Christine Davis, who is based at Mottingham Library, is an enthusiastic amateur historian who is well-known to colleagues and customers due to her love of architecture and her popular monthly talks on London’s past.
Entitled, ‘A History of Bromley Through Five Buildings’, the lecture is free to attend and will focus on buildings from the Medieval period to the early twentieth century – one of which is the moated manor house at Scadbury Nature Reserve.
The talk will feature at ‘World Book Night’ at Bromley Central Library with further dates across the borough to be confirmed. It is also part of the ‘Bromley 60’ celebrations commemorating the formation of 32 London boroughs which took place in April 1965.
Christine first got the history ‘bug’ almost two decades ago when she went to a lecture at Gresham College in central London. “The title was, ‘A History of England Through Building’,” she explains. “I thought it was such an interesting way of approaching the subject.”
Inspired, she later put together pictures and information for a friend who wanted to follow a guided walk on the Great Fire of London. It was such a success that further walks and talks followed and she has now compiled more than a hundred presentations covering all areas of the capital. Her own favourite is, ‘Alleyways and Americanos’ – a history of coffee houses in the City of London.
“I surprise myself all the time with what I discover and there’s always so much to learn,” Christine comments. “I like to tell people ‘what-they-didn’t-know-they-didn’t-know’. I’m passionate about history but the real passion is in sharing this information with other people.
“For example, people don’t generally know that the first recorded death from a motor vehicle accident took place in Crystal Palace Park in 1866. The car was only travelling at 14mph - you can only assume that the victim was so shocked they just stood there and let it run over them!”
Christine currently resides in Bexley but spent twenty years living in Chislehurst.
Libraries in Bromley and Greenwich are run by charitable social enterprise GLL under the ‘Better’ brand.
For more details on Christine’s upcoming talks, contact her directly at christine.davis@gll.org. Alternatively, you can do so via Bromley Central Library on 0203 931 0900 or via email at central.library@gll.org.