main content
History of the Bromley Area
Bromley Local Studies and Archives welcome enquiries from anywhere in the world on the history of Bromley, H.G Wells, Walter de la Mare, and the Crystal Palace as we have many unique resources on these topics.
Administrative History and Area Covered
The London Borough of Bromley was created in 1965 out of the former Beckenham and Bromley Boroughs, Orpington and Penge Urban districts, and the Chislehurst and Sidcup UD. Prior to 1965 these were all in Kent with Penge having been in Surrey before 1889 and in the county of London until 1900.
Before Beckenham [in 1935] and Bromley [in 1903] gained their Borough status they were Urban District Councils in their own right. In 1934 there was a series of changes when Orpington Urban District was formed from the major part of Bromley Rural District and the former Chislehurst Urban District was amalgamated with Sidcup. The predecessor to these local authorities formed in 1894 were Local Boards for Beckenham, Bromley and other areas being covered by local vestries, School, hospital and Burial Boards, Bromley Poor Law Union [1834 – 1929] and Bromley Rural Sanitary Authority. For some aspects of administration Lewisham and Croydon controlled Penge. We hold records for many of these authorities but some are incomplete.
Please Note: References to Bromley London prior to 1965 almost certainly refer to Bromley by Bow, now in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets.
History of suburban Bromley
Web Sites on the Bromley Area
H G Wells Web Sites
Walter de la Mare Web Sites
Crystal Palace Web Sites