Post by where2travel on Aug 13, 2020 14:35:07 GMT
The Constituency
Lewisham West & Penge was created in 2010 and is one of London’s cross-borough constituencies, taking in four wards from the south-west part of Lewisham (Forest Hill, Perry Vale, Sydenham and Bellingham) and three wards from the north-west part of Bromley (Crystal Palace, Penge & Cator and Clock House).
The constituency is in large part the former Lewisham West constituency, with the area in and around Catford to the north swapped out for the Bromley wards described above. Back in the 1970s and 1980s this was a Conservative/Labour marginal (a thought unthinkable today) and it was sometimes described as a bellwether seat. It wasn’t entirely reliably so since Labour won in both 1979 and 1992, however that does suggest a constituency that has seen some significant changes over 30 years.
At the geographical centre of the seat is Sydenham (and the largest settlement in the constituency). However, not all of Sydenham is in this seat. The most affluent part (Sydenham Hill, which feels more like it’s close neighbour Dulwich) sits over the border in Southwark. This leaves the main part of Sydenham centre (and Upper Sydenham) and heading east towards Lower Sydenham/Bellingham in this seat. Within the seat, to the north is Forest Hill and to the south is Penge and the bits of Beckenham that aren’t part of the Beckenham constituency (the Clock House ward and essentially the Cator part of the Penge & Cator ward).
(The) Crystal Palace
To understand how and when this area developed it’s worth moving attention to Crystal Palace. This is one of the highest points in London, situated on the Norwood Ridge and with sweeping views across to the centre of London, approximately 8 miles to the north. Crystal Palace is where five London boroughs meet (not quite at a point - Southwark, Croydon, Bromley and Lambeth meeting together with Lewisham joining up just a short way up the road). Lots of main roads here include Hill in their name, reflecting some of the steep inclines in the area up towards Crystal Palace.
In 1851 the Great Exhibition in Hyde Park was housed in a large glass building, called the Crystal Palace. After the Great Exhibition, the building was dismantled, moved and rebuilt here, hence the name Crystal Palace for the area and the park in which it was situated. In Victorian times this meant that this area, and much of nearby Sydenham and towards Forest Hill became very fashionable and many new grand Victorian villas were built.
Soon after, as the railways were expanding and becoming more affordable, other areas here were also seeing a building boom but with more modest houses, and this has been continued with mid-war suburban housing and now more modern flats making up the rest of the constituency. Many of those original bigger properties have since been converted into flats.
After the Crystal Palace burned down in 1936, the site of the building and its grounds became Crystal Palace Park, which includes the National Sports Centre (containing an athletics track and stadium used for the athletics London Grand Prix until 2012). Crystal Palace Park which sits entirely within Bromley (and this constituency), is also home to the TV transmitting station and the life-sized Crystal Palace "Dinosaurs" (also created in the 1850s and which now have Grade 1 listed status). The TV transmitter was the tallest structure in London when it was built in the 1950s (and is now 8th on that list behind seven of the City’s and Canary Wharf’s skyscrapers), and which can be seen from many miles around. Away from the park, much of Crystal Palace sits outside this constituency and is spread across the other local boroughs.
Elections
The 2010 boundary changes were slightly favourable to the Conservatives, but not enough to change the “safe Labour seat” label this seat had earned, particularly as ongoing demographic changes have also been continually moving this seat further from the Conservatives.
In 2010, the Labour majority was a relatively modest 13% and the Lib Dems came second. The Lib Dems have since slipped back (and representation has fallen away completely at local levels). The Tories are usually second placed here, the 2017 Conservative candidate was Shaun Bailey, but trailed Labour by over 40%. Labour achieved a similar majority over the Conservatives in 2019 with another over 60% vote share.
John Gummer and John Maples are former Conservative MPs for Lewisham West with both losing elections (in 1974 and 1992 respectively), and moving away for safer pastures in Suffolk and Warwickshire and returning to the Commons later.
Since 2017 the seat has been represented by Ellie Reeves (whose husband (John Cryer) is MP for Leyton & Wanstead and whose sister (Rachel Reeves) is MP for Leeds West. The Reeves’ grew up locally and attended schools in this constituency.
It’s a similar story at local elections. Thinking generally of Conservative Bromley and Labour Lewisham, one could be led to believe this is a seat of two separate parts but that’s not the case at all. The three wards from Bromley currently provide the only Labour councillors on Bromley Council (the remainder all being Conservative). These coupled with four wards from an all-Labour Lewisham give a constituency with a clean sweep of Labour councillors.
