Tag: News

New Housing Development Planned on Beckenham Rd, September 2025

A planning application has been made to the Council for 18 flats and involves the demolition of a large Victorian house on Beckenham Road opposite the old Post Office.

No. 5 Beckenham Road is a large Victorian house from the mid-1800s and one of a group of five surviving villa houses situated close to Beckenham High Street. It is situated in a prominent location, opposite the locally-listed Post Office building near the Grade II-listed Cinema and War Memorial, and close to Beckenham High Street Conservation Area.

5 Beckenham Road, BR3 4PL

The house is currently hidden by scaffolding and sheeting but it is a fine and unaltered example of this kind of grand Victorian house located on a principal road in the Beckenham. The red brick front elevation, yellow London stock brick flank and rear walls, with carved stone lintels and insert panels, remain unpainted unlike its neighbours. It also retains its original timber sliding sash windows and decorated barge boards.

The planning application is for demolition of the  existing building, replacing it with a six-storey block of 18 flats, to accommodate up to 68 people.  An underground car park with 12 parking spaces is proposed, with access at the rear of the site via Westfield Road. Although the development is for more than 10 units, no affordable housing provision has been included in the application.

As far as we are aware, there has not been a public consultation for the scheme. and we do not know if any leaflets have been made available to local residents.

We have written to the council objecting to the application, focussing on the loss of an attractive Victorian building, the scale and density of the new development, the lack of any affordable housing provision, road safety concerns, amongst other issues.

Full details of the planning application are on the Council’s website here 25/01262/FULL
where you can also leave your comments about the proposal.  Or send an email to planning@bromley.gov.uk and the case officer jessica.lai@bromley.gov.uk.

If you wish to comment, you must give your full name and address, or your views may not be registered.

Bromley Environment Network: December 2024 Newsletter

CCARA is a member of Bromley Environment Network (BEN), a broad group of local groups and organisations with an interest in environmental issues. Follow the link below to see the BEN newsletter for December 2024.

Follow the link to see the BEN Newsletter for this month: BEN Newsletter December 2024

Previous newsletters can be viewed here: BEN Newsletter Archive

Residential Scheme on Southend Road – Public Exhibition of proposals on 2nd November 2023

A public drop-in session is being held on Thursday 2nd November 18:00-20:00 at Beckenham Methodist Church (The Bevington Hall), Bromley Road, Beckenham BR3 5 JE to view the plans for the proposed new development.

The development proposal is on a vacant site at 37 Southend Road, Beckenham BR3 1SP, at the junction with Stumps Hill Lane.

We’ve been in contact with the architects to find more about the public exhibition. All illustrations (except the map) and the text below are from their presentation boards:

The exhibition provides an opportunity to view the initial designs for the development.

Members of the project team will be present to listen to any feedback and answer any questions you may have. Your views will be reviewed as part of the design development of the proposal.

The proposals are for a mix of 1 to 2 bed apartments, 1 3-bed maisonette and a new play space. The existing topography of the site has been considered in the proposal with a car park basement designed into the slope of the site to the east with the entrance to the west. 18 car parking spaces as well as sufficient cycle parking have been included to promote sustainable forms of travel and keep the amount of traffic to the site down.

The proposal includes:

• Modern, high-quality homes with layouts and floor areas in line with London Housing Guidelines
• Private outdoor space for all residents either via a balcony or private terrace
• Safe and secure homes and communal green areas inc. playspace
• The proposals are aiming for an affordable housing level of 30% 

Existing vehicular access is to the north west of the site, accessed via Stumps Hill Ln, and will be retained in the proposal.

The site has sat empty and consists of primarily soft landscaping to the east and a small amount of hard landscaping to the west where existing garages used to sit which have now been demolished.

If you are unable to attend the public exhibition you can also provide feedback to RTK Stamford Ltd by:

email: rachel@rtkuk.com
post: 20 Belton Street, Stamford, Lincolnshire PE9 2EF
phone: 01780 482483

Prominent Victorian house doomed to be demolished, January 2022

The final decision will be made by councillors at a planning committee meeting at 7pm on Thursday 20th January 2022.   

Situated on the corner of Downsbridge Road, at a prominent location near the brow of the hill between Beckenham and Shortlands, Coleridge House at 79 and 79a Bromley Road is a distinctive building from the late-Victorian era and one of the last remaining grand villa houses that once lined Bromley Road.  

