Brockley

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{{infobox UK place| |country = England |map_type = Greater London |region= London |population= |official_name= Brockley |latitude= 51.4529 |longitude= -0.0345 |os_grid_reference= TQ365745 |london_borough= Lewisham |post_town= LONDON |postcode_area=SE |postcode_district=SE4 [[|dial_code= 020 |constituency_westminster= }} Brockley is an area of the London Borough of Lewisham in England. Situated about 5 miles (8 km) south east of London Charing Cross, it is covered by London postal district SE4. The name 'Brockley' is derived from either 'Broca's woodland clearing', or a wood where badgers are seen (broc is the Old English for badger). and lies on the old boundary between the Lewisham and Deptford parishes in the county of Kent, becoming a part of the county of London when the London County Council (LCC) was formed in 1889. In 1965 the LCC became the Greater London Council GLC and the old Metropolitan Borough of Deptford (including Brockley) was absorbed into the newly formed London Borough of Lewisham.

The oldest surviving house in the area is the 'Stone House' on Lewisham Way (opposite Lewisham College) built in 1773 by the architect George Dance the Younger. Most of the area remained agricultural until the mid nineteenth century, the most notable building of the time being the 'Brockley Jack',(since rebuilt) a hostelry reputed to be a favourite amongst highwaymen. Brockley Hall (demolished 1931) stood nearby and this area formed the original small hamlet of Brockley. The name Crofton Park was invented by the railway company and has no historical significants. The market gardens were famous for the enormous Victoria rhubarb which were fertilised by night soil from London. There were orchards too and some ancient pear trees survive in local gardens. Until the late 19th century a small stream flowed northward from Crofton Park and east of Malpas Rd to join the Thames via Deptford Creek.

Industrial development arrived in 1809 in the form of the Croydon Canal running fron Croydon to Bermondsey. This was later filled in and replaced by the London & Croydon railway line which runs through the original canal cutting between Brockley and New Cross Gate stations. The west side of the cutting now forms a woodland nature reserve managed by the London Wildlife Trust. Some of the oldest houses in Brockley are the tiny cottages which form a small terrace on Coulgate street. These are believed to date from 1833 and were probably originally associated with the canal. Until the 1920s Brockley Lane Station provided access to the Nunhead to Lewisham railway line and the remains of the old station entrance are still visible at Brockley Cross.

In the latter half of the nineteenth century, the Wickham and Drake families developed the north of Brockley with large villas, terraces and semi-detached houses. Development started around Lewisham Way in the 1860s and spread south toward Hilly Fields. Open land remained south of Brockley Grove into the early 1930s.

Many grand houses in Brockley were occupied by the owners and managers of factories in neighbouring industrial areas ie Deptford and Bermondsey etc. For example at 63 Breakespears Rd lived Edwin Watts, who owned 'ER Watts and Son', a mathematical instrument making company in Camberwell Rd. Charles Booth's Map of London Poverty (1900) describes the residents of Wickham Rd and Breakspears Rd as "well-to-do" or "wealthy". The terraced streets west of Brockley Rd where more mixed: "comfortable and poor" (the very poor lived east of Deptford High Street,an area which Booth considered one of the poorest neighbourhoods in London). (Godfrey 2002)

Brockley contains three fine churches: St Peter's, Wickham Rd (Completed 1870) St Andrews, Brockley Rd (1882) originally a Presbyterian Church, which contains the modern stained glass New Cross Fire memorial window (2002) and St Hilda's, Crofton Park 1908. The latter was designed by J E Newberry in the Arts and Crafts movement style and still contains its original interior .^[1]

After World War I Brockley began to lose its exclusivity as the wealthy began to move away, to the fresher air of the newer suburbs around Bromley and Beckenham. The typical inter-war houses in Upper Brockley Gardens and on Harefield Rd are clearly more modest than their Victorian neighbours.

The Rivoli Ballroom (originally a cinema) dates from 1913 and has an outstanding Art-Deco interior, which has featured in many films, videos and fashion shoots (see Guardian Magazine 10 Nov 07). In 2007 The White Stripes played a secret gig there.

