BIRKBECK AND CHURCHFIELDS Cont'd..
Churchfields Road also had the Beckenham Corporation Depot, the former electric power station and one of Beckenham's largest factories, Small Electric Motors.
About the middle of the 19th century much land in Beckenham was bought by the Birkbeck Freehold Lane Society, founded in 1851 by Francis Ravenscroft. He needed a name that would guarantee the integrity of his Society, and chose that of BIRKBECK.
Dr. George Birkbeck, a Yorkshire physician and philanthropist, was a leader in the movement to provide education for the working man. In 1823 he formed the Mechanics Institute out of which grew the present Birkbeck College, part of the London University.
Building developments on the Birkbeck Estate began in the 1870s and many of the roads were named after people who were associated with the Freehold Lane Society, such as Sultan Street (1880), formerly Sultan Road; Blandford Road (1898); Blandford Avenue (1900); Arrol Road (1904); Seward Road (1907); Villiers Road (1908); Allen Road (1910), and Clement Road which was not developed until after the first World War.
Kimberley Road (1904-5) was named after a besieged garrison during the Boer War, while Mackenzie Road was named after Col. Colin Mackenzie who, it is said, had his Afghan servant baptised in the Parish Church in 1867.
Sidney Road (1900) was named after Sidney Cottage which stood on the Beckenham Road corner. This was once the parsonage for All Saints Church which stood opposite in Chaffinch Road. Houses in Kendall Road followed those in Sidney Road but Kendall Avenue was not developed until the early 1930s.
Betts Close (1980s) was named after the builder Dennis Betts who lived at 25 Sidney Road. The site his former yard.
It was originally intended that Avenue Road should extend across the railway into Blandford Road, but presumably the cost would have been too great, so the footbridge was built instead.
The reason why Clement and Seward Road’s are the only direct links between Churchfields and Blandford Road’s is that they were formed on the only plot of land owned by the Birkbeck Estate which had a frontage to Churchfields Road; land on either side of this plot never formed part of the Estate, which accounts for Sultan Street and Blandford Avenue being cul-de-sac.
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