Eden Park Avenue, Beckenham, London BR3

I lived for a few years as a child opposite the prefabs in Eden Park Avenue (BR3 3JL) and Village Way and played with several young inhabitants of them. Attached is a photo, taken in 1961 or within a year or two either way of that, from the other side of Eden Park Avenue showing the first three prefabs at the south end of the group which appears to have consisted of 36 prefabs in a single line to the north and south of St John’s church.

According to the excellent  ‘The book of Monks Orchard and Eden Park’ by Muir and Manning, (ISBN 1-84114-338-3), there was some disagreement about the use of this strip of land, being part of the Harvington Estate which had been intended by its owner for the recreation of the populace. This book also states that the prefabs were in place by September 1946 and were vacated in late 1967 and the first half of 1968 to be replaced by the current two storey blocks.