Penge was an inconspicuous area with few residents before the arrival of the

railways. A traveller passing through Penge would have noticed the large
green with a small inn on its boundary. Penge Green appears as Pensgreene
on Kip's 1607 map.[1] The green was bounded to the north by Penge Lane, the
west by Beckenham Road and the southeast by the Crooked Billet. On a
modern map that area is very small but the modern day Penge Lane and
Crooked Billet are not in their original locations and Beckenham Road would
have been little more than a cart track following the property line on the west
side of Penge High Street. Penge Lane was the road from Penge
to Sydenham which is now named St John's Road and Newlands Park Road.
There was also an old footpath crossing the Green leading to Sydenham that
was known as Old Penge Lane. After the London, Chatham and Dover
Railway was built, Penge Lane crossed the line by level crossing. When this
crossing was closed Penge Lane was renamed and Old Penge Lane became
the present day Penge Lane.
The 1868 Ordnance Survey map shows the Old Crooked Billet located to the
southeast of the current location. This earlier location was on the eastward
side of Penge Green, which disappeared as a result of The Penge Enclosure
Act, 1827 which enclosed the whole Green. This left the Crooked Billet with no
frontage to Beckenham Road, so new premises were constructed on the
present site in 1827 and subsequently replaced in 1840 with a three-storey
building. This was severely damaged by enemy action in World War II and
subsequently rebuilt.[2]
The Crooked Billet is by far the oldest public house in Penge. Peter
Abbott[3] states that it was there in 1601 and speculates that it might be
much more ancient. In modern times it is particularly well known for lending
its name as a bus route terminus. From 1914 General Omnibus routes 109 and
609 both operated between Bromley Market and the Crooked Billet following
different routes. The 109 was renumbered 227 by London Transport and
continued to terminate at the Crooked Billet. (Route 609 was shortened
terminating in Beckenham ). Around 1950 some services were extended past
the Crooked Billet to the Crystal Palace. Eventually nearly all buses traveled
the extended route. The 354 buses now use the terminus, as do so short
running buses on route 194 which carry the destination 'Penge High Street'.
William Hone wrote about a visit to the Crooked Billet in 1827[4] and included
a detailed sketch of the last building on the original site.

Expansion[edit]
The London and Croydon Canal was built across Penge Common along what is
now the line of the railway through Penge West railway station, deviating to
the south before Anerley railway station. There is a remnant at the northern
corner of Betts Park, Anerley.[5] Following the closure of the canal, the London
and Croydon Railway was built largely along the same course, opening in
1839. Isambard Kingdom Brunel built an Atmospheric Railway along this
alignment as far as Croydon. The Crystal Palace pneumatic
railwayunderground between the Sydenham and Penge entrances to Crystal
Palace park operated for a short while but proved not to be economically
viable..

In the Victorian era, Penge developed into a fashionable suburb because of

the railway line and its proximity to the relocated Crystal Palace. It became a
fashionable day out to visit the Crystal Palace during the day and to take the
tram down the hill to one of the 'twenty-five pubs to the square mile' [6] or two
Music HallsThe King's Hall (later the Gaumont cinema) and. in 1915. the
Empire Theatre (later the Essoldo cinema).[7][8]
By 1862 Stanford's map of London[9] shows large homes had been
constructed along Penge New Road (now Crystal Palace Park Road, Sydenham
and Penge High Street), Thick Wood (now Thicket) Road and Anerley Road.
[10] This all came to an end in 1875 and 1877 with the notorious Penge
murders. In 1875 Frederick Hunt murdered his wife and children [11] then in
1877 a wealthy heiress, Harriet Staunton, together with her infant son, was
starved to death by her husband and his associates.[12] In 1934, Elizabeth
Jenkins published the novel Harriet, based on the case,[13] whilst Forbes Road
was renamed to Mosslea Road because of its connection with the murders.

Government[edit]
Penge formed a part of the parish of Battersea, with the historic county
boundary between Kent and Surrey forming its eastern boundary. [14] In 1855
both parts of the parish were included in the area of the Metropolitan Board of
Works, with Penge Hamlet Vestry electing six members to the Lewisham
District Board of Works.[15] The Local Government Act 1888 abolished the
Metropolitan Board, with its area becoming the County of London. However
the London Government Act 1899 subsequently made provision for Penge to
be removed from the County of London and annexed to either Surrey or Kent.
Accordingly, an Order in Council transferred the hamlet to Kent in 1900,
constituting it as Penge Urban District.[16] The urban district was abolished in
1965 by the London Government Act 1963, and its former area merged with
that of other districts to form the London Borough of Bromley. With the
creation of the Penge Urban District, Penge New Road (formerly the part of