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SECTION A.
NATURAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS OF
BECKENHAM
The Borough has an area of 5,935 acres, and extends from the
Crystal Palace Grounds to the fringe of the Kentish farmlands.
It includes the districts of Lower Sydenham, New Beckenham,
Beckenham (proper), Elmers End, Shortlands, Park Langley, West
Wickham and Coney Hall.
While primarily residential, it contains two well defined industrial
areas, one at Elmers End and the other at Lower Sydenham. Its
neighbours are—Sydenham and Catford to the North, Bromley and
Hayes to the East, Penge and Croydon to the West, and Orpington
to the South.
There are twelve Railway Stations within the Borough giving fast
and frequent electric trains to the City and West End termini and to
intermediate stations over a wide area of South and South-east London.
It is eight miles from the City.
The climate is comparatively mild and the annual rainfall is low,
averaging 35 inches, for the last year for which records are available.
The Borough averages, 150 feet above sea level for Beckenham
proper to 210 feet above sea level for the district of West Wickham in
the south of the borough. Bench marks are 111 feet opposite the Regal
Cinema and 135 feet opposite the Parish Church—to West Wickham
with 238 feet for Links Road, 202 feet the Avenue, and 190 feet
Ravenswood Crescent.
About half the area geologically consists of "Blackheath Pebble
Beds" and the remaining half of "London Clay" with beds of
"Valley Gravel" following the course of streams known as Chaffinch
Brook and Ravensbourne River.
Beckenham is a coherent and well ordered town with a wide
variety of houses, and possesses numerous privately owned sports
grounds, and several parks. It contains more than 2,000 acres of open
spaces. To the south, between Well Wood (43 acres) and the Croydon
boundary, is a tract of rolling farmland with some wooded areas;
just over 180 acres of it were purchased by the Kent County Council
under the Green Belt Act, 1938, with contributions from Beckenham
and from the London County Council, and are held by Beckenham
on a 999 years lease to act as a permanent barrier to any further
outward spread of urban building.
The population has grown from 26,330 in 1901 to 74,834 in the
1951 Census (Estimated Population in June, 1957, was 75,440)—
Male 34,102, Female 40,732. The Registrar General estimated the
population of the West Wickham area in 1955 as 20,600.
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