This neighbourhood area mainly encompasses the suburban village of Shortlands, with the same-name train station just off Bromley Road. Ravensbourne train station is a mile north up the Thameslink route with trains to London leaving every half hour on weekdays. Shortlands’ broad streets are lined with typical detached and semi-detached 1940s suburban houses. A fresh climate radiates from the abundance of trees populating the groves and avenues, and South Hill Wood sits atop the historic Westmoreland Road. Walking down from the station, past the quirky Shortlands Tavern and around Queen’s Mead Road opens onto vast fields which lead into the beautiful Church House Gardens. The independent Bishop Challoner School is a small Catholic school with strong academic performance and a real sense of community, in addition to three other highly-rated primary schools in Shortlands. An impressive building houses St Mary’s Church (CofE) which also provides an amazing opportunity for early musical education in the choir for children aged 7 and above.

Like the history of most places, that of Shortlands is punctuated by milestones set by the development of the railway. Prior to 1858, the area was mostly covered by what was then Kingswood – an oak and birch tree woodland. After the train station was opened, the first significant round of development took place as the woods were cut down. It wasn’t until the end of the 19th century that the remaining forestry in the south was cut down to transform South Hill Wood into the South Hill Park Estate.

Shortlands House is where the essence of the area’s history is concentrated – from housing the uncompromising and patriotic classical historian George Grote, born at the estate in 1794, to serving as a hotel in the 1900s to currently being the home of the Bishop Challoner School.

Perhaps because of the crisp air and the quaint aura of Shortlands, many notable authors found inspiration in this hilly suburban hideaway. Namely Enid Blyton, whose vigorous output of children’s stories, including the famous “Noddy” series – now a children’s TV programme – led some people to question whether she was the genuine author of all her work.

Prior to the 19th century, the area used to be called Clay Hill and was primarily made up of farmland. Specifically a patchwork of long and short fields – Longelonds and Shortelonds, the latter of which gave rise to the present-day name of the village. Another interesting fact about Shortlands is the construction of St Mary Church was made possible by the donation left by the railway tycoon, William Wilkinson after his death. Wilkinson was one of the first to populate the area when, having acquired Shortlands House in 1848, he proceeded to build several cottages for his agricultural workers. As the area would undergo developments over the next century, evidence of Iron Age settlements along with Roman pottery would be discovered as the forestry was gradually being cleared.

While there are no secondary schools other than the independent Bishop Challoner School in Shortlands, the nearest state schools include the converter academies Langley Park School for Boys – rated outstanding by Ofsted – the Ravensbourne School and Harris Academy mixed schools, both awarded good. The area is unique for its tranquillity, but that may be due to a third of the houses being occupied by only a single tenant.

Naturally, Shortlands provides space to get away from it all whilst also being a 26-minute train ride to London Victoria station.

The largest new development in the area lies just east of this neighbourhood. The recently completed multi-purpose St Mark’s Square is located just a five-minute walk from Bromley South Station. The development delivers 200 private and affordable apartments, 25,000 sq-feet of various eateries, and a VUE cinema complex, all tied together through a landscaped public plaza. The economic ambitions for the development involve creating over 200 jobs in Bromley and injecting £220 million of Gross Value Added to the neighbourhood over the next 10 years.

In 2021, Bromley Council agreed to a new conservation area for Shortlands, for which the Bromley Civic Society had been advocating for many years. An application has also been approved to build new lifts for Shortlands Rail Station.