Norman Park is a
recreation ground
A park is an area of natural, semi-natural or planted space set aside for human enjoyment and recreation or for the protection of wildlife or natural habitats. Urban parks are green spaces set aside for recreation inside towns and cities. N ...
in
Bromley
Bromley is a large town in Greater London, England, within the London Borough of Bromley. It is southeast of Charing Cross, and had an estimated population of 88,000 as of 2023.
Originally part of Kent, Bromley became a market town, charte ...
, England.
It has a playground and
athletics track
An all-weather running track is a rubberized, artificial Race track#Surfaces, running surface for track and field athletics. It provides a consistent surface for competitors to test their athletic ability unencumbered by adverse weather conditi ...
, and hosts events such as a music festivals, weekly organised
Parkruns and yearly car shows.
A 2 kilometre pathway circles the park making it popular with joggers, cyclists and dog-walkers.
The former park keeper's lodge is being converted by
Mencap into an office and three business units that will teach people that fall under Mencap remit
horticulture
Horticulture (from ) is the art and science of growing fruits, vegetables, flowers, trees, shrubs and ornamental plants. Horticulture is commonly associated with the more professional and technical aspects of plant cultivation on a smaller and mo ...
,
bicycle
A bicycle, also called a pedal cycle, bike, push-bike or cycle, is a human-powered transport, human-powered or motorized bicycle, motor-assisted, bicycle pedal, pedal-driven, single-track vehicle, with two bicycle wheel, wheels attached to a ...
repair and catering whilst also being viable businesses. The catering unit for example will take the form of a café which will meet a need of the park not covered by a permanent solution.
The park for the most part does not share its borders with any housing (instead bordered by farmland and Scrogginhall Wood), giving the park a sense of space and reducing risk that noise affects neighbours.
History
The 1st edition OS Map of 1871 shows the site as farmland. The park is named after the Norman family whose estates once dominated Bromley;
their name dates back to 1661. The land for Norman Park was acquired from A C Norman by Bromley Council in 1934 for £24,000 to provide land for leisure activities.
A stream called the
Ravensbourne runs for 300 metres across the park. Whilst originally hidden underground in steel and concrete pipe (called a
Culvert
A culvert is a structure that channels water past an obstacle or to a subterranean waterway. Typically embedded so as to be surrounded by soil, a culvert may be made from a pipe (fluid conveyance), pipe, reinforced concrete or other materia ...
) in 2000 it was re-exposed (known as
daylighting Daylighting can refer to:
* Daylighting (architecture), use of windows for indirect lighting
* Daylighting (intersections), improving road visibility at intersections
* Daylighting (streams), restoration of a previously buried watercourse
* Dayl ...
) and planting was put around it.
See also
Images of the park can be seen on the site
GeoGraph
Geograph Britain and Ireland is a Web application, web-based project, begun in March 2005, to create a freely accessible archive of geographically located photographs of Great Britain and Ireland. Photographs in the Geograph collection are cho ...
using the park's
Ordnance Survey National Grid
The Ordnance Survey National Grid reference system (OSGB), also known as British National Grid (BNG), is a system of geographic grid references, distinct from latitude and longitude, whereby any location in Great Britain can be described in t ...
reference.
References
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Parks and open spaces in the London Borough of Bromley