Bromley, to the south-east of London, hasn’t made cultural waves since 1976, when the Sex Pistols, Siouxsie Sioux and the “Bromley Contingent” called Bill Grundy a “dirty fucker” live on ITV. Bromley, I learned at an early age, was where the punks came from. It later transpired that Siouxsie actually came from Chislehurst and others in the Bromley Contingent were from the likes of Orpington, Burnt Oak and Highgate, although it was Bromley that, in the nation’s eyes, carried the can as a hotbed of cultural dissent, potty mouths and septic piercings.
I’d have loved to have been a fly on the wall in the town hall at the time: the scandal and rumpus must have been terrific. More recently, however, this grade II-listed building has been subjected to an extremely tasteful renovation, preserving all the ostentatiousness of a 1906 local government building, with its fluted concrete columns, stained-glass windows and vaulted doors, while reviving the walls and panelling with litres of soothing, pseudo-Soho House shades of sage-green, pale biscuit, shimmering gold and ombré. It is gorgeous and reeks of every penny of its £20m re-fit. Dorothy & Marshall, a “traditional British restaurant”, takes up a sizeable chunk of the new space, with the rest available as meeting spaces, podcast studios and a forthcoming boutique hotel.