The area suffered significant V-1 flying bomb and other bomb damage in World War II and the post-war blocks of council flats at the south end of Wickham Rd and at the west end of Adelaide Ave are evidence of this. During the war an anti-aircraft gun implacement was located on Hilly Fields. After the war many of the big houses became sub-divided for multiple occupation. In the 1950s and 1960s these houses provided accommodation for the newly arrived African-Caribbean population, many of whom found employment in nearby Deptford and New Cross. In 1948, five passengers bound for England from Jamaica on the Empire Windrush gave Wickham road as their intended address on arrival in London.(Anim-Addo 1995)

Much of north Brockley was designated a Conservation Area in 1974 and in the same year the Brockley Society was formed with the aim of preserving and protecting the character of the area.

Tressillian Road has a reputation for bringing big names in to the music industry with the likes of Athlete, Kate Bush and Nick Brookes all following suit. In 2005, Nick Brookes and Antony Hurley came together to form Frantasia, an experimental indie-jazz fusion duo, in the basement of a Tressillian Road residence.

The 1970s saw the beginning of a 'bohemian' influx of artists, designers, musicians and students attracted by the rambling, neglected and (at the time cheap) Victorian housing and the close proximity to Goldsmiths College and Camberwell School of Art. Some artists even built studios in their large gardens. In the 1990s, 68 Wickham Rd was the scene of many legendary parties and events hosted by musician and club promoter Simon Palmer.

By the late 1990s SE London's 'best kept secret' was being well and truly 'discovered' by young professionals trading in their flats in north and west London for more spacious accommodation in a greener environment. The planned East London Line Extension is encouraging new residential development around Brockley Cross. In 2002 the Brockley Cross Action Group was set up with the aim of influencing the regeneration of the Brockley Cross area and has been instrumental in the restoration of Brockley Common east of the station.

Although mainly urban and residential in character, there are several open green spaces in the area, amongst them Blythe Hill, Brockley and Ladywell Cemeteries which opened in 1858 and Hilly Fields. The latter was saved from development by the Commons Preservation Society and local groups in the 1880s and 1890s (including Octavia Hill, one of the founders of the National Trust). In 1896, after being bought with the proceeds of private donations and funding from the London County Council, the fields were transformed from old brickpits and ditches into a park. The park became a regular meeting place for the Suffragette movement between 1907 and 1914. The old West Kent Grammar School (then later renamed Brockley County Grammar School), now Prendergast School, a Grade II listed building, is situated at the top of the hill (with listed murals dating from the 1930s by Charles Mahoney, Evelyn Dunbar and other students of the Royal College of Art, considered some of the best examples in the country of the Neo-Romantic style. Close by, a stone circle was erected in 2000 as a millennium project by a group of local artists, which won a Civic Trust Award in 2004. The Hilly Fields Midsummer Fayre has been running for over 30 years and is a much celebrated annual community event. At 160ft above sea level Hilly Fields has views from Shooters Hill to Crystal Palace and the North Downs in Kent.

The Lewisham Art House housed in a grand Edwardian building (which was formerly Deptford Library) on Lewisham Way, provides art classes, studio and exhibition space. The library building is a Carnegie Library made possible by the philanthropy of the indrustialist Andrew Carnegie. It opened in 1914 and is designed by Sir Alfred Brumwell Thomas.^[2] Each summer local artists host a thriving Brockley Open Studios weekend. Since 2004 Brockley has also hosted the Brockley Max festival involving many local musicians and performers.

Combined with neighbouring Ladywell ward, Brockley has six Green Party councillors making it politically one of 'greenest' districts in the country.

Contents 1 Famous residents 2 Nearest places 3 Nearest railway stations 4 References in popular culture 5 External links 6 References

