Author: Martin Spence
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Penge Christmas in 1924
A quick skim through local newspapers from a century ago, December 1924, reveals a Penge which in many ways is strangely familiar, and in other ways definitely not. The main entertainment venue was, of course, the Penge Empire, where the big draw in the run-up to Christmas was Peeps into 1924, a “novel revue” featuring…
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The Crystal Palace and the Last of Penge Common
The Great Exhibition of 1851 in Hyde Park was a national triumph. In its ground-breaking glass and iron pavilion – the ‘Crystal Palace’ – it showcased Britain’s arts and crafts and attracted millions of visitors. But in October it closed, and the building stood empty with no clear future. Enter the Crystal Palace Company, created…
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Our First Year
In June 2023 I gave a talk on the ‘Penge Parliament’, a debating society largely forgotten now but well known in its day, which ran from the 1930s to the 1950s. By 2023, I had been presenting local history talks for the annual Penge Festival for several years, and I was always surprised by the…