Crooked Billet, Penge

The Crooked Billet was relocated to its present site in 1827 following the enclosures of both Penge Common and adjacent Penge Green, which was the original site of the inn first recorded in 1601. At that time, the hamlet was called Pensgreen and consisted of a few cottages around a green as well as the inn, which was a well known stop for changing horses, being situated on the road between Dulwich and Beckenham. The new location was on the corner of Dulwich Road (later renamed High Street) and (Old) Penge Lane, which was once the old route to Sydenham. Rebuilt in 1840 as a large three-storey building (with the Royal Watermen's Almshouses built the same year across the road), this was extended in 1925. The field that once existed behind the public house, called Billet Field, served as the football pitch for Crystal Palace FC 1864 to 1866, whereupon the premises also served as the changing rooms. It is rumoured that a stream ran through the basement. In the interwar years, the triangle area out front was used for holding public meetings. Severely damaged during WW2, the pub was reconstructed in the 1950s in the brutalist style - the original hall at the rear still surviving. It is believed that the name comes from the old hamlet being so heavily wooded (on the edge of the Great North Wood) that a sign had to be placed on the road to guide any travellers seeking the inn. This sign was a bent or knotted branch, hence "crooked billet".