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...

For centuries before the creation of Crofton Park, the London suburb we know and love, this area was a patchwork of fields and farms...

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...

Mike Brown on the Brockley Jack's whalebone sign, which has been removed from public view. The whalebone displayed -- until very recently...

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...

The Crofton Park Picture Palace in 1913. Sketch by Mike Brown. As the nineteenth century became the twentieth, the new and exciting form...

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...

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...

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...

Another question we have been asked-- and one that we have puzzled over ourselves -- is why the strange numbering of the houses in...

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,...

The original school, where Beecroft Gardens School stands today. In October 1885 the School Board for London announced plans to build...

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...

Cigarette cards, royal benefactors and the babies of Brockley This tiny picture from a cigarette card album, found by Tim Lund, shows...

In recent years, many houses in Crofton Park and Brockley have had a ‘facelift’. With the dirt and grime of a century removed, gleaming...

In Tudor times, the woods which had for centuries dominated the local landscape were still thriving and supplying timber for, among...

From the 1880s, as the fields of Brockley made way for the suburb of Crofton Park, local photographers were capturing the new London...

Read all about 'The Motor Horn Which Warns But Does Not Worry', the latest radio speakers and other delights made at the St Andrew's...

The row of four Brockley Road shops between Merritt Road and the cemetery were known by 1899 as Bank Parade. Despite this, there has...

For centuries, the area now known as Crofton Park was the centre of Brockley, a hamlet on the road between Lewisham and Croydon. The...