A few wards elected Lib Dem councillors in the early 2000s (up to 2010): Clock House, Crystal Palace and Forest Hill, but that fell away as the Lib Dem vote collapsed nationally. With the exception of Clock House, no wards have elected Conservatives at a local level since the 1980s (when they were genuinely competitive), with the Conservatives well below 20% in most wards (usually at similar levels to the Lib Dems and Greens).
Demographic Factors
The demographics of this seat have made it increasingly safe for Labour. Over the last 30 years there has been a steady increase in the ethnic minority population and a transformation of the more suburban family homes described above into flats and houses of multiple occupancy.
Many of the demographics would be considered typical or average for London, perhaps reflecting this seat’s location (as not really part of inner London nor outer London). Overall it’s a constituency with a relatively young population, but with high levels of socially rented housing (56th/650) and unemployment (97th).
Black/African/Caribbean (15th) make up a big proportion of the ethnic minority population here, offset by a much smaller Asian population (180th, which is low for a London seat of this nature).
Forest Hill, Sydenham and Crystal Palace are increasingly popular with young professionals and young families, now priced out of the likes of East Dulwich and this can be seen in the changing nature of the high streets (with an increasing number of independent shops and cafes opening). This demographic (typically more public sector and left-leaning) is not helping revive the Conservatives’ fortunes here, and it’s a similar story in the Clock House part of Beckenham as this demographic is replacing more Conservative-inclined voters moving further out to Kent, East Sussex etc. Clock House doesn’t behave electorally like the rest of Conservative Beckenham now, the demographic changes are more evident in Clock House.
Demographic change seems a little slower in Penge and Bellingham, these are the two parts of the constituency with bigger pockets of white working class populations and social housing, and also have much further to go to become fashionable.
The Beckenham parts of this seat remain whiter and more middle class than the rest of the constituency. In particular the Cator area, which is a very leafy corner of the constituency (and very much at odds with the Penge part of the ward it sits with over the railway line). Here many of the original large family homes built after the arrival of the railways in the area still remain (not having seen the conversion to flats experienced elsewhere). This area was largely built up by the descendants of John Cator (land owner and property developer in the late 18th and early 19th centuries), and whose names form part of the name of the local park and several road-names in the area.
Lewisham West & Penge was created in 2010 and is one of London’s cross-borough constituencies, taking in four wards from the south-west part of Lewisham (Forest Hill, Perry Vale, Sydenham and Bellingham) and three wards from the north-west part of Bromley (Crystal Palace, Penge & Cator and Clock House).
The constituency is in large part the former Lewisham West constituency, with the area in and around Catford to the north swapped out for the Bromley wards described above. Back in the 1970s and 1980s this was a Conservative/Labour marginal (a thought unthinkable today) and it was sometimes described as a bellwether seat. It wasn’t entirely reliably so since Labour won in both 1979 and 1992, however that does suggest a constituency that has seen some significant changes over 30 years.
At the geographical centre of the seat is Sydenham (and the largest settlement in the constituency). However, not all of Sydenham is in this seat. The most affluent part (Sydenham Hill, which feels more like it’s close neighbour Dulwich) sits over the border in Southwark. This leaves the main part of Sydenham centre (and Upper Sydenham) and heading east towards Lower Sydenham/Bellingham in this seat. Within the seat, to the north is Forest Hill and to the south is Penge and the bits of Beckenham that aren’t part of the Beckenham constituency (the Clock House ward and essentially the Cator part of the Penge & Cator ward).
(The) Crystal Palace
To understand how and when this area developed it’s worth moving attention to Crystal Palace. This is one of the highest points in London, situated on the Norwood Ridge and with sweeping views across to the centre of London, approximately 8 miles to the north. Crystal Palace is where five London boroughs meet (not quite at a point - Southwark, Croydon, Bromley and Lambeth meeting together with Lewisham joining up just a short way up the road). Lots of main roads here include Hill in their name, reflecting some of the steep inclines in the area up towards Crystal Palace.
In 1851 the Great Exhibition in Hyde Park was housed in a large glass building, called the Crystal Palace. After the Great Exhibition, the building was dismantled, moved and rebuilt here, hence the name Crystal Palace for the area and the park in which it was situated. In Victorian times this meant that this area, and much of nearby Sydenham and towards Forest Hill became very fashionable and many new grand Victorian villas were built.
