filled with furniture and carpets/flooring, pick up hardware and general furnishings, buy audio visual, and major domestic appliances such as fridges and washer dryers. The connected complex also provided entertainment options, featuring a standard music section. The store also sold carpets and flooring with a professional home measurement and fitting service.

HIRE PURCHASE. Big-ticket items like furniture and cookers could be purchased using interest-free hire purchase, a traditional financing option that allowed families to spread the cost without extra fees—a perk that is almost impossible to find on the high street now. The loss of these department stores marked the end of an era, when a single trip to the town centre could sort out the entire household.

30/10/2026

1960s WAR ON VICTORIANA. GALLERY OF DEMISE AND REPLACEMENT. By the 1960s, town planners and architects viewed Victoriana not as heritage, but as obstacles that needed to be eradicated. Operating under an aggressive "clean sweep" ideology, these postwar builders genuinely believed they held a moral mandate to flatten the past. Armed with concrete, glass, and a disdain for the 19th century, they set out to aggressively wipe away old brick structures, replacing them with modernist high-rises and ring roads that prioritised traffic flow and clinical uniformity over historical character.

THE BROMLEY & CROYDON CRUSADE. While Bromley lost key historic assets—demolishing its original 1906 Carnegie Library, the central Methodist Church, and the historic multi-gabled White Hart Inn - the most extreme example of this crusade took place in Croydon. Backed by special legislation to bypass standard planning laws, Croydon's planners completely rebuilt their town centre into a concrete modernisation experiment. They tore down most of the town centres Victorian heritage to force through a massive flyover, walls of commercial office towers, and a raw-concrete open air shopping mall.

UNWANTED MEMORIES. The hatred driving these planners was fueled by a deep rejection of a Victorian world they still vividly remembered firsthand. To mid-century councils and an older generation who had lived through its final decades, these soot-blackened brick monuments were physical reminders of the workhouse, brutal class segregation, and a suffocating social order based on forced subservience. The buildings were viewed as dark, drafty, and unhygienic relics of an era that relied on human misery and manual grime. Demolishing them was a deliberate political and social statement—an intentional act of tearing down the literal brickwork of British poverty to forge an egalitarian landscape.

MODERNIST BLINDSPOT. Driven by the decade's focus on technological progress, planners embraced an arrogant certainty that their new, modular concrete creations were universally superior. Their entire strategy was deeply flawed because it prioritised cheap, experimental materials over proven architectural longevity, and valued rapid car-centric road engineering above actual human community. In their rush to clear out the "dingy" past, these architects developed a profound blindspot; they failed to realise that their cold, windswept concrete plazas and poorly insulated tower blocks would rapidly decay, creating entirely new social fractures and deep public resentment within a generation.

30/10/2026

THE ROYAL BELL: GRIT, SWEAT & COBBLESTONES IN VICTORIAN BROMLEY. This photograph captures Bromley High Street North shortly before the 17th-century hostelry was demolished for the 1898 rebuild. The unpaved street was a hub of local trade, lined with shops like Howard’s and a saddler displaying goods on the facade. Daily conditions meant the loud clatter of iron horseshoes, heavy iron-rimmed wheels, mud, and horse manure constantly accumulating from passing traffic.

RENTAL FACTORY. Operating on a site traced back to an inn from at least 1646, the venue capitalised on the intense demands of long-distance transit. Originally known simply as The Bell, the establishment was later granted its "Royal" prefix after securing a lucrative contract to service Queen Victoria’s mail coaches. The inn functioned as a commercial horse-rental network on the heavily traveled highway between London and the coast. Because coach horses pulling heavy loads at a fast pace reached peak physical exhaustion after ten to twelve miles, northbound operators left their tired teams at the stables here to rest before pushing the final stretch left into London, while southbound travelers hired fresh, energetic teams to continue their journey toward Sevenoaks and Hastings.

