A diverse area with a busy town centre and plenty of green spaces, extending into the Northern part of the renowned Sundridge Park golf club. Good schools, a decent library and leisure centre and a direct connection to Central London from Grove Park station make this quiet, leafy postal sector an attractive and amenable suburban area.

Downham was named in honour of Lord Downham, who was chairman of the London County Council between 1919-20. Pre-WW1 there was barely any development in Downham. However, following the war, local councils and London City Council faced pressure to address the issue of overcrowding in more central Boroughs and so from a law change in 1923, government funding enabled new housing to be built by local governments. This marked this neighbourhood’s origins as a popular residential area.

Famous residents to this particular postal sector remain elusive, but David Bowie, H.G. Wells, Charles Darwin, and Pixie Lott are just a few of the illustrious names linked to the wider local area! All were either born or lived in Bromley.

The Prime Meridien passes just to the west of Downham, while the Garden of Remembrance at the Southern end of Hither Green Cemetery is home to thousands of ring-necked parakeets.

As the area is largely residential, there is not much in the way of shops, restaurants or other entertainment venues. However, Bromley High Street, which boasts a theatre, cinema and plenty of dining options, is nearby. Trains into Central London take just over twenty minutes for those seeking a wider range of amenities and diversions.

The Neighbourhood Renewal Unit and Lewisham Strategic Partnership have been actively implementing a number of projects in the area, which include Housing and Environment, Health, Crime and Community Safety, Neighbourhood Management, Community Development, Children and Young People and Employment and Enterprise.

Lewisham Council has also developed new plans to enhance and increase the residential stock in Downham. The council approved in late 2022 plans for the development of 25 much-needed homes for social rent and 11 shared ownership homes on the site of disused allotments and garages near Arcus Road and Chingley Close. Named Passivhaus, the scheme intends to prioritise environmentally sustainable measures to cut energy bills for future tenants to a fraction of what they normally would be. Besides the new homes, the development will also include the construction of two new streets, a shared public play area and the planting of trees and hedgerows. Lewisham Council is also planning to develop 27,267 new homes across the borough by 2040, with the entire south of the borough, which includes Downham, as a ‘strategic area for regeneration’.