Before Brook Lane appeared on the map, Kidbrooke Lane followed its course. That lane, unimaginable now, was known for its pretty hedgerows. Kidbrooke Lane ran all the way from Blackheath through the fields of Kidbrooke to Well Hall. Try using the old map controls from 1900 and beyond to view how the area has been completely transformed.
Only the SE9 section remains of Kidbrooke Lane now, way down near Well Hall.
The fields to the west of Brook Lane became allotments as the First World War ended. Just beyond the cows at the left of the photo, housing started to line Kidbrooke Park Road.
The fields immediately to the east were also allotments for a while and farmland remained beyond until the Shooters Hill bypass part of the Rochester Way was built in 1927.
Brook Lane received its new name in the late 1920s when Rochester Way cut it off from the rest of Kidbrooke Lane. Partly the new name kept a section of the former name but the Kid Brooke stream also ran just south of what is now Gregory House at the end of Brook Lane.
Brook Lane run onto Rochester Way itself at a dangerous junction until the Rochester Way Relief Road was created in 1988. The lane is now curtailed.
The old photo shows Upper Kidbrooke Farm in Kidbrooke Lane and behind it, St James’ Church. Demonstrating how suburban landscape is not simply split into ‘before’ and ‘after’ urbanisation, the farm had been built on the site of another former church – St Nicholas. After the Second World War, Delme Crescent was built on the site of both former farm and former church.
To the right (east) of Brook Lane, Chiswell Square and Kelsall Close arrived in the first half of the 1950s replacing the allotments.
We have supplied here a modern 2021 view to update the direction of the older view. In the distance is still the (more modern) spire of St James along the line of the road – you’ll probably have to enlarge the photo to see it. Indeed you can click either photo to enlarge and see more detail.
Alas the exact camera position opposite that fine old tree is now the footprint of modern housing and we’d be trapped inside a wall trying to attempt the same shot. This will have to do.
It would have been good if the tree had survived, but it hasn’t.
