How Do You See Orpington? : 2020
Note: This article was published in January 2020 and does not reference the impact of the Covid19 pandemic.
After the war, Orpington High Street grew into a busy and thriving shopping centre where people could buy all their everyday needs: food, clothes, household and leisure items, etc. This was in the 1950s and 1960s. If bigger stores and choices were desired, a trip could be made into Bromley, Croydon or even London but otherwise Orpington was more than adequate.
Then came a challenge to Orpington’s High Street with the advent of giant out-of-town shopping malls such as Lakeside in Essex and Bluewater in Kent. Towards the turn of the century came two more specifically local challenges. One was the opening of the Nugent Shopping Park in St Mary Cray; the other was the somewhat controversial decision by Bromley Council to allow Tesco to open a big superstore at the war memorial end of the High Street near Orpington railway station. Predictably, trade began to drift away from many of the older established individual specialist shops in the High Street: footfall and turnover for them went into decline.
The splendid colour poster on this page was drawn by Abigail Knight one of the local young students invited to illustrate the bold new project to re-energise Orpington High Street in the early 2010s decade. New investment was being sought to raise the profile of the High Street and counter the sniping and near-ridicule that was being directed at it in some sectors of the press who had noted the high percentage of charity shops.
Optimistic posters began appearing in 2014. The regeneration was aimed to be commercial as well as retail. A new cinema – a new hotel – a new public library – a new village hall - new restaurants and new shop units. It seemed very brave? – flying in the face of the post- financial crash recession and also the relentless march of on-line shopping eradicating the traditional High Street sales?
Note: This article was published in January 2020 and does not reference the impact of the Covid19 pandemic.
After the war, Orpington High Street grew into a busy and thriving shopping centre where people could buy all their everyday needs: food, clothes, household and leisure items, etc. This was in the 1950s and 1960s. If bigger stores and choices were desired, a trip could be made into Bromley, Croydon or even London but otherwise Orpington was more than adequate.
Then came a challenge to Orpington’s High Street with the advent of giant out-of-town shopping malls such as Lakeside in Essex and Bluewater in Kent. Towards the turn of the century came two more specifically local challenges. One was the opening of the Nugent Shopping Park in St Mary Cray; the other was the somewhat controversial decision by Bromley Council to allow Tesco to open a big superstore at the war memorial end of the High Street near Orpington railway station. Predictably, trade began to drift away from many of the older established individual specialist shops in the High Street: footfall and turnover for them went into decline.
The splendid colour poster on this page was drawn by Abigail Knight one of the local young students invited to illustrate the bold new project to re-energise Orpington High Street in the early 2010s decade. New investment was being sought to raise the profile of the High Street and counter the sniping and near-ridicule that was being directed at it in some sectors of the press who had noted the high percentage of charity shops.
Optimistic posters began appearing in 2014. The regeneration was aimed to be commercial as well as retail. A new cinema – a new hotel – a new public library – a new village hall - new restaurants and new shop units. It seemed very brave? – flying in the face of the post- financial crash recession and also the relentless march of on-line shopping eradicating the traditional High Street sales?
Credit where credit is due: much of the propaganda was translated into reality, particularly around the Walnuts Centre at the midway point of the High Street. The competition from on-line shopping has nevertheless accelerated and shows every sign of continuing to do so, but it can’t be denied that despite a steady trickle of ups and downs whereby some new restaurants and shops have quickly failed while others have passed muster, Orpington as a ‘Business Improvement District' meets the profile envisaged in the poster dated 2014.
After the war the old St Mary Cray High Street , heavily bombed in 1941, fell into neglect and became dwarfed by Orpington High Street as the area’s major town shopping centre. But towards the end of the 20th century and into the start of the 21st century have the Crays regained some equilibrium, at least? – with the Nugent Centre sucking in a lot of retail shoppers from Orpington; and also the Crays having a giant Tesco superstore of their own at Ruxley Corner.
After the war the old St Mary Cray High Street , heavily bombed in 1941, fell into neglect and became dwarfed by Orpington High Street as the area’s major town shopping centre. But towards the end of the 20th century and into the start of the 21st century have the Crays regained some equilibrium, at least? – with the Nugent Centre sucking in a lot of retail shoppers from Orpington; and also the Crays having a giant Tesco superstore of their own at Ruxley Corner.
‘How Do You See Orpington?’ That’s the real question, perhaps. Say the place-name ‘Orpington’ and what comes first to your mind? If your answer is the High Street, have you actually identified the essential Orpington and/or the main jewel in its crown? Is the biggest, best and most important attribute of Orpington in fact its railway station from which radiates sought-after residential commuter-land extending into a number of local areas: some of which are affluent and have high property values; others less so but most towns have mixed areas and Orpington on the very perimeter of outer London’s green belt enjoys the double aspect of having excellent urban bus, rail and road links while also offering the attraction of open air green swathes of countryside.
