Why two designations frame this guide
The study area here is the land inside the two conservation areas that carry the Penge name: Penge High Street, about 5.7 hectares, and Alexandra Cottages (Parish Lane), about 3.4 hectares, both designated by the London Borough of Bromley. One is named after the High Street of a town that Bromley's Local Plan ranks as a district centre; the other protects a group of workers' cottages. In the words of Bromley's design guidance, the larger Victorian development around Crystal Palace Park "spread downhill into Penge and Anerley and smaller workers' homes".
Conservation areas outside these two boundaries are left to other guides, while the south-east London guide covers the wider district. Each record below comes with what it changes for someone buying a flat over a shop or repairing one of the cottages.
What the records show for the High Street and the cottages
Every statement below links to the public record it comes from; sources were re-checked on .
Dates and extent of the two designations
On planning.data.gov.uk, Penge High Street is Bromley's reference CA33, designated on 30 May 1977 and mapped at about 5.7 hectares.
Alexandra Cottages (Parish Lane), reference CA1, was designated on 13 March 1984 over about 3.4 hectares, the smaller of the pair.
Bromley's conservation areas page says extra planning controls apply inside conservation areas, among them added protection for trees, so work to a garden tree here is cleared with the council first.
The council's interactive map shows whether a property is listed, locally listed or inside a conservation area, a check worth making for any address near either line.
Bromley's guidance page says the documents describing each area's character are currently available on request, so the relevant one is asked for before a shopfront, window or roof change is drawn.
What Bromley's design guide says about the area
Bromley's Urban Design Guide SPD names smaller workers' cottages at Alexandra Cottages and almshouses at Watermans Square among the historic development that conservation areas protect in its Crystal Palace, Penge and Anerley area.
The guide adds that most large Victorian properties in that area have been converted into flats, leaving it densely populated, and that parts of Penge and Anerley hold social housing estates built at some of the highest densities in the borough.
A district centre with flats above shops
The council's Retail and Leisure Study 2024 sets out the Local Plan hierarchy in which Penge is one of five district centres, alongside Beckenham, Crystal Palace, Petts Wood and West Wickham.
The study also reports relatively high vacancy in the Crystal Palace and Penge district centres, and an empty shop under a flat can let a leak or a blocked gutter go unnoticed, so access to the unit below is raised early.
Six Grade II entries
Historic England's NHLE service returns six list entries inside the two boundaries, all at Grade II; nothing is listed at a higher grade there, and the service records no scheduled monument or registered park and garden either.
Listed building consent reaches works that affect a building's character inside as well as out, so for any address that appears on the list the entry text is read for what was listed, boundary walls and outbuildings included, before repairs are specified.
Head over clay, and the flood zones
All five sample points show London Clay Formation clay and silt as bedrock beneath a superficial layer of Head, recorded as clay, silt, sand and gravel, in BGS 1:50,000 mapping.
Mixed material over clay can differ from one plot to the next, and the BGS viewer cannot show its depth, so a crack is logged room by room and set against nearby trees, drain runs and later extensions before any cause is put forward.
Flood Zones 2 and 3 stay clear of the 9.1 hectares altogether in the Flood Map for Planning that the Environment Agency publishes.
Flood Zones 2 and 3 describe flooding from rivers and the sea only, so surface water, which matters most for a cellar or a basement flat, is looked up separately on GOV.UK's long-term flood risk service, which covers surface water as well as rivers and the sea.
Dwellings in the three nearest LSOAs
No LSOA has even a quarter of its area inside so small a study area, so the VOA figures come from the three overlapping it most, E01000799, E01000805 and E01000806, which lie mostly outside the 9.1-hectare study area (only 5.4%, 21.5% and 22.9% of each, in that order, is inside it) and hold about 2,530 dwellings in the Council Tax stock of properties 2025, counted to the nearest 10.
