People Power In Penge

Penge in the South East London Borough of Bromley is a predominantly working class area with a population of around twenty thousand. There was a market in Maple Road which closed in 2010 although a cut down version was brought in last year. Most of the shops are in the high street, including the Blenheim Centre, which is set back from Penge High Street. If it has any claim to fame it is that Bill Wyman of The Rolling Stones once lived in nearby Blenheim Road.  If Penge has any claim to fame it is that the poet Walter de la Mare once lived there. One can of course argue the relative merits of him and Wyman, but at the moment its denizens are arguing the merits of keeping the Blenheim Centre or tearing it down to build 250 homes for people who are anything but working class. So far there has been little if any local support for the latter.

The main shop of the Blenheim Centre is the Iceland store. Although its prices have soared in recent months for reasons with which the reader will be sadly all too familiar, it is still a great asset. The next nearest for Penge residents is at Crystal Palace, an inconvenient drive and an even more inconvenient bus ride.

The freehold for the Blenheim Centre was owned by Bromley Council until 2021 when it was sold to the Hadley Property Group. On its website, Hadley boasts of driving toward “a car-free future”, something which bodes ill for anyone who has heard of the insane plans of the World Economic Forum, 15 Minute Cities and all.

Hadley is partnering with a housing association, presumably Bromley doesn’t want to see Penge totally gentrified, but these new homes, if they go ahead, will be a tower block, all 18 storeys of it. 

A local resident named Michael Payne of the Penge Preservation Society has launched a website called Stop Hadley. Thousands of leaflets were also distributed recently advising people of what this will entail if it gets the go ahead. Plans for this new housing monstrosity are already well advanced and people have only until March 23 to file their objections with the Council. Having said that, it can be done, the people of Oxford are fighting back against their council’s 15 minute city plan, and London’s lunatic Labour Mayor Sadiq Khan is facing stiff opposition to his ULEZ plan which would make it impossible for anyone but Bentley or Rolls Royce owners to drive in the capital.