Kidbrooke

Infobox UK place
official_name= Kidbrooke
latitude= 51.4652
longitude= 0.0429
region= London
country= England
map_type= Greater London
post_town= LONDON
postcode_area= SE
postcode_district= SE3
dial_code= 020
os_grid_reference= TQ415765
london_borough= Greenwich

Kidbrooke is an area within the London Borough of Greenwich. It takes its name from the "Kyd Brook", a watercourse which runs from Orpington to Lewisham, by which point it is part of the River Quaggy. It is a tributary to the River Ravensbourne.

Housing

The area contains a large amount of 1920s and 1930s domestic housing, developed partly as the "Kidbrooke Park Estate", between Shooters Hill and Rochester Way.

Kidbrooke is also home to the Ferrier Estate, one of the largest and most deprived council housing developments in London. The housing estate is due to be redeveloped, and consultations with residents are on-going. [ [http://www.jacobcarter.co.uk/Ferrier%20Estate%20Project%202.htm Carter, Jacob: The Ferrier Estate (website)] ]

Features

Immediately south of the Ferrier Estate is a park which includes a lake, acting as a flood defence, and created by partly releasing the Kyd Brook from concrete conduits underground in which it had run until 2006.

Rochester Way, a road which was built along much of the course of the old country lane Kidbrooke Lane, was intended as a bypass for Shooters Hill to the north. Rochester Way has itself now been bypassed by a dual carriageway – part of the A2 road – built in the 1980s over most of Kidbrooke Green. A small remaining piece of this open land, alongside the road, is now Kidbrooke Green Park, and adjacent to that, a small nature reserve managed by Greenwich Council. The nature reserve is visible, but not open to the public.

Some of the land encroached on by the dual carriageway, adjacent to the railway line serving Kidbrooke railway station, was formerly a Royal Air Force equipment store. Some of the buildings remain, beyond the houses of Nelson Mandela Way, but the site is now little used. [ [http://homepage.ntlworld.com/alan-turnbull/secret4.htm Secret Bases] ] The nearby Thomas Tallis School is built on the former site of an RAF aerodrome, formerly the a barrage balloon centre. [ [http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/stories/06/a8175206.shtml BBC "People's War"] ] (There are several other military facilities in the general vicinity, which is also close to a surviving base in Woolwich, long home to the Royal Artillery and now to other parts of the British Army.)

Transport links

The A2 road gives the area rapid access to the London Inner Ring Road, the South Circular Road, London and the M25 London Orbital Motorway.

The area falls within Transport for London's "Zone 3".

Nearest railway stations:
* Blackheath railway station
* Eltham railway station
* Kidbrooke railway station

Education

:"For more on education in PAGENAME see the main London Borough of Greenwich article.

Primary Schools

* Wingfield School
* Kidbrooke Park

econdary Schools

* Kidbrooke School — opened in 1954; the first purpose-built comprehensive school in Britain
* Thomas Tallis School — opened in 1971

Notable inhabitants

Famous residents have included comedian Jim Davidson, who grew up in Holburne Road; interior designer Lawrence Llewelyn Bowen, who lived in a bungalow on Kidbrooke Park Road until 2004; and singer Sandie Shaw. [ [http://www.yell.com/find/DoFindLocations/lo/uk+London+Kidbrooke Yell » Kidbrooke, UK ] ]

ee also

Roads

* County of London Plan
* London Ringways
* East Cross Route

Nearby places

* Blackheath
* Charlton
* Eltham
* Greenwich
* Woolwich

References