Librarian’s quirky tales of local landmarks brings Bromley’s history to life

A librarian from south London is helping to mark the 60th anniversary of the London Borough of Bromley with a quirky presentation about five notable buildings in the area.

Christine Davis, who is based at Mottingham Library, is an enthusiastic amateur historian who is well-known to colleagues and customers due to her love of architecture and her popular monthly talks on London’s past.

Entitled, ‘A History of Bromley Through Five Buildings’, the first of a series of lectures – which are free to attend – took place at Bromley Library last Thursday on ‘World Book night’. There are further dates across the borough.

The talk focuses on buildings from the Medieval period to the early twentieth century – one of which is the moated manor house at Scadbury Nature Reserve in Chislehurst.

It is also part of the ‘Bromley 60’ celebrations commemorating the formation of 32 London boroughs which took place in April 1965.

Christine first got the history ‘bug’ almost two decades ago when she went to a lecture at Gresham College in central London. “The title was, ‘A History of England Through Building’,” she says. “I thought it was such an interesting way of approaching the subject.”

Inspired, she later put together pictures and information for a friend who wanted to follow a guided walk on the Great Fire of London.

It was such a success that further walks and talks followed and she has now compiled more than a hundred presentations covering all areas of the capital. Her own favourite is, ‘Alleyways and Americanos’ – a history of coffee houses in the City of London.

“I surprise myself all the time with what I discover and there’s always so much to learn,” Christine says. “I like to tell people ‘what-they-didn’t-know-they-didn’t-know’. I’m passionate about history but the real passion is in sharing this information with other people.

“For example, people don’t generally know that the first recorded death from a motor vehicle accident took place in Crystal Palace Park in 1866. The car was only travelling at 14mph – you can only assume that the victim was so shocked they just stood there and let it run over them!”

Christine currently resides in Bexley but spent 20 years living in Chislehurst.

Libraries in Bromley and Greenwich are run by charitable social enterprise GLL under the ‘Better’ brand. For more details on Christine’s upcoming talks, contact her directly at christine.davis@gll.org.

Alternatively, you can do so via Bromley Central Library on 0203 931 0900 or via email at central.library@gll.org.

Pictured top: Christine Davies giving one of her talks (Picture: GLL)