Beckenham | |
---|---|
Borough constituency for the House of Commons |
|
Boundary of Beckenham in Greater London.
|
|
County | Greater London |
Population | 87,011 (2011 census) |
Electorate | 66,470 (December 2010) |
Current constituency | |
Created | 1950 |
Member of parliament | Bob Stewart (Conservative) |
Number of members | One