Bromley

Bromley is a large suburban town in south east London, England and the administrative headquarters of the London Borough of Bromley. It is located 9.3 mi south east of Charing Cross and is one of the major metropolitan centres identified in the London Plan. It was historically a market town, and prior to 1965 was in the county of Kent and formed the administrative centre of the Borough of Bromley. Its location on a coaching route and the opening of a railway station in 1858 were key to its development and the economic history of Bromley is underpinned by a shift from an agrarian village to commercial and retail hub. As part of the suburban growth of London in the 20th century, Bromley significantly increased in population and has formed part of Greater London since 1965. It has developed into one of a handful of regionally significant commercial and retail districts outside central London.

Toponomy
Bromley is first recorded in a charter of 862 as Bromleag and means 'woodland clearing where broom grows'. It shares this Old English etymology with Great Bromley in Essex, but not with the Bromley in Tower Hamlets.

Economic development
The history of Bromley is closely connected with the See of Rochester. In AD 862 Ethelbert, the King of Kent, granted land to form the Manor of Bromley. It was held by the Bishops of Rochester until 1845, where Coles Child, a wealthy local merchant and philanthropist, purchased Bromley Palace (now the hub of the Bromley Civic Centre) and became lord of the manor. The town was an important coaching stop on the way to Hastings from London, and the now defunct Royal Bell Hotel (just off Market Square) is referred to in Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. It was a quiet rural village until the arrival of the railway in 1858 in Shortlands, which led to rapid growth, and outlying suburban districts such as Bickley (which later overflowed into Bromley Common) were developed to accommodate those wishing to live so conveniently close to London.

Local government
Bromley, also known as Bromley St Peter and St Paul, formed an ancient parish in the Bromley and Beckenham hundred and the Sutton-at-Hone lathe of Kent. In 1840 it became part of the expanded Metropolitan Police District. The parish adopted the Local Government Act 1858 and a local board was formed in 1867. The board was reconstituted as Bromley Urban District Council in 1894 and the parish became Bromley Urban District. It formed part of the London Traffic Area from 1924 and the London Passenger Transport Area from 1933. In 1934, as part of a county review order, the borough was expanded by taking in 1894 acres from the disbanded Bromley Rural District; an area including parts of the parishes of Farnborough, Hayes, Keston and West Wickham. Bromley became part of the newly-created Greater London in 1965, in the new London Borough of Bromley.

Governance
Bromley forms part of the Bromley and Chislehurst Parliament constituency and the London European Parliament constituency. The current MP is Bob Neill. James Cleverly is the London Assembly member for the Bexley and Bromley constituency, in which the town is located.

Geography
The historic heart of the town is Market Square, which sits at the junction of the High Street and Church Road.

Economy
The town has a large shopping and retail area, including a pedestrianised High Street and The Glades shopping centre. Bromley is one of the major metropolitan centres identified in the London Plan. Bromley's main retail rival is Croydon, to the west.

Bromley high street over the years has had many national retailers:
 * Rumbelows - 195-199 High street (previously 79 High Street until 1967)
 * Allders (formerly Medhursts, and the site of H. G. Wells' birth) - 162-178 High Street (now Primark)
 * Littlewoods later Marks and Spencer menswear - Now Republic (The Glades side) and Top Man / Top Shop (High Street side)
 * Debenhams - now in The Glades, was located where Dreams and Carpetright currently are
 * Iceland - 8 The Mall - Now part of Bright House and Wesley Owen (see The Mall article for more details)
 * Safeway - Became Kwiksave
 * Kwiksave - Now Wetherspoons
 * Woolworths - Now 99p stores (Before Woolworths - C&A)
 * F.W.Woolworth - Now Burton, Miss Selfridge and Dorothy Perkins
 * Bejam - Became the Multiyork before moving to the High Street - Westmoreland Place Shopping Precinct in Bromley South (now RBS insurance)
 * Tesco - Became the reject shop before moving to the glades - Westmoreland Place Shopping Precinct in Bromley South (now RBS insurance)
 * House of Fraser / Army & Navy - Now T.K. Maxx and car park
 * C&A - Now Next (Before C&A - Boots)

Transport
Bromley is served by two railway stations. Bromley South, the larger and more frequently served of the two, which is on the Chatham mainline. Long distance trains from Victoria to Medway, Thanet and south east Kent have their first stop at Bromley, providing a fast and frequent non-stop service to central London. Bromley South is also a stop on the southeast London suburban rail network, with local services for Orpington and Sevenoaks from Victoria and the central London Thameslink stations calling at the station. Bromley North station is served by a shuttle service to Grove Park, where there are onward connections to other central London stations.

