For our first monthly meeting after a summer break, group member Simon Jeal gave a talk on Penge’s failed attempt to become a London borough.

Between 1900 and 1965, Penge was an Urban District with its own local Council within the County of Kent, but in 1934 the Council sent a petition to the Privy Council, asking to become a Borough. Simon spoke on how Penge had developed by the 1930s, why (some) in Penge wanted the change, what it would have meant to become the Borough of Penge and why the attempt ultimately failed.