Facts about Beckenham
Beckenham History
In 1760 Cator built Beckenham Place and became Lord of the Manor in 1773 after purchasing the Manor of Beckenham from Frederick St. John, Viscount Bolingbroke. After Cator died in 1806, his heirs became aware that an area in such relatively close proximity to London was ripe for development, especially once the railway had arrived in 1857, and large villas began to be built around the new station.
The Kelsey Estate contained a mansion, built-in 1835 to replace an earlier Medieval structure, though it was itself demolished in 1921 and the grounds turned into Kelsey Park. The only surviving buildings are the two Grade II listed lodge cottages at the entrance, which are over 200 years old. In 1876 Beckenham Cemetery opened, located south the town in Elmers End.
General Info
Beckenham is a town in Greater London, England, within the London Borough of Bromley and the historic county of Kent. It is located 8.4 miles south-east of Charing Cross, situated north of Elmers End and Eden Park, east of Penge, south of Lower Sydenham and Bellingham, and west of Bromley and Shortlands.
Beckenham was, until the coming of the railway in 1857, a small village, with most of its land being rural and private parkland. John Barwell Cator and his family began the leasing and selling of land for the building of villas which led to a rapid increase in population, between 1850 and 1900, from 2,000 to 26,000. Housing and population growth have continued at a lesser pace since 1900.
