Southborough sits south east of Bromley and in between Hayes and Orpington. It is made up of a cluster of homes just south of Southborough Lane and the residential areas around where Hastings Road and Oakley Road (A21 and A23) meet at Bromley Common. The urban neighbourhood of Southborough, enclosed by Magpie Hall Lane, consists mostly of terraced housing and flats, a large proportion of which is social housing. South east of here is the Bromley Golf Centre which together with the vast open space and cricket grounds, Bromley Common, sandwiches the A21. The Bishop Justus CofE mixed secondary school which was reported ‘good’ by Ofsted in 2016, is the only non-selective CofE school in Bromley and specialises in music.

At the top of the A21, just before the roundabout the newly merged Bexley and Greenwich Colleges form the London South East Colleges, Bromley. With 8 new campuses and over 1000 courses, LSEC caters for both young people and adults. The wedge of houses between Hastings and Oakley Road is a mix of quiet cul-de-sacs and crescents. Gravel road crosses the neighbourhood and leads to Ravens Wood secondary boys school, also rated ‘good’.

A record of Southborough exists from 1832, describing the hamlet as containing 16 houses and itself was a part of the estate of the Bishop of Rochester. The Toby Carvery which stands above Crown Lane was opened in 1765, the year after the extensive Bromley Common was enclosed. The green space was preserved as open land during the 1940s thanks to green belt legislation. On the land where the London South East Colleges are currently situated, there used to stand one of the two main mansions from the 1700s – the Rookery. This was occupied by the armed forces during WWII but burnt down towards the end of the war.

The inspiring author of the Just William series, Richmal Crompton, lived on Cherry Orchard Road and then Oakley Road during the latter part of her life. Her children’s books about a mischievous young boy and his band of ‘outlaws’ have sold 12 million copies in the UK since the 1920s and have been translated into nine languages. It is thought that she drew inspiration from the expansive nature of Bromley Common and Biggin Hill Aerodrome in neighbouring Keston.

Local folklore has it that the hamlet of Southborough was once home to a baron who engaged in grim public executions of prisoners he himself had condemned. They would be imprisoned in a gate-house by the manor and judged in a court-house also belonging to the estate. The dawn of the 18th century saw the arrival of cricket in the capital and Bromley Common was used as a ground since those early days. The sport was immensely popular at the time, seeing its peak season in 1748.

The 2010 developments leading to the construction of Trinity Village across the road from LSECs were met with a great deal of local opposition. Indeed, it may be described as a pocket, sharply contrasting the estates of Southborough. The area overall does compare adversely with its neighbouring villages in terms of recent crime levels.

It is likely, though, that Southborough will benefit positively from spillovers in neighbouring Pett’s Wood, where an ongoing conversion of News Shopper’s old offices in Crest View Drive into 29 new homes is sparking interest in the locale and its amenities. The development has been renamed Grosvenor House and is brought to the area by Langford Walker. Developments in Chislehurst and nearby Bromley Town Centre may also impact the neighbourhood.