Bexleyheath
is the current administrative centre for the London Borough
of Bexley and the main shopping centre for the borough. The
second stage of the Broadway shopping centre opened in 2001.
For almost its entire history Bexleyheath was a heath bordering
Watling Street, the ancient Roman road between London and Dover.
The heath was notorious for highwaymen, and coaching inns were
built along the road to provide a refuge for travellers. These
inns, some of which still stand today, were a stimulus for further
development in the area. In addition the enclosure of the heath
in 1819 meant that the land could be more easily developed and
slowly the town of Bexleyheath grew to prominence, overtaking
Bexley in
terms of population well before the end of the 19th century.
The first church on the heath was a chapel-of-ease built in
1836 near what is now Oaklands Road. This was followed by a
permanent place of worship, Christchurch, in 1877.
The area grew
in importance until in 1880 it had its first representatives
on the Bexley Local Board, one of whom, Alfred
Bean, was the chairman. Bean was a railway engineer and
entrepreneur who moved into Danson Mansion in 1862 and together
with other luminaries such as William Morris (who built his
Red House in Upton) helped to raise the profile of Bexleyheath.
The Bexleyheath Railway Line arrived in 1895.
The town was in the middle of a thriving agricultural area and
had a market place that became the centre of the new development
where the clock tower, built in 1912, is today. Commercial premises
soon arrived and stores such as Penny, Son & Parker, Hides
and Jenkins General Stores attracted shoppers to the area in
great numbers.
At the start of the 1930s the town was still concentrated along
Watling Street, but by the end of the decade the picture had
changed dramatically. The first major development was the Brampton
Park Estate, built by DC Bowyer, with new roads being laid out
between the old country lanes of Brampton Road and Pickford
Lane. Smaller developments of the 1930s were built by New Ideal
Homesteads in the Pelham Road area.
