Brockley, for many years, went under the radar in search of the ‘next big thing’ for home hunters until the London Overground arrived in 2012. The East London Line, The Ginger Line, call it what you may, but the opening of this line saw a boom in attracting people to the area, driving prices higher along with the demand and need for more amenities.

In the late 1840s, the Tyrwhitt-Drake family began to build large terraced houses for the upper middle classes in Upper Brockley, near the present-day centre of Brockley Cross, in lieu of their market gardens. When the Earl of St Germans sold the adjoining land to develop further housing for the professional classes, Forest Place was demolished around 1870.

Brockley station opened in 1871, followed by Brockley Lane (since closed) in 1872 and Crofton Park in 1892. Following a campaign led by housing reformer and National Trust founder Octavia Hill, Hilly Fields was purchased by the London County Council and opened to the public in 1896. At the time, few families in the finer streets around Hilly Fields were not without a ‘maid of all work’.

The Brockley Barge public house, the (former) police station on Howson Road, and St Peter’s and St Andrew’s churches are all listed structures from the Victorian era. The Brockley Jack was restored in 1898, and its stables are now a well respected studio theatre.

The region is well-known for a wide range of Victorian housing types. The Tyrwhitt-Drake family developed the Northside of Brockley in the second part of the nineteenth century, with some extraordinarily great homes, vast terraces, and semi-detached residences. Many of these houses were converted following WWII. In 1974, a substantial portion of this region was designated as The Brockley Conservation Area. This year also saw the founding of the ‘hands-on’ Brockley Society.

West of Brockley Road, houses for the less rich were built, and later redevelopment has left a diversity of 20th-century designs, particularly where the area meets with Nunhead.