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Category: Bromley (Borough of)

  • Bromley – The Richmal Crompton (JD Wetherspoon)

    Bromley – The Richmal Crompton (JD Wetherspoon)

    I had a rail connection at Bromley South railway station today to get to Kent, so I thought that I’d meander over the road to the JD Wetherspoon operated Richmal Crompton which I’ve visited a couple of times before. The sun was shining, the pub had a beer garden and it was just too hot. But, I didn’t complain to myself about the extreme temperatures.

    The chain explains the reasoning for the pub name:

    “This is named after Richmal Crompton, the author best known for her ‘William’ books. William Brown first appeared in a series of short stories written in Richmal’s spare time, while she was a teacher at Bromley High School for Girls. She lived in Bromley for 26 years, first in Cherry Orchard Road and later in nearby Oakley Road.”

    It’s cavernous and not overly interesting as a building. It got busier at lunchtime, but the chain also has a pub just a short walk away, the Greyhound. Incidentally, and I write this without having a view either way, but this is one of those venues where customers queue in a line to order rather than wait along the bar. There’s an area which feels like a dining area off to the left, although the tables were all in long lines and it wasn’t clear whether they were expecting groups of 24 to turn up, or they had just crammed them in there. There were bookshelves to the rear of the pub and I thought that added to the arrangement. It’s all affordable and reliable, spacious and predictable.

    My obligatory carpet shot.

    In terms of the beer, the prices were moderate as usual and they had a selection of craft cans alongside six real ales, with beers from Thornbridge, Adnams and Theakston.

    I decided to get unlimited coffee for £1.85 rather than anything beer related, although they had run out of milk and didn’t bother replacing it for the two hours that I was there. I decided raw coffee would just have to do.

    The online reviews are about average for the chain and I couldn’t resist having a little look….

    “Came in for a quick bite to eat with my dog who’s sitting outside and I’ve been told by every bar staff in here dogs aren’t even allowed on the premises that means even outside the door , Food is absolutely disgraceful as you can see from the photo, The manager with the wonky eyes said I need to get out as soon as I’ve eaten my food absolute joke stay clear unless you’re on a budget”

    I suspect that JD Wetherspoon would be pleased that a customer who insults their staff like that goes elsewhere….

    “We reserved an area for our wedding reception, no help in moving tables was offered, on the day there was glass in the reserved area that hadn’t been cleared prior to us arriving. We appreciate we had a large party but we waited ages for our meals, and drinks. Having booked in January for September plenty of notice had been given that we’d require food. They’d ran out of chicken nuggets, and the large mixed grill, and this was only early afternoon. When the steak came up and we asked which was medium rare, the waiter said that they’d all been done to the same (medium) even though we’d asked for different. We had one waiter serving almost 30 of us and it took almost an hour for tables to be cleared of plates. Me and my wife met in this wetherspoons 2 years ago but we will not be returning unfortunately.”

    I’m not wholly convinced that JD Wetherspoon pubs are usually well equipped to deal with entire wedding parties….

    “On top of that, after we left a pub, I came back to go to the toilet, it was around 23.00. On my way to the toilet i have been stopped by the waiter saying that ‘I’m banned in this pub and I have to leave’ after my statement that I AM PREGNANT AND I NEED TO USE A TOILET he insisted me to leave. How comes pregnant woman cant use a toilet in such a big pub? What policy are you based on? Of course I will proceed with further excalations and highlighting this situation everywhere possible as IT IS NOT ACCEPTABLE TO NOT ALLOW A PREGNANT WOMAN TO USE A TOILET.”

    The customer was refused service for allegedly being drunk, they left the venue after an argument and then are furious that the venue wouldn’t let them back in. I like a bit of drama to be fair….

    “Being Xmas everyone was having a great time and we were playing a game with an I top, a harmless tabletop game . When we were laughing and jeering eachother on ,the staff came over and told us to keep the noise down. What happened to the good old days when they had juke boxes in pubs and everyone singing along to Xmas songs and having a great time.”

