Brockley Society has now been active on behalf of the residents of the Brockley Conservation Area and the surrounding neighbourhoods for 50 years.

Our current activities are summarised below. We welcome anybody to get involved in any of our existing projects – and to suggest new ones. 

 

Find out more about how and why Brockley Society was formed on our About us page.

Our Events Calendar page lists forthcoming Brockley Society events – also shown in the panel on the left of this page. You can also keep up to date with what’s happening via our TwitterFacebook and Instagram pages.

One of our primary aims is to protect the Brockley Conservation Area built environment. Our Planning Committee comprises around a dozen volunteers with a huge range of related experience, and meets regularly to scrutinise local planning applications and lobby Lewisham Council on relevant matters.

In 2017 we ran a one-day Innovation and Conservation conference, and to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Brockley Conservation Area we followed this up in 2023 with another one day conference: Conservation – Legacy and Innovation. Both conferences featured a wide range of presentations exploring issues around both new-build and renovations within conservation areas, along with progressive approaches to urban design and conservation more generally.

You can catch up on the latest edition of our Newsletter (and explore our Digital Collection of over 150 past editions dating back to the early 1970s!) whilst our Blog on this site also contains occasional articles about matters of local interest.

Our annual Midsummer Fayre on Hilly Fields has long been one of the biggest events of the year in the park, and raises the majority of the funds which the Society uses on projects throughout the rest of the year. The 2024 event will take place on Saturday 22 June. Start planning now!

In the past we have also run an annual Midwinter Warmer social event for Brockley’s older residents, and continue to run a Coordinated Front Garden Sale over a weekend every September in conjunction with the Ladywell and St John’s Societies.

We have incubated both the Breakspears Mews Community Garden and the hugely successful Street Trees for Living project.

In 2015, at one of our highest profile ever events, we re-staged a 1918 Mass Photo on Hilly Fields.

We ran one-day Festival of Ideas conferences in both 2016 and 2017: events that explored a huge range of progressive ideas for positive change relevant to our community.

We hold Open Meetings three times a year (including our AGM at the November event) featuring a wide range of presentations on subjects of local relevance. These have included the comedian Spike Milligan’s formative years in Brockley and Catford, the “Black Historical Presence in Lewisham from 1593 onwards”, a look at Lewisham’s industial heritage to name but a few.

We also have ongoing projects to document and categorise our own extensive Archive of photos and documents, install a defibrillator in one of the local old red phone boxes, and expand our Brockley Voices Oral History project.

Please don’t hesitate to get in touch if you would like to get involved in any of our ongoing projects, would like to suggest a new project for the Society, or experience any problems with viewing the content of this website. And don’t forget you can sign up to our Monthly email circular by dropping a line to us by email at [email protected]. It contains information about forthcoming Brockely Society events and projects, and other local events.

Happy browsing!