PRIVILEGE & PUNISHING LABOUR. The inn was a stark class intersection. Wealthy travellers used it to hire fresh horses—a factual detail Jane Austen included in Pride and Prejudice. In contrast, stable hands and ostlers (stable men) endured grueling 14-hour days managing powerful, half-ton horses that could easily crush or kick a man when startled. Labouring bare-handed without protective gloves, staff suffered deep blisters and rope burns from heavy harnesses. In unventilated, ammonia-choked stalls, young stable boys slept in unheated haylofts to stay on call for overnight arrivals, developing chronic rheumatism from washing livestock with freezing well water in exposed winter courtyards.

DEFERENCE OR DESTITUTION. With no employment rights, these workers took pride in their grueling trade, failure was not an option. Showing rigid deference to their social superiors was a strict condition of survival; any slip in obedience could bring immediate termination and severe consequences. In a society without a safety net, losing a place at the inn meant facing the very real alternatives of vagrancy laws, a prison cell, the horrors of the workhouse, or literal starvation.

29/10/2026

🥧 END OF A BROMLEY LANDMARK: KENNEDY’S SAUSAGES. The historic family chain opened its very first shop in 1877. Generations later, Kennedy’s Sausages operated at Bromley South and Bromley North. A huge part of the brand's enduring charm was how fiercely they clung onto their beautiful vintage look. Long after modern retailers shifted to contemporary designs, Kennedy’s proudly preserved their old-fashioned wooden shopfronts, classic tilework, and bold, eye-catching signage. Stepping into a branch always felt like taking a nostalgic step back in time.

CLOSURE AFTER 130 YEARS
After 130 years of business across south-east London, Kennedy's officially shut its doors for good on 22 December 2007. Company Director Chris Kennedy confirmed the finality of the closure from their Peckham headquarters, marking the definitive end of the historic family operation. The decision to close was forced by a perfect storm of unsustainable commercial pressures. High business rates, rising manufacturing overheads, compounded by intense competition from modern supermarkets, which completely eroded their daily customer footfall. Ultimately, shifting consumer habits and a steep decline in trade meant fewer people were buying their traditional fare, leaving the directors with no choice but to fold the historic company. A sad day.

FOND MEMORIES DON'T PAY BILLS. Even today, locals frequently express just how deeply they miss the beloved institution and its iconic bangers. However, as fondly as the community remembers the shop, the harsh reality remains that independent high street businesses cannot survive on warm nostalgia alone if customers aren't actively stepping through the door to support them.

A PROUD LEGACY
Still, for those lucky enough to remember queuing up on a Saturday morning, watching the sausages being expertly twisted, or picking up one of those famous apricot pies from the classic counter, Kennedy’s and its independent spirit will always hold a legendary spot in Bromley's history.

25/10/2026

OLD TOWN NEWS🗣 / AND THE LOCAL STATIONER WHO MAPPED BROMLEY💜. This is Widmore Road in the early 1900s, a postcard created by newsagent and stationer John J.N. Curwood who made his living selling newspapers, stationery, and to***co at 108 Widmore Road. His great legacy was mapping Bromley’s history with a camera. As a talented amateur photographer, he spent the Edwardian era and the 1920s capturing the town centre, doing his bit to preserve town memories.

🗞 NEWSPAPERS THICK WALLS OF TEXT. If you bought a copy of the Bromley & District Times or the Bromley Journal from Curwood’s shop on the day this photo was taken, you wouldn't find modern sensational headlines. Instead, the layout consisted of thick walls of densely structured text and literal logs. The front pages detailed the weekly expenditures of Bromley Union Workhouse alongside official medical officer reports tracking scarlet fever and diphtheria isolation lists.

