Bromley Revisited

My appointment finally came up with Bromley Mental Health Team. Its so that they can assess me over referral to a specialist regarding my Aspergers Syndrome. It was in the Stepping Stones clinic on Masons Hill. The doctor I spoke to was quite helpful and sensitive to my problems, and she agreed to refer me. That was good news. I was worried that they’d just try to put me on anti-depressants again. I left the clinic in a relatively buoyant mood.

leaf motif?

After that I decided to have a nose round Bromley. I had walked from Chislehurst to Bromley as I had no bike and couldn't work out where to get a bus from – I had forgotten to check on the Internet before leaving work. On the way I discovered a stink-pipe down on Sundridge Avenue, round the corner from Elmstead Woods Station. It had a nice leaf motif around it, about ten feet up, possibly signifying the alleged rural nature of its setting. After my appointment I noticed another one, with same leaf design, behind where the old hospital used to be, in Cromwell Avenue. I walked up to have a look.

in: Charles Darwin

out: HG Wells

After buying some basics in Waitrose, I walked up through Bromley High Street, so that I could catch a bus back to Chislehurst. Briefly tempted into HMV where I found a cheap copy of Bowie's "Tonight" on CD and a couple of DVDs for £2 each - Laurel and Hardy & "Ladykillers" - the original Ealing comedy version. I went past where the mural of HG Wells used to be (left). Bromley, disapproving of their famous former resident, decided in their infinite wisdom to let it rot and peel off the wall until it was in such a poor state that they had to repaint the wall, and now a new mural has appeared. This one is of Darwin (right) who is ideologically suitable for Bromleyites - survival of the fattest or is that fittest? - biggest bastard more like! I went past the hordes of schoolkids and the already pissed drinkers standing outside the pub, right towards the old town hall.

Mr & Mrs Spaceboy

When I first came to Bromley, the building where David and Angie Bowie got married was on top of my must-see places (The Bowies' wedding picture below right, taken outside Bromley Town Hall, the building in the left hand side of the photo, below left). I'd already visited his birthplace in Brixton, but Bromley was where the young musician, David Jones, mutated into David Bowie, the androgynous junky rock star from space. So its important.
My feet ached as I waited for my bus. When it came, packed with schoolkids, it travelled extremely slowly. There was an almost solid queue of traffic from Bromley to Chislehurst. I could have done with my bike, as I could have passed the whole lot in a few minutes. And eventually the bus got there, and I disembarked. I got off at Chislehurst Common where it was nice in a green and pleasent sun shiney sort of way. Bromley can fool you like that though. It looks green and rural, very pleasant. But its just the surface of Bromley because if you look between the trees in the "woods" you see a fence, and houses, hidden behind the foliage. And not just any house, but a multi million pound house. Razor wire, gurad dogs and CCTV aren't unusal around here. There are private streets too, so you have no rights to walk down them and nor can you without attracting attention from the paranoid-but-rich who live down them. I walked alongside the road, the last half a mile or so back to my house, breathing in the traffic fumes, and looking at the pleasent veneer of countryside around me.

The evening was spent watching my new DVD and drinking the wine I'd bought in Waitrose.