Place Name
Beckenham Place is the Palladian-style Grade II* Georgian mansion set in 96 hectares of stunning parkland which was built for the exceptionally wealthy timber merchant, John Cator the younger, who had acquired the rights of the Manor of Beckenham by 1785. In 1927 the London County Council acquired the park from the Cator Estate and in 1972 it was passed to the London Borough of Lewisham. Beckenham was first recorded in the Anglo Saxon charter as Biohhahema mearcin in AD862 (mearc meaning boundary or mark in Old English) and in AD973 Beohha hammes gemœru (gemære being Old English for boundary). It is thought to be a reference to the Anglo-Saxon landowner, meaning Beohha’s village. By the time of the Domesday Book in 1086 the village name had been transformed to Bacheham. Experts say that the name Beohha suggests a person who was stooped or submissive, from the Old English word beonot meaning bent grass. The name almost certainly does not relate to the river Beck which was probably named after Beckenham, not the other way round.
