History
The Kidbrooke area as a whole has a fascinating history and can trace it origins back to its Anglo Saxon name meaning ‘the brook where the kites were seen’. In fact, with the name brook you may be surprised to learn that there are three brooks all called Kid – Lower, Upper, and Mid. According to reports found online, by the late 11th or 12th century, Kidbrooke had a church and presumably a small population – although it didn’t last. By 1428 the church had no priest, and by 1494 it was derelict.
The area remained rural until Kidbrooke Station opened in 1895, but farming dominated the marshy land area up to the 1930s and was home to some of the last farming communities in South East London. There were four farms: Kidbrooke, Upper Kidbrooke, Lower Kidbrooke and Kidbrooke Hill. The Express Dairy stopped farming here in 1937.
From 1917 to 1965 Kidbrooke was also home to the highly acclaimed RAF base. During the Second World War, it also housed the Barrage Balloon Squadron, responsible for protecting London from low flying bombers.
Between 1968 and 1972 the Ferrier Estate was built by the London County Council and was deemed the height of post-modern brutalist architecture, providing 1,906 new, single tenure homes. The estate comprised twelve storey towers and low rise homes. At the time, the design of the Ferrier Estate was considered to be truly ground breaking and a potential solution to the housing crisis.
By the 1980s the site soon turned into disrepair and became a sink estate, it was marked for development by the Royal Borough of Greenwich Council in 2001. In 2007 Berkeley were selected as preferred development partner and the Kidbrooke Village partnership was born.
Kidbrooke Village will include five distinct neighbourhoods which integrate seamlessly with each other and the surrounding areas into one community, featuring a Village Centre offering a wide array of new shops, bars and restaurants.