The area around Bromley is greener than its shopping centre suggests. A park is a couple of minutes from most front doors. Ponds and streams are a short walk away. The town centre is mostly shops and offices. None of the land is a protected landscape, and that is no loss in a town with this many parks.
Green space is the strongest thing about Bromley. The nearest green space is on average about 150 metres from home, and there are about 28 within a kilometre. In the town centre itself there are Queen's Gardens, Martin's Hill, Church House Gardens, Library Gardens and College Green. Bromley was named after a woodland clearing where broom grew, and green space still separates its houses.
Water is close as well. The nearest pond, stream or lake is on average about 480 metres away, with about 17 within a kilometre. None of it is the river or seafront kind of waterside, but there is somewhere near most homes to walk the dog past.
The National Cycle Network is on average about 4 kilometres away, and no postcode in the area is close to a route. Cyclists start on the roads.
The council's rating list counts 1,857 rateable premises in the area. Shops and offices are the two biggest groups, at about 575 each, so Bromley has nearly as many offices as shops. Those are premises on the valuation list, and some of them will be empty or have changed use since. Counting businesses directly, there are 576 shops, 66 restaurants and 19 pubs. Bromley eats out more than it drinks out.
Of the 356 food premises with a hygiene rating, about 80% hold the top score of five and about 1% sit at the bottom end of the scale. That leaves very few places a nervous diner needs to avoid.
Across the London Borough of Bromley, fine-particle air pollution averaged about 8 micrograms per cubic metre in 2024.
The character changes within a short walk. The Charter Market runs on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays on the High Street, and St Mark's Square has added restaurants and a cinema. Bromley Town Centre and Bickley Park are both conservation areas, while Bromley Common and the Bromley, Hayes and Keston Commons conservation area mark the open ground to the south. Chislehurst, Hayes and Sundridge are all a short trip away, and each has a slightly different idea of what suburbia should look like. A morning at the market and an afternoon on the commons both count as staying local here.
Homes have their own outdoor space too. Private gardens add up to about 78,000 square metres for every 1,000 residents, and that comes on top of the public parks. Much of Bromley's green space is behind the houses, out of sight from the street.
None of the area falls in an area of outstanding natural beauty or a site of special scientific interest, and none of it is ancient woodland. Bromley has parks, commons and gardens close to home and no protected landscape to travel to.
The surroundings are one of Bromley's best features. Few places this close to central London have so much green space this near to home.