Farthing Street, Bromley
A hamlet since Norman times, Farthing Street is a quiet echo of Downe, which lies three-quarters of a mile to the south
An electricity pylon looms threateningly over a pair of cottages in Farthing Street
The south-eastern quadrant of the London Borough of Bromley is by far the most rural corner of the metropolis, with hamlets and villages strung along quiet byways. Only the farthest flung corners of the boroughs of Havering and Hillingdon present anything resembling such a bucolic aspect and they do not cover nearly as broad an area.
This place was first recorded in 1332 as simply ‘Farthing’, a name that probably referred to land that made up a quarter of a larger estate. The ‘Street’ affix, which came later, was often applied to places that consisted of a little ribbon of dwellings.
Nineteenth-century flint-faced houses with red brick dressings are hidden away on a single-track lane with tall hedgerows, but nowadays high-tension wires strung across the village detract from its appeal.
Farthing Street Farm was once noted for its strawberries, picked at dawn and delivered to the shops of Bromley by 9am.
Postcode area: Orpington, BR6
London Historians