🗞 PETTY SESSION LOGS: A BLUNT NAME & SHAME. Turn to the columns from Bromley Petty Sessions and you would find the community's everyday crimes served as a public wall of shame. Police court logs listed the names and addresses of working-class women arrested for solicitation in the alleyways off Market Square, though it was masked under clinical legal jargon like "soliciting to the annoyance of passengers". Edwardian authorities chose to expose these women's names and addresses because the legal and social system prioritised public deterrence and social control over the safety of the women. Alongside them, the columns meticulously listed things like shop assistants caught embezzling pence from the till, cyclists fined for riding at night without a lighted lamp, tradesmen caught using unjust weighing scales, residents publicly penalised for violating regional muzzling orders designed to combat rabies, and much more besides. Under strict public decency laws, residents could even find themselves hauled before the bench and fined for letting out profanities in the town centre, catalogued on the wall of shame in the next daily edition🧐.

25/10/2026

🪑 REMEMBER BROMLEY’S FLOATING FURNITURE? 🤔💜 If you visited Paper Chase 130 Bromley High Street, you probably did a massive double-take on first entering the shop. Looking up there was an entire antique living room set hanging over the floor.

OPENING UP THE ATRIUM. When Paperchase originally took over the building, the ground floor featured a fairly low, conventional drop ceiling. Looking to create something truly spectacular, the design team at Made In Place completely transformed the structural layout by elegantly opening up the ground floor ceiling, revealing a magnificent, double-height atrium that offered a clear view straight up into the first floor.

🕰️ FLOATING TIME CAPSULE. To fill that newly hollowed-out space they decided to hang an entire antique furniture set—including a sofa, dining table, and chairs—permanently by wires. The idea was to create a literal floating time capsule, showing a glimpse of what life inside the building was like 100 years ago, suspended in mid-air.

ESCAPE TO NOWHERE. Those wooden stairs visible on the right were actually a brilliant part of the art installation itself. Just like the couches and tables, the staircase was completely cut off, suspended in mid-air, and inaccessible from the shop floor, leaving it looking like a surreal pathway leading to nowhere.

BEYOND THE FLOATING CEILING. Directly above this floating living room lay a fully functional first floor level. While the floating staircase was purely for show, upstairs was accessible we beleive via an operational staircase located further back.

NEW CHAPTER. The High Street shop closed down in April 2021 relocating to a unit inside The Glades. When Chopstix Noodle Bar later took over the building, we understand they removed the antique living room setup. While the double-height ceiling structure is still there, it seems the suspended furniture was cleared out for good.

❓️Do you remember this Bromley icon?

Thanks to Pete for sharing this photo🙂👍

25/10/2026

🌪️ WINDSWEPT BROMLEY OCTOBER 1987. Bromley along with the rest of the country took a furious 100mph beating during the 1987 Great Storm. It left the High Street looking like a tangled mess. The damage on the main strip was mostly localised to the collapse of multiple construction scaffolding and market stalls in and around Market Square, leaving heaps of twisted metal and wood blocking the tarmac.

🌀 MUNICIPAL BLIP IN THE BACKGROUND
This rare 1988 cover by Muriel V. Searle not only captures the storm wreckage but also the legendary Our Price Records🎉, and just along, another clear shot of the 1960s concrete void that replaced The White Hart Inn. Shown here 20 years after being built. A monument to bad taste, reminiscent of an old carpark stairwell.

24/10/2026

LOST PUBS: REMEMBERING THE ROBIN HOOD PENGE (CIRCA 1910). It’s hard to believe it’s been over twenty years since The Robin Hood closed its doors for good back in 2002. It stood empty and derelict for a long time until that mysterious roof fire hit it in 2006, which pretty much sealed its fate for the demolition crew. Today, the local Aldi stands on that exact spot at the crossroads.

Even though that grand old building is deeply missed, you have to give them credit—they actually made a decent job of the Aldi. Some thought went into the design so it didn't just end up looking like a soulless metal warehouse. It stands well on that corner, with its curved design.

I went into the pub shortly before it shut down for the final time, and I’ll never forget the massive, roaring fire going in the grate. The place was a bit lackluster and faded by then, but it was still cozy and friendly. The other side of the bar was the snug, which seemed to be the designated territory where your proper manly man and his manly mates settled in for a pint or three after a hard day's graft😊.

Pub might be long gone but everyone still calls that crossroads "The Robin Hood".

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