Place Name
Named in memory of Richard Lea (1747 – December 6, 1828), an early 19thCentury squire, who was a silk merchant and alderman. Lea lived at The Drive, so-called after the road leading into Village Place, a mansion built by William Davis in 1717 in the centre of the Beckenham village. When Lea died the estate was inherited by his son-in-law, Samuel Wilson, who had married his daughter Jemima Lea.
