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Mike Brown
- Mar 1
- 2 min
A View From the Hill
New insights from an old postcard, by Mike Brown We recently bought this postcard, showing the view looking south from near the top of...
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Carol Harris
- Nov 13, 2022
- 2 min
War casualties and commemoration
The war memorial at St Hilda's church in Crofton Park On November 11 each year we remember those who died in war. War memorials...
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Carol Harris
- Nov 8, 2022
- 2 min
BBC beginnings and Crofton Park
Recent celebrations marking the centenary of the BBC remind us of a local connection. The BBC began life as the British Broadcasting...
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Carol Harris
- Jun 29, 2022
- 2 min
Cats Meat of Merritt
Working from home is nothing new in Crofton Park. The Standen family and, next door to them, Freeman Brothers were doing just that over...
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Carol Harris
- Mar 31, 2022
- 2 min
Crimean Connection
The Coldstream Guards at the Battle of the Alma -- painting by Orlando Norie In 1902, the Oxford Times reported on the death of a former...
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Carol Harris
- Feb 28, 2022
- 2 min
Fields of Old
For centuries before the creation of Crofton Park, the London suburb we know and love, this area was a patchwork of fields and farms...
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Carol Harris
- Feb 22, 2022
- 1 min
Lost...and found!
The whalebone which was previously on show at the Brockley Jack (see previous post) has been found, and is with the family of the late...
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Mike Brown
- Feb 13, 2022
- 4 min
Missing: Crofton Park's oldest artefact
Mike Brown on the Brockley Jack's whalebone sign, which has been removed from public view. The whalebone displayed -- until very recently...
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Mike Brown
- Feb 16, 2021
- 2 min
Sign of the times at Brockley Grove
Before the latest lockdown, Father Bates of St Hilda’s church kindly lent us a box of old church magazines and other items. Among them...
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Mike Brown
- Dec 19, 2020
- 4 min
Changing fortunes of the Crofton Park Picture Palace
The Crofton Park Picture Palace in 1913. Sketch by Mike Brown. As the nineteenth century became the twentieth, the new and exciting form...
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Mike Brown
- Sep 25, 2020
- 1 min
Children's History Quiz -- for under-12s
How well do you know Crofton Park? Here is a picture quiz of local signs and decorations you probably pass by regularly. How many can you...
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Carol Harris
- Sep 25, 2020
- 1 min
The Writing on the Walls
How well do you know the area? Here are features which can be seen from the streets around Crofton Park. How many can you identify? Email...
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Mike Brown
- Aug 16, 2020
- 2 min
Double-Name Roads on the Bridge House Farm Estate
A while back, we mentioned the double-name roads in Mike’s blog, ‘The Names of the Roads’. Here is some more about their origins: This...
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Carol Harris
- May 15, 2020
- 3 min
A Question of Numbers
Another question we have been asked-- and one that we have puzzled over ourselves -- is why the strange numbering of the houses in...
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Carol Harris
- Apr 18, 2020
- 3 min
Brockley's Big House
One of the oldest features of what is now Crofton Park was the local ‘big house’, Brockley Hall, or, as it was known before 1850,...
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Carol Harris
- Mar 26, 2020
- 2 min
The Brockley Road Board Schools
The original school, where Beecroft Gardens School stands today. In October 1885 the School Board for London announced plans to build...
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Carol Harris
- Dec 17, 2019
- 3 min
The Names of the Roads
Brockley Green from the 1746 map by John Roque In medieval times, main highways were often known by where they led to. The part of a...
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Carol Harris
- Jul 1, 2019
- 2 min
A Hospital on Breakspears Road
Cigarette cards, royal benefactors and the babies of Brockley This tiny picture from a cigarette card album, found by Tim Lund, shows...
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Carol Harris
- May 7, 2019
- 3 min
Bricks in Brockley
In recent years, many houses in Crofton Park and Brockley have had a ‘facelift’. With the dirt and grime of a century removed, gleaming...
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Carol Harris
- Jan 4, 2019
- 2 min
Forest to Farm
In Tudor times, the woods which had for centuries dominated the local landscape were still thriving and supplying timber for, among...
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