Culture
Empire Cinemas own a 4-screen site in Bromley, with screen 1 being its biggest with a capacity of 392. Screens 2 and 3 have disabled access. Bromley has a number of theatres, the most notable being the Churchill Theatre in the town centre and the Bromley Little Theatre close to Bromley North railway station. It also has a large Central Library in the same building as the Churchill Theatre with a large book stock, internet and wifi access, reference library and local studies department. The town's football club Bromley F.C. is in the Conference South, which is the highest level of regionalised football in England, two divisions below the Football League.

Education
Bromley has numerous schools, and is home to Bromley College of Further & Higher Education. There are two selective schools in nearby Orpington (within the London Borough of Bromley) with an 11+ exam. They are Newstead Wood School for Girls and St Olave's and St Saviour's Grammar School. There are two specialist Media Arts Schools, Hayes School and The Ravensbourne School. It also has the Ravens Wood and Darrick Wood Schools, which have been recognised by OFSTED for excellence (Ravens Wood) and Outstanding (Darrick Wood), being awarded almost top marks in an annual inspection in 2009. Also Ravens Wood has been recognised by OFSTED for Outstanding In every criteria.

Landmarks
The parish church of St Peter and St Paul stands on Church Road. It was largely destroyed by enemy action on 16 April 1941 and rebuilt in the 1950s incorporating the medieval tower and reusing much of the flint and fragments of the original stone building. The most noteworthy historic building is Bromley College, London Road. The mature and very well maintained central public open spaces are noteworthy: Queen's Gardens, Martin's Hill, Church House Gardens, Library Gardens and College Green.

Notable residents
H. G. Wells, most famous for his novel, The War of the Worlds, was born in Bromley in 1866. In August 2005, the wall honouring H.G. Wells in Market Square was repainted. The current wall painting features a rich green background with the same H.G. Wells reference and the evolution sequence of Homo sapiens featured in Origin of Species by Charles Darwin, a former resident of nearby Downe Village.

Other famous people who lived in Bromley include Charles Darwin, David Bowie, Richmal Crompton, Pixie Lott, Christopher Tennant, Peter Frampton, Aleister Crowley, Siouxsie Sioux, Billy Idol, Billy Jenkins, cricketer Jill Cruwys, the anarchist Peter Kropotkin, the former Clash drummer Topper Headon, illustrator Charles Keeping, Formula 1 test driver Gary Paffett, actor Michael York who attended Bromley Grammar School for Boys, clarinetist Chris Craker, Don Perrin, Canadian author who attended Burnt Ash School in Bromley, and Sir Thomas James Harper, an officer decorated in the Crimean war. In the 20th century, the Parish Church of St Peter and St Paul produced, in quick succession, three Church of England Bishops: Henry David Halsey – Bishop of Carlisle, Philip Goodrich – Bishop of Worcester, and David Bartleet – Bishop of Tonbridge.

Middlesbrough F.C. midfielder Gary O'Neil and Blackburn Rovers striker Jason Roberts lived in Bromley.

Popular culture
In the famous Monty Python Spam sketch Bromley was stated to be the location of the fictional Green Midget Café, where every item on the menu was composed of spam in varying degrees.

The Mall in Bromley appeared on the cover of the 1982 album Sounds Like Bromley by Bromley born Billy Jenkins. The picture is of the rear of what is now Poundland (Bromley Toy Fayre and Bramber Womenswear at the time) to the right and the car park above Argos (J Sainsbury at the time)