[edit] Famous residents

• Ed Petrie, TV presenter and stand-up comedian
• Rosie Barnes, MP for Greenwich (1987 - 1992), Chief Executive of the Cystic Fibrosis Trust (1996 - date), lives on Tressillian Road.
• Alan Brownjohn, the poet and novelist attended Brockley County School
• Kate Bush, the singer, lived on Wickham Road
• Gabrielle, the singer, lived in Brockley
• David Haig, the actor and writer, lives on the corner of Harefield and Wickham Road.
• Matt Hales, singer, songwriter of Aqualung ^[3]
• Darren Johnson, Green Party politician
• David Jones, modernist poet and artist, was born in Brockley in 1895 and lived in Howson Road for much of his earlier life. He attended Camberwell School of Art in 1909.
• Lily Langtry, the actress and mistress of King Edward VII of the United Kingdom, lived at 42, Wickham Road ^[4]
• Marie Lloyd, the music hall singer, lived at 196 Wickham Terrace in 1891-2. ^[5]
• David Lodge (author), grew up in Brockley and writes about the area in his novels The Picturegoers and Therapy.
• Tony Malone (designer), a frequent local resident, having family ties to the area, but recently moved to neighbouring Deptford
• Sybil Phoenix, former Mayoress of Lewisham and first black woman to receive the M.B.E., to become a Freeman of the City of London and Freeman of the Borough of Lewisham, local resident.
• Montague Summers, eccentric writer, taught at Brockley County School
• Edgar Wallace, author and original screenwriter of King Kong, lived at 6 Tresillian Crescent, Brockley, between 1900 and 1932.
• Sir Willard White (C.B.E), famous opera singer, born Jamaica 1946, once lived in Montague Avenue, Brockley.
• Henry Williamson, writer and author of Tarka the Otter, was born in 1895 at 66 Braxfield Rd and lived at 21 Eastern Road, Brockley, during his childhood in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. He describes turn of the century Brockley in great detail in his semi-autobiographical novels, The Dark Lantern and Donkey Boy.
• Shaun Wright-Phillips, the footballer, grew up in Brockley and attended Haberdashers' Aske's Hatcham College.
• Nick Brookes, singer-songwriter, lives on Tressillian Road.
• Members of the band indigo Moss are known to have at some point lived in this area.
• Athlete (band),(formed 1999) keyboard player Tim Wanstall grew up around and still lives in Brockley. The band used to rehearse at the Bear Cafe in Deptford High St.
• Anita Klein, artist and printmaker has lived in Brockley for many years.
• Emily Davidson, suffragette, born Blackheath 1872 died at the Epsom Derby in 1913 after stepping in front of the King's horse. Lived for a time in Brockley.
• Paul Theroux, his 1976 novel The Family Arsenal is set in Cliff Terrace off St Johns Vale.
• Nick Nicely, musician. His 1982 cult psychedelic classic Hilly Fields was inspired by the park of the same name.
• Paul Drury, artist, born Tressillian Rd 1903. Taught Goldsmiths College of Art.
• Bobby Valentino: singer; songwriter; musician and actor has lived in Brockley for the past 30 years. He is best known as the co-writer and violinist of the Bluebells it single "Young at Heart".
• The comedian Spike Milligan (1918-2002), lived at 50 Riseldine Road (which is on the cusp of Crofton Park and Honor Oak) after coming to England from India in the 1930s.
• Eksman, a drum and bass MC, was born here.

[edit] Nearest places

• Crofton Park
• Catford
• Deptford
• Greenwich
• Honor Oak
• Ladywell
• Lewisham
• New Cross
• Nunhead
• Sydenham

[edit] Nearest railway stations

• Brockley railway station
• Crofton Park railway station
• Ladywell railway station
• St Johns railway station

[edit] References in popular culture

Linton Kwesi Johnson mentions Brockley in his poem "Inglan Is A Bitch". He spells it "Brackly" as this is roughly how it sounds in Jamaican patois:

dem a have a lickle facktri up inna Brackly

inna disya facktri all dem dhu is pack crackry

fi di laas fifteen years dem get mi laybah

now awftah fifteen years mi fall out a fayvah

The musician Nick Nicely’s 1982 cult psychedelic track “Hilly Fields” was inspired by the park of the same name. Drum and bass artist Remarc made a record called "Sound Murderer (Loafin' in Brockley)" on Juno Records in the mid-1990s. Another drum and bass artist, Chris Inperspective has a track called "Brockley Central".

[edit] External links

• Brockley Cross Action Group
• The Brockley Society
• Brockley Community website
• South London Guide to Brockley
• Brockley Community Church
• Brockley Jack Theatre
• Brockley Max Festival
• Edgar Wallace's Home in Brockley
• The Edgar Wallace Collection
• Brockley Open Studios
• Brockley Stone Circle
• Brockley & Ladywell Cemeteries
• Moonbow Jakes Coffee Bar
• Cafe Neu Internet and Coffee Bar
• Jam Circus Bar & Restaurant

[edit] References

v • d • e London Borough of Lewisham
Districts	Blackheath · Brockley · Catford · Deptford · Forest Hill · Grove Park · Hither Green · Honor Oak · Lee · Lewisham · New Cross · Sydenham	Image:Lewisham arms.png
Attractions	Horniman Museum
Constituencies	Lewisham West · Lewisham East · Lewisham Deptford
Parks and open spaces in Lewisham

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