The three-storey building is run by Riverside Housing Association (which also runs Calverley Close on Southend Road) and currently accommodates 12 self-contained social housing flats for the elderly and an adjoining, four-bedroom single family house (79a).  The £12M development involves the demolition of the entire building, replacing it with a five-storey block of 27 flats much bigger than the existing building, and an underground car park.  The proposed scheme comprises 5 No. one-bedroom, 17 No. two-bedroom and 5 No. 3-bedroom flats, providing space for up to 95 occupants.  

The Victorian Society has said, “Victorian villas such as this may be considered fairly common nationally, but within the local context, it is a rare survival. The house has both architectural and historical interest as a building representative of the growth of the area in the late 19th century, and as such, should be considered a local landmark and a non-designated heritage asset and its loss would harm the significance of the building and the contribution it makes to the local area.”  It goes on to say,“The two buildings in combination retain a vestige of the formerly leafy character of the area, and the loss of one would erode this character. If permitted, this could set a precedent for the piecemeal demolition of similar surviving larger 19th/20th century houses in the area.”

Bromley Council has committed to be carbon neutral by 2029 and, considering the UK’s national carbon reduction targets, we believe that retaining, refurbishing or converting existing buildings should always be preferable over demolition.

It is also very disappointing to see in their Affordable Housing Viability Statement that the developer, like many others involved in residential schemes in Beckenham in recent years, doesn’t include any affordable housing provision.  According to planning application documents, the smallest one-bedroom flat in the £12M development is expected to market for £325,000.  The developer’s claim that they can’t afford to provide affordable housing in the scheme, is unacceptable in our view.

The planning officer’s report can be found here

A list of the councillors who’ll be making the final decision at the meeting can be found here. 

Flats proposed on top of Barclays Bank, Beckenham, June 2016

3 Beckenham Rd Front
Beckenham Road elevation

A recent planning application has been made to build three additional storeys of flats on top of the existing Barclays Bank on Beckenham Road, near to the war memorial.

The application incorporates a scheme for two additional residential storeys that was granted consent more than three years ago, but which expired on 10th April this year, 13/00407/FULL1 , plus a fifth storey penthouse apartment.
(Note: the drawings also indicate an unconnected scheme for the site at 436 Croydon Road, currently a temporary furniture showroom.  This has not been built and the Council are understood to be investigating the current planning status)
CCARA has written to the Council, objecting to the application and expressing the view that the proposal would have a detrimental impact on the surrounding area.  Whilst the Association does not have any major objection to the four-storey scheme previously consented, we consider the newly-proposed fifth storey in the current application an unwelcome addition, for the following reasons:
1. Most buildings in the area are either two or three storeys high, with a few being four storeys.  Allowing a five-storey development would set an undesirable precedent with regard to other sites in the immediate vicinity that hold the potential to be redeveloped in the future.
2. The site is in a sensitive location, right on the edge of the Beckenham High Street Conservation Area and sitting opposite the Grade 2-listed Odeon Cinema and the Post Office, a locally listed building.
3. The design of the building would dominate this important junction in the town and dwarf the adjacent Victorian houses on Beckenham Road.
4. The wave-shaped profile of the penthouse roof results in a fifth storey that would be nearly 5 metres high, further accentuating the visual height of the building.  The elevation drawings suggest the building would be nearly 17 metres high, at its highest point.
5.   No indication appears to be given regarding the materials, colour or finish of the cladding.  The presentation of the drawings seems to suggest a light-coloured render to the third and fourth storeys and a profiled metal roof to the penthouse.  Both materials would be inappropriate, detracting from the importance of the existing key buildings at the junction.
6. Assuming employees at the bank would still permitted to park their cars in the car park at the rear of the building, there would seem to be an inadequate number of parking spaces overall.
If you wish to view the proposal, click on this link, 16/02218/FULL1 , where you can also submit your own comments.

Tonight join in with “Ride Safe, Ride Bright”

Friday 20th April 2012 – Ride starts at 7.00 pm at Beckenham Green, Near St Georges Church.

Ride Safe, Ride Bright is a 5 mile cycling event to make people more aware of safety issues of Cycling at night, in particular encouraging all cyclists to be more contrastingly luminous and with good working and bright flashing lights on their bikes.

We hope you can join us on the ride.