Penge
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Template:Infobox London place Penge is a place in the London Borough of Bromley. It is a suburban development situated 7.1 miles (11.4 km) south east of Charing Cross.
Contents |
History
Image:Penge Watermen's Almshouses.JPG Penge was once a small town, which was recorded under the name Penceat in a Saxon deed dating from 957. Most historians believe the name of the town is derived from the Celtic word "Penceat" which means "edge of wood" and refers to the fact that the surrounding area was once covered in a dense forest. The original Celtic words of which the name was composed referred to "pen", "head", as in the Welsh "pen" (used in Penarth) and "ceat", "wood", similar to the Welsh "coed" (used in Llangoedmor).
Penge was historically in Surrey and formed a detached part of the parish of Battersea. The Local Government Act 1888 made Battersea parish part of the County of London, however Penge was just outside its boundary and under the Local Government Act 1894 it formed part of the Croydon Rural District of Surrey. The London Government Act 1899 made provision for Penge to be removed from the rural district and form the Penge Urban District of Kent. The urban district was abolished in 1965 by the London Government Act 1963, and its former area merged with that of other districts to form the London Borough of Bromley. With the creation of the Penge Urban District, the part of Beckenham Road north of Kent House Road was renamed Penge High Street
In the Victorian era Penge developed into a fashionable suburb because of it proximity to the relocated Crystal Palace.
Historical Buildings
- There are many Victorian almshouses in Penge, the oldest being the Royal Watermen's Almshouses[1], built around 1840 by the Watermen and Lightermen's company of the City of London for retired company Freemen and their widows. In 1973, the almspeople were moved to a new site in Hastings, and the original buildings were converted into private homes.
- The Queen Adelaide Almshouses were built in 1848 at the request of Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen, the widow of King William IV, to provide shelter for twelve widows or orphan daughters of naval officers. Again, the almshouses are now in private residences.
- St. John's Cottages on Maple Road were built as almshouses in 1863, designed by the architect Edwin Nash. As with their predecessors, the cottages are now privately owned homes. In 1959 No.8 was destroyed by a gas explosion killing one person. The cottage was rebuilt to closely resemble the original.
- In addition, the police station at the corner of the High Street and Green Lane is believed to be London's oldest working police station [2]
- When built in 1950 the Crystal Palace Transmitter was the tallest structure in the UK, a record it held for just six years. It remained the tallest structure in the London area until 1991 * [[3]]
Cultural references
After the Crystal Palace was moved to Penge, a fashionable day out was to visit the Crystal Palace during the day and take the tram down the hill to one of two Music Halls - The King's Hall and the Empire Theatre [[4]]. Music Hall comedians were in the habit of making fun of the locale in which they appeared and consequently Penge became the butt of many jokes. Playing on the idea that the word penge seems to be an inherently funny word, and its apparent shabby-genteel image, the place has been lightly parodied by:
- Terry Wogan as Penge-sur-mer or Penge-les-trois-auberges, pronouncing Penge as the French might
- Rumpole of the Bailey as the location of his greatest triumph, the "Penge Bungalow Murders" {Rumpole's chronology was incorrect as the Penge bungalows were prefabricated houses which replaced homes destroyed during WW2, long after the date of his claimed triumph}
- Brian Wright in his (1986) book "Penge Papers: confessions of an unwaged metropolitan househusband" Macmillan ISBN 0330295063
- The Meaning of Liff defines a penge as 'the slotted wooden arm on which a cuckoo emerges from a cuckoo clock'.
- In the 'far-fetched fiction' of Robert Rankin, characters from Brentford refer to Penge as a far-flung outpost of civilisation and often say that they 'hear it's very nice, but I've ever been there myself'. On one occasion the anti-heroes Pooley and Omalley took so long to walk home from Penge that they grew beards on the way. Their friend Professor Slocombe claims that Penge was the true birthplace of the Virgin Mary (he also claims that Chiswick is the original Babylon).
- Former Beckenham resident David Bowie makes reference to Penge in the song 'Did You Ever Have A Dream', itself the B-side of Bowie's early 1967 single Love You Till Tuesday (song). Bowie juxtaposes the ordinariness of Penge with America by singing "You can walk around in New York while you sleep in Penge".
Notable residents
Penge was the childhood home of Bill Wyman (b. 1936 William George Perks) bassist from The Rolling Stones.
Nearest places
Nearest railway stations
- Penge East railway station
- Penge West railway station
- Anerley railway station
- Birkbeck railway station
- Clock House railway station
- Kent House railway station
Open Spaces
- Crystal Palace Park
- Alexandra Recreation Ground
- Cator Park
- Penge Recreation Ground
- Betts Park
- Royston Playing Fields
- South Norwood Country Park
Public Houses
- Penge is home to numerous taverns and public houses; the Crooked Billet arguably being the most famous, not least for its unusual and fetching name but mostly for leading its name as a bus route terminus. As does the Pawleyne Arms for the 176 Oxford Circus bus service.
- The Goldsmith Arms with a sizeable garden stands opposite the Pawleyne Arms at the butt of Croydon Road. Just a mere 150 yards up the junction towards Beckenham Road is the Moon and Stars Wetherspoons pub.
- The public houses in Maple Road have nearly all changed their names. The Dew Drop Inn is now the Market Tavern. The London Tavern became the Hop Exchange which has been adjusted to the Hopsack. The Lord Palmerston has been delicensed and is now a Pizza outlet. The King William IV is now the Maple Tree. Only The Golden Lion has retained its name, although it has extended its premises substantially.
- In addition to The Lord Palmerston, other delicenced public houses include the Anchor [[5]] in Hawthorn Grove and the Watermans' Arms (now Superdrug) in the High Street.
- Penge also has several clubs including a Conservative Club and the Penge & District Trade Union Social Club (CIU) built by local tradesmen in 1922.