Kidbrooke
| Kidbrooke | |
| Kent | |
|---|---|
 Parade of shops on Rochester Way | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | TQ413760 |
| Location: | 51°27’54"N, -0°1’59"E |
| Data | |
| Population: | 14,300 (2011 (Kidbrooke with Hornfair Ward)[1]) |
| Post town: | London |
| Postcode: | SE3, SE9 |
| Dialling code: | 020 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | Greenwich |
Kidbrooke is a suburban district in Metropolitan Kent, north-west of Eltham and 7½ miles east-south-east of Charing Cross.
The district takes its name from the Kyd Brook, a watercourse which runs from Orpington to Lewisham, by which point it is part of the River Quaggy. It is a tributary to the River Ravensbourne.
Housing
The area contains a large amount of 1920s and 1930s domestic housing, developed partly as the Kidbrooke Park Estate, between Shooters Hill and Rochester Way.
Kidbrooke was also home to the Ferrier Estate, built from 1968, and one of the largest and most deprived council housing developments in London. The housing estate was demolished in 2012 and redeveloped as Kidbrooke Village, a development of 4,200 homes.
Features
Immediately south of the former Ferrier Estate is Sutcliffe Park which includes a lake, acting as a flood defence, and created by partly releasing the Kyd Brook from concrete conduits underground in which it had run until 2006.
Rochester Way, a road which was built along much of the course of the old country lane Kidbrooke Lane, was intended as a bypass for Shooters Hill to the north. Rochester Way has itself now been bypassed by a dual carriageway – part of the A2 road – built in the 1980s over most of Kidbrooke Green. A small remaining piece of this open land, alongside the road, is now Kidbrooke Green Park, and adjacent to that, a small nature reserve managed by Greenwich Council. The nature reserve is visible, but not open to the public.
Some of the land encroached on by the dual carriageway, adjacent to the railway line serving Kidbrooke railway station, was formerly a Royal Air Force equipment store. Some of the buildings remain, south of the houses of Nelson Mandela Road, but the site is now little used.[2] Nearby to the north-west, Thomas Tallis School is built on the former site of a prisoner-of-war camp,[3] part of RAF Kidbrooke, formerly a barrage balloon centre.[4] (There are several other military facilities in the general vicinity, which is also close to a surviving base in Woolwich, long home to the Royal Artillery and now to other parts of the British Army.)
Transport links
The A2 road gives the area rapid access to the London Inner Ring Road, the South Circular Road and the M25 motorway.
The area falls within Transport for London's "Zone 3". The nearest railway stations are Blackheath, Eltham and Kidbrooke. Trains go to London Victoria, London Cannon Street and London Charing Cross.
Education
Primary schools
- Wingfield School
- Kidbrooke Park
- Holy Family R.C
- Henwick Primary School
- Ealdham Primary School
Secondary schools
- The Halley Academy — opened in 1954 as Kidbrooke School; the first purpose-built comprehensive school in Britain and became an Academy in 2011 as Corelli College
- Thomas Tallis School — opened in 1971
Notable inhabitants
Famous residents have included comedian Jim Davidson, who grew up in Holburne Road; interior designer Lawrence Llewelyn Bowen, who lived in a bungalow on Kidbrooke Park Road until 2004; and singer Sandie Shaw. AFC Bournemouth player Junior Stanislas was born in Kidbrooke.
References
- ↑ "Greenwich Ward population 2011". Neighbourhood Statistics. Office for National Statistics. http://www.neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/dissemination/LeadKeyFigures.do?a=7&b=13688730&c=Kidbrooke+with+Hornfair&d=14&e=62&g=6325315&i=1001x1003x1032x1004&o=362&m=0&r=1&s=1476440551406&enc=1. Retrieved 14 October 2016.
- ↑ Secret Bases
- ↑ "Barrage balloons and trainee spies in Kidbrooke". https://thamesfacingeast.wordpress.com/tag/ferrier-estate/. Retrieved 2 October 2017.
- ↑ BBC "People's War"