All About Brockley
As you know, we service customers with sash windows in Brockley, which is a district and an electoral ward of south London in the Borough of Lewisham 5 miles (8km) away from Charing Cross. Charing Cross is well known for it’s tube station, many have passed through! It was originally part of Kent but was adopted as part of Lewisham in 1889 and eventually into Greater London in 1965. Quite the evolution. London is happy to have Brockley! The rough estimation of the population was 17,156 (2011), which we’re sure it must be a whole lot more now.
What most of the locals don’t know about Brockley is that the actual word comes from “Broca’s woodland clearing”, a forest where badgers were seen. Broc is an Old English word for badger. We will admit, we did not know this without a bit of extra topic on this great area.
Let’s have a look at some more key dates, facts, figures and numbers:
Area code: 020 - like virtually all London boroughs.
1773 - the oldest known home in Brockley was made by George Gibson.
1871 - Brockley railway station was opened.
1892 - Crofton Park railway station was built.
1901 - St Mary Magdalen’s RC Church was completed.
Interestingly, Brockley was under the bomber flight path to the London docks. The area was damaged significantly during World War II. Even before World War I, Brockley was an extremely exclusive area to live in. After WWI, the area started to become more divided into smaller villages and the rich dispersed to more country side areas.
This continued after WWII as houses became subdivided into houses of multiple occupation. This means when a home houses multiple individuals who share amenities, like the kitchen and bathroom, but have their own bedroom. Many foreign people moved to England after WWII.
How do sash windows fit into all of this?
Well, Brockley is a hotbed for beautiful, ornate sash windows. Why is this? Well, Brockley is one of the best preserved Victorian suburbs in London. Many areas are conservation areas, meaning buildings cannot be demolished or even altered all that much. As a result, locals have to apply to the council in order to get anything changed, or have to bite the bullet and restore parts of the house to how they were. The same goes for sash windows. We will come in and restore your windows to the same standard as they were before, without replacing or changing the style of the window. Sometimes it can make for tricky work as we have to get creative with our solutions, but it is still enjoyable and nice to know the heritage and architecture is protected. We love the timber windows we come into contact with in and around Brockley!
Ever thought about living in Brockley?
Well, the guardian wrote an article on moving to Brockley in south east London. Like The Guardian says, Brockley is very well connected, with four or five trains an hour to London Bridge (12-14 mins), half an hour to London Victoria (40 mins); options to Croydon (22 mins), north to Shoreditch (18 mins). Driving gives you the option to get to the A2 to leave London (30 mins) and central London is a 30-45 minute drive. So you are decently connected.
A major con they list is that there is not particularly a town centre. While this is true, there is still a lot of commerce occurring should you want to go out shopping. There are plenty of restaurants, bars and places to hang out. Of course, at London prices. There’s also loud airplanes flying on their final approach to Heathrow, which can be a pain.
Schools are reasonably well rated, so you can get good education here.
Houses are reasonably expensive. As they are in most places in central London.
TR Sash Windows & Carpentry
TR Sash Windows & Carpentry,
4 Bayfield Road,
Greenwich,
London,
SE9 6BN