The build-period table puts 46.2% before 1900 and 17.8% in 1900-1918, with 12.6% each for 1945-1972 and for 2000 onwards, 8.7% for 1973-1999 and 3.6% for 1919-1939.
Flats and maisonettes come to 60.1% in the type breakdown, terraced houses 30.4%, semi-detached 9.1% and detached 1.2%, with bungalows at 0.0%.
Council tax bands are tightly grouped, with D at 32.0%, C at 30.8% and B at 28.1% in the VOA band table, band F at 0.8% and G and H both at 0.0%.
Read beside the design guide's note on conversions, these tables suggest that many purchases here involve a flat within a Victorian house, so the lease plan, the split of repairing duties and the approvals behind the conversion are requested at the start.
Guides by type of instruction
Each local guide in the first list deals with one type of instruction for property around the High Street and the Parish Lane cottages, and the second list links the firm's general page for that service.
Guides for neighbouring districts
The south-east London guide frames the district as a whole. Guides built on their own study areas cover Crystal Palace, Sydenham, Beckenham and Bromley; further north in south-east London there is a guide to Honor Oak, and elsewhere in the London Borough of Bromley one to Bickley.
Questions about SE20's two conservation areas
Which of the two conservation areas is older?
Penge High Street, designated on 30 May 1977; Alexandra Cottages (Parish Lane) followed on 13 March 1984, both dates as held in the conservation-area dataset. Bromley supplies its character documents for each area on request.
Is there an Article 4 direction on the High Street or the cottages?
None appears for either area among the Article 4 records on planning.data.gov.uk, but an empty return there does not prove that no direction exists. Confirm the position with Bromley before relying on permitted development for windows, doors or a front boundary.
Does an empty shop below a flat matter to a buyer?
It can. Bromley's Retail and Leisure Study 2024 notes relatively high vacancy in the district centre, and a vacant unit may leave a leak, a blocked gutter or a roof defect over the shop unreported. Ask who holds the shop lease and how access is arranged when repairs are needed.
Could the ground explain cracks in a Victorian terrace here?
Possibly, among other causes. BGS mapping shows London Clay beneath Head at all five sample points, and clay shrinks and swells with moisture, more so near trees. A broken drain or a widened opening can crack walls too, so the pattern found in the building, rather than the map, decides the cause.
How near are the railway stations?
On the NaPTAN dataset, Penge East Rail Station stands about 130 metres from the study area, Penge West about 320 metres and Kent House about 510 metres, measured to the nearest edge of the two conservation areas rather than to any address.
What should a seller of a converted flat gather first?
The lease with its plan, the approvals for the conversion, any notice served for shared roof or chimney work, and invoices for drain or roof repairs. Those papers show which parts of a divided Victorian house the flat owner must keep in repair.
How we work on an instruction
Hampstead Chartered Surveyors is a RICS-regulated firm (RICS Regulated Firm No. 923064) working from its registered Hampstead NW3 office. The firm does not claim premises, staff or completed instructions in an individual locality, and it does not treat a neighbourhood name as evidence about a particular building.
An instruction starts with the full address, the decision the client faces and the documents already available, such as leases, drawings, notices or earlier reports. The scope, fee and inspection date are confirmed in writing only after that review, and access to roofs, lofts, basements or common parts is agreed before the visit.
Reports include RICS Level 2 and Level 3 home surveys, building and defect investigations, party wall appointments, reinstatement cost assessments, contract administration and schedules of condition. Each report records what was inspected, what could not be seen and what further investigation the evidence supports.
Public datasets such as the conservation-area register, the National Heritage List for England, British Geological Survey mapping, the Environment Agency flood map and Valuation Office Agency housing statistics describe areas rather than individual properties. They frame questions before an inspection; they never replace it.
Reviewed by Savas Bulduk BSc (Hons) MRICS, Director & Chartered Building Surveyor at Hampstead Chartered Surveyors & Building Consultancy. Last reviewed: . Our people · RICS firm record