    Good, there’s no need for frivolity even at Christmas….

    “Bar staff and management told us to leave because we were being to loud and noisy we were having a laugh we weren’t being rude or we were having a laugh. But we had to leave all because we were having a laugh”

    Reassuringly peaceful, I like it.

    “Not worth posting a review”

    I think that’s a review.

    Anyway, I digress enough. It seemed like a perfectly serviceable pub, although they rather abandoned the coffee machines, but in fairness I didn’t say anything to let them know. It was all clean, the team members were friendly, it was value for money and it wasn’t too loud. All really rather lovely.

  • London – Bromley (Borough of) – Bromley North Branch Line

    London – Bromley (Borough of) – Bromley North Branch Line

    The lighting in this photo isn’t at all ideal, but I couldn’t use the night mode as this takes a few seconds of keeping the phone still and people kept walking in front of me. There are better day-time photos available on-line anyway…… I went on a little visit to Bromley to have a look at this slightly odd branch line, which goes to just three stations.

    And here is this quirky section of line, comprising the three stations of Grove Park, Sundridge Park and Bromley North.

    From Openstreetmap the branch line is clearly visible, coming off the South Eastern Main Line.

    The main part of the station building was closed, so the line could only be accessed by walking around the side. I poked my camera through the gates to take a photo of the concourse area that passengers couldn’t access. There was a sad event in April 1920, when a couple abandoned a four-week old baby on the train from Charing Cross railway station and the child was discovered here and taken to the waiting room, before the police later took the poor young soul to Bromley Infirmary. The newspaper noted that the child was left in the second-class section of the train….

    This area hasn’t much changed since the railway station was built in 1878, the odd set-up is historic and not because the line has been cut off during its history.

    The platforms at Bromley North railway station, with the station being extensively remodelled in the mid-1920s, which annoyed the dozen tradesmen who had premises at the station and were given notice to leave in 1924. The Southern Railway Company were displeased to discover in 1939 that their leading parcel porter and a colleague at the station had been on the steal for some time, primarily pinching clothes. The police investigated the two men responsible, Frederick William Smart (aged 52) and Sidney White (aged 40 and no relation) and they were sentenced to six months in prison.

    And the train coming in, with another not very clear photo…..

    The train just goes up and down the branch line, it’s not particularly decadent, but it is perfectly functional.

    And here we are ten minutes later at Grove Park, where there are direct trains into London. When the station was built, there were direct trains to London from these branch line stations, but they became peak-only in 1976 and they were then entirely withdrawn in 1990.

    These are the main lines into London, the branch line is at the rear of the photo and can be accessed by going over that bridge.

    The railway set-up is the same today as it was 100 years ago when the map was produced, but the entire area is now surrounded by housing.

    There has been some debate as to whether more can be done with this line, but there’s a limited capacity on the mainline which means that there aren’t really that many options available. For the moment this little set-up remains as a slight oddity and I can’t imagine this arrangement makes much money for the rail company, especially given the alternative bus alternatives that are available, and that there’s another railway station in Bromley. However, I’m glad it’s all still here (although surprised that it wasn’t closed down in the 1960s or 1970s), it felt just slightly quirky….

  • London – Bromley (Borough of) – Charles Darwin Mural

    London – Bromley (Borough of) – Charles Darwin Mural

    It’s a long time since I’ve been to Bromley and I’ve never seen this mural dedicated to Charles Darwin and his work, but it’s an impressive sight. It’s been placed here as Darwin lived for forty years a few miles away, in the Down House in Downe. Darwin might not have strong links to Bromley itself beyond that, but it’s known that he visited the town many times.

    Until 2008, there was a mural dedicated to the life of HG Wells here, with the Darwin one being painted here in 2008 by Bruce Williams. He isn’t entirely forgotten though, and he appears in this mural as well (Wells I mean, not Bruce Williams), on the left hand side. In many ways, it’s a shame that the Wells mural was lost (this wasn’t vandalism, just that the wall needed replastering anyway), as he was born just a few metres away from this location.