Place Name
The Middle English word mede, itself from Old English mæd, means meadow, and before development in the late 19thCentury there was indeed a meadow with a barn. When Beckenham’s first railway line was laid out in 1858, the field Barn Mead, which formed part of Elm Farm, was cut off from the others on the Kent House estate. By 1884, the first of three stations in the area were built and the following year a local firm of builders, Syme & Duncan, began construction on Barnmead Road. The final house was completed a decade later. It is now a conservation area.
