A leafy Beckenham road

Steam Special at Beckenham Junction

Grey Heron in Kelsey Park

End of the High Street, after the WWI monument was erected, with the fair where Rectory Road was shortly to be.
(Bromley Archive)

Crowds round the Regal in about 1934
(Bromley Archive)

David Bowie plaque originally on The Rat and Parrot pub (formerly The Three Tuns). It is hoped to re-erect it in its former position at Zizzi.

The unveiling ceremony

Welcome

The Copers Cope Area Residents Association have set up this website to help residents to focus on their local area.

It will be improved and updated in the near future, with more information.

Remember you are not alone. Join our Residents Association and put forward your point of view on local matters.

If you have any ideas, or can help in any way, please let us know.

Beckenham's Public Convenience

The issue of whether to keep Beckenham’s public convenience operating, behind its little garden of flowers at the junction of the High Street and Kelsey Park road, is coming up for further discussion by Bromley Council in late July or August, we understand.

The Council has already closed some conveniences elsewhere in the borough to save money and continues trying, luckily without much success, to get some quite unsuitable commercial premises to allow the public to use their toilets free instead, the “Community Toilets” scheme.

The reluctance to fund proper public conveniences in Beckenham has quite a history. Many years ago we appeared to be on the verge of getting one at the cinema end of the High Street, but finished up with one cubicle at the Sainsbury’s store, and that appears to be closed too often. Last autumn the Council’s Town Centres Review Group recommended consideration of a new public toilet near Beckenham Junction, a centre of the “night economy”.

There’s been silence on that, but not on the “Community Toilets” scheme. The overwhelming view of Copers Cope residents, at our Annual General Meeting in March, was that the policy of closure is totally unacceptable for Beckenham, especially for elderly and disabled residents. Our neighbours in the Beckenham Civic Society and West Beckenham Residents’ Association feel the same, and others from all over the borough voiced objections at the AGM of Bromley Residents’ Federation.

The last we heard was that in Beckenham only the Odeon cinema, Costa Coffee, and Waitrose had shown interest in the “Community Toilets” scheme, and a final decision on retaining our Public Convenience is still on hold. So there is still time for you to send your opinion to the Council’s Portfolio Holder for the Environment and Leisure, Colin Smith, at Bromley Civic Centre, BR1 3 UH. If you value your right to be heard, take the trouble to use it.

The CCARA, your independent voice in the area.

Contact us via e-mail:
info@coperscope.org.uk