Visit Bromley Places

Welcome to Visit Bromley Places
The Walkfo guide to things to do & explore in Bromley

  

Bromley Places Overview: History, Culture & Facts about Bromley

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Bromley history

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Bromley is first recorded in an Anglo-Saxon charter of 862 as Bromleag and means ‘woodland clearing where broom grows’ It shares this Old English etymology with Great Bromley in Essex, but not with the Bromley East End of London. In 1185 Bromley Palace was built by Gilbert Glanvill, Bishop of Rochester. Pilgrims came to the town to visit St. Blaise’s Well.

Bromley culture & places

Theatres

Bromley has a number of theatres in the town centre, a professional, the Churchill Theatre, an amateur, the Bromley Little Theatre and an outdoor amphitheatre . The Theatre was opened on 19 July 1977 by the Prince of Wales .

Library

Bromley also has a central library in the same building as the Churchill Theatre with a large book stock, Internet and wifi access . It functions as the central library of the broader Bromley Borough Libraries Service .

Cinema

Vue Cinemas own a nine-screen cinema, which is part of the Bromley South Central scheme at St Mark’s Square, opened on 28 November 2018 . Bromley Picturehouse was opened in June 2019 in the previous Empire theatre .

Dance

Bromley has its own team of Morris dancers, The Ravensbourne Morris Men . Founded in 1947 as a post war revival team following an inaugural meeting at Jean’s Café, which was located opposite Bromley South Station .

Civic Society

Bromley Civic Society is a civic society for the historic centre of Bromley . It seeks to educate the public about the community’s history and to preserve historical sites .

Popular culture

The Bromley Contingent was the name given to the entourage that followed the Sex Pistols and helped popularise the punk movement . In the famous Monty Python Spam sketch Bromley was stated to be the location of the fictional Green Midget Café, where every item on the menu was composed of spam in varying degrees . The 2018 humorous film The Bromleys Boys is set in Bromley and surroundings in the late 1960s and early 1970s .

Media

Local news is provided by the Bromley Times. For confidential support call the Samaritans in the UK on 08457 90 90 90, visit a local Samaritans branch or click here for details .

Bromley economy & business

Bromley High Street

The town has a large retail area, including a pedestrianised High Street and The Glades centre . The shopping area includes retailers such as Gap, Oasis, Russell & Bromley and Waterstone’s . Bromley Charter Market is also the location for the Bromley charter market .

Bromley landmarks

The parish church of St Peter and St Paul stands on Church Road in Bromley. It was largely destroyed by German bombing on 16 April 1941 and rebuilt in the 1950s incorporating the medieval tower and reusing much of the flint and fragments of the original stone building. St Mark’s was heavily damaged in the London Blitz of 1941 and only the tower survived intact.

You can visit Bromley places with Walkfo Bromley to hear history at Bromley’s places whilst walking around using the free digital tour app. Walkfo Bromley has 79 places to visit in our interactive Bromley map, with amazing history, culture & travel facts you can explore the same way you would at a museum or art gallery with information audio headset. With Walkfo, you can travel by foot, bike or bus throughout Bromley, being in the moment, without digital distraction or limits to a specific walking route. Our historic audio walks, National Trust interactive audio experiences, digital tour guides for English Heritage locations are available at Bromley places, with a AI tour guide to help you get the best from a visit to Bromley & the surrounding areas.

“Curated content for millions of locations across the UK, with 79 audio facts unique to Bromley places in an interactive Bromley map you can explore.”

Walkfo: Visit Bromley Places Map
79 tourist, history, culture & geography spots

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Bromley historic spots	Bromley tourist destinations	Bromley plaques	Bromley geographic features
Walkfo Bromley tourism map key: places to see & visit like National Trust sites, Blue Plaques, English Heritage locations & top tourist destinations in Bromley

  

Best Bromley places to visit

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Bromley has places to explore by foot, bike or bus. Below are a selection of the varied Bromley’s destinations you can visit with additional content available at the Walkfo Bromley’s information audio spots:

Wellcome Research Laboratories Wellcome Research Laboratories was a site in Beckenham, south-east London, that was a main research centre for pharmaceuticals . Until 1965, this laboratory site was situated in Kent .

Downham Fields Downham Fields is a 20-acre park located in Downham, South East London . It was left as parkland during the construction of the interwar Downham Estate . It is sometimes referred to in documents by the name Durham Hill, but this is not in common usage .

Visit Bromley plaques