Soon after, as the railways were expanding and becoming more affordable, other areas here were also seeing a building boom but with more modest houses, and this has been continued with mid-war suburban housing and now more modern flats making up the rest of the constituency. Many of those original bigger properties have since been converted into flats.
After the Crystal Palace burned down in 1936, the site of the building and its grounds became Crystal Palace Park, which includes the National Sports Centre (containing an athletics track and stadium used for the athletics London Grand Prix until 2012). Crystal Palace Park which sits entirely within Bromley (and this constituency), is also home to the TV transmitting station and the life-sized Crystal Palace "Dinosaurs" (also created in the 1850s and which now have Grade 1 listed status). The TV transmitter was the tallest structure in London when it was built in the 1950s (and is now 8th on that list behind seven of the City’s and Canary Wharf’s skyscrapers), and which can be seen from many miles around. Away from the park, much of Crystal Palace sits outside this constituency and is spread across the other local boroughs.
Elections
The 2010 boundary changes were slightly favourable to the Conservatives, but not enough to change the “safe Labour seat” label this seat had earned, particularly as ongoing demographic changes have also been continually moving this seat further from the Conservatives.
In 2010, the Labour majority was a relatively modest 13% and the Lib Dems came second. The Lib Dems have since slipped back (and representation has fallen away completely at local levels). The Tories are usually second placed here, the 2017 Conservative candidate was Shaun Bailey, but trailed Labour by over 40%. Labour achieved a similar majority over the Conservatives in 2019 with another over 60% vote share.
John Gummer and John Maples are former Conservative MPs for Lewisham West with both losing elections (in 1974 and 1992 respectively), and moving away for safer pastures in Suffolk and Warwickshire and returning to the Commons later.
Since 2017 the seat has been represented by Ellie Reeves (whose husband (John Cryer) is MP for Leyton & Wanstead and whose sister (Rachel Reeves) is MP for Leeds West. The Reeves’ grew up locally and attended schools in this constituency.
It’s a similar story at local elections. Thinking generally of Conservative Bromley and Labour Lewisham, one could be led to believe this is a seat of two separate parts but that’s not the case at all. The three wards from Bromley currently provide the only Labour councillors on Bromley Council (the remainder all being Conservative). These coupled with four wards from an all-Labour Lewisham give a constituency with a clean sweep of Labour councillors.
A few wards elected Lib Dem councillors in the early 2000s (up to 2010): Clock House, Crystal Palace and Forest Hill, but that fell away as the Lib Dem vote collapsed nationally. With the exception of Clock House, no wards have elected Conservatives at a local level since the 1980s (when they were genuinely competitive), with the Conservatives well below 20% in most wards (usually at similar levels to the Lib Dems and Greens).
Demographic Factors
The demographics of this seat have made it increasingly safe for Labour. Over the last 30 years there has been a steady increase in the ethnic minority population and a transformation of the more suburban family homes described above into flats and houses of multiple occupancy.
Many of the demographics would be considered typical or average for London, perhaps reflecting this seat’s location (as not really part of inner London nor outer London). Overall it’s a constituency with a relatively young population, but with high levels of socially rented housing (56th/650) and unemployment (97th).
Black/African/Caribbean (15th) make up a big proportion of the ethnic minority population here, offset by a much smaller Asian population (180th, which is low for a London seat of this nature).
Forest Hill, Sydenham and Crystal Palace are increasingly popular with young professionals and young families, now priced out of the likes of East Dulwich and this can be seen in the changing nature of the high streets (with an increasing number of independent shops and cafes opening). This demographic (typically more public sector and left-leaning) is not helping revive the Conservatives’ fortunes here, and it’s a similar story in the Clock House part of Beckenham as this demographic is replacing more Conservative-inclined voters moving further out to Kent, East Sussex etc. Clock House doesn’t behave electorally like the rest of Conservative Beckenham now, the demographic changes are more evident in Clock House.
Demographic change seems a little slower in Penge and Bellingham, these are the two parts of the constituency with bigger pockets of white working class populations and social housing, and also have much further to go to become fashionable.
The Beckenham parts of this seat remain whiter and more middle class than the rest of the constituency. In particular the Cator area, which is a very leafy corner of the constituency (and very much at odds with the Penge part of the ward it sits with over the railway line). Here many of the original large family homes built after the arrival of the railways in the area still remain (not having seen the conversion to flats experienced elsewhere). This area was largely built up by the descendants of John Cator (land owner and property developer in the late 18th and early 19th centuries), and whose names form part of the name of the local park and several road-names in the area.