Name any town: Finchley –Horsham – Kingston – Orpington – Potters Bar: All of them will have a High Street or shopping centre but usually through its individual topography each town has its own unique character and its own specific critical success factor (or critical lack-of-success factor). You can’t necessarily get the DNA of a town from its High Street alone.
Name any town: Finchley –Horsham – Kingston – Orpington – Potters Bar: All of them will have a High Street or shopping centre but usually through its individual topography each town has its own unique character and its own specific critical success factor (or critical lack-of-success factor). You can’t necessarily get the DNA of a town from its High Street alone.
Is Orpington to be considered as a town, or an area? And if it is the latter, are St Mary Cray and St Paul’s Cray, i.e. the Bromley parts of the Crays, to be counted as part of Orpington in the same way that we might also count Chelsfield, Green Street Green, Locksbottom, etc? It is all subjective and there are different ways of looking at it.
It's interesting to note that some of the new-build industrial or retail parks in Cray Avenue and other parts of St Mary Cray and St Paul's Cray have been branded as 'Orpington'. For example - the Halo Business Park Orpington stands on the former site of the Sunrod factory that in publications of the 1950s and 1960s gave its address as St Mary Cray. The Nugent Shopping Centre in Cray Avenue declares itself to be 'Orpington' whereas the former occupant of that site, the giant local employer Morphy-Richards, advertised its base as 'St Mary Cray'. Directly across the road in Cray Avenue is the Electron Trading Park 'Orpington'.
In June 2017 the City A.M. business newspaper profiled Orpington as an area to invest in for property either as resident or a landlord. The conclusion was a positive thumbs-up. ‘Developers are starting to show an interest in this well-connected town in Zone 6.’ City AM highlighted Orpington’s excellent transport links. And they noted the improvements to the town centre. ‘Surrounded on three sides by green belt, the High Street is far more Middle England than South London. Orpington College has had a spruce, as well as the Walnut Shopping Centre, the public library and the new Odeon cinema that has arrived surrounded by a restaurant complex. As a result, developers are starting to invest. Last year, 7 per cent of sales were new flats created from office block conversions in the centre of town. Berkeley Homes has also moved in, building 83 apartments in Orpington town centre with an NHS medical centre proposed for the ground floor.’The article continued with these observations for property hunters and developers: ‘There are many reasons why the once sleepy town of Orpington should be on your list, not least because its house price growth is among the fastest in outer London.
That article is more than two years old now but there's plenty of visual evidence that Orpington and its area is perceived as an attractive and practical place to live, in the south east of England and/or Greater London. On a final note and as illustrated above the selection of local interest books on the shelf of Orpington Library embraces the full spectrum of the town's outlying areas such as Chelsfield, the Crays, Green Street Green and other local places. Cray 150 is a commited publisher that seeks to organise or support arts and heritage local activities in this district.
It's interesting to note that some of the new-build industrial or retail parks in Cray Avenue and other parts of St Mary Cray and St Paul's Cray have been branded as 'Orpington'. For example - the Halo Business Park Orpington stands on the former site of the Sunrod factory that in publications of the 1950s and 1960s gave its address as St Mary Cray. The Nugent Shopping Centre in Cray Avenue declares itself to be 'Orpington' whereas the former occupant of that site, the giant local employer Morphy-Richards, advertised its base as 'St Mary Cray'. Directly across the road in Cray Avenue is the Electron Trading Park 'Orpington'.
In June 2017 the City A.M. business newspaper profiled Orpington as an area to invest in for property either as resident or a landlord. The conclusion was a positive thumbs-up. ‘Developers are starting to show an interest in this well-connected town in Zone 6.’ City AM highlighted Orpington’s excellent transport links. And they noted the improvements to the town centre. ‘Surrounded on three sides by green belt, the High Street is far more Middle England than South London. Orpington College has had a spruce, as well as the Walnut Shopping Centre, the public library and the new Odeon cinema that has arrived surrounded by a restaurant complex. As a result, developers are starting to invest. Last year, 7 per cent of sales were new flats created from office block conversions in the centre of town. Berkeley Homes has also moved in, building 83 apartments in Orpington town centre with an NHS medical centre proposed for the ground floor.’The article continued with these observations for property hunters and developers: ‘There are many reasons why the once sleepy town of Orpington should be on your list, not least because its house price growth is among the fastest in outer London.
That article is more than two years old now but there's plenty of visual evidence that Orpington and its area is perceived as an attractive and practical place to live, in the south east of England and/or Greater London. On a final note and as illustrated above the selection of local interest books on the shelf of Orpington Library embraces the full spectrum of the town's outlying areas such as Chelsfield, the Crays, Green Street Green and other local places. Cray 150 is a commited publisher that seeks to organise or support arts and heritage local activities in this district.
