London has always been a tale of two cities — inner and outer London. But if you’re an investor, business or resident, it’s an increasingly thin line — it’s only 16 minutes from Victoria Station to Bromley South or 16 minutes from London Bridge to Orpington. This year the London Borough of Bromley has been named the best place to live in London for our strong links into central London, our great schools and our abundance of green space.
The misperception that Bromley is far away is rooted in a view of London that starts with the TfL map. Emblazoned in the minds of Londoners are the tube stops in zones one to six. With Bromley served by rail, people miss that daily visual reminder on the commute of how close it is to central London.
Bromley town centre, an opportunity area in the London Plan and a night-time enterprise zone, serves a wide catchment area across South East London, the CAZ and North Kent. It is the cultural, civic and economic heart of the borough, recognised for its increasing leisure facilities, as well as its abundance of heritage assets. It is a prime location for developing heritage-led mixed-use neighbourhoods to continue thriving as the heartbeat of London’s largest borough.
The London-Kent interchange: London’s next industrial corridor
Our ambition is to positively influence the size, scale and growth of Bromley’s economy. One of the most important factors in achieving this is our commercial property market, in particular the industrial market. We encourage development that supports the expansion, intensification and evolution of the Cray Valley industrial area.
There is significant potential to increase our industrial plot ratio and attract high-tech production and small-scale production activity. Legal and General proposing a new independent café at the gateway to the 22-acre (9ha) industrial park and recent industrial developments at Halo Orpington illustrate the strength of the area as a business location, enabled by connections into Central London and Kent via public transport from St Mary Cray station or the A20 intersection.
London’s ‘greenest’ borough
The neighbourhoods of Bromley are distinctive and green, something we value with great pride. They range from the very urban in the north-west of the borough like Penge and Crystal Palace (LFA Destination 2023), served by the Victorian heritage of Crystal Palace Park, to the suburban major town centres like Orpington served by the Arts and Crafts movement inspired Priory Gardens, through to the rural picturesque villages in the south with historic and existing links to Kent, surrounded by astounding views of the countryside.
Wherever you find yourself in Bromley you are a short distance from exceptional open space that promotes the environmental, social and economic wellbeing of our communities. We are open for investment that brings people closer to the environment, improves biodiversity and supports making Bromley a happier and healthier place to live, do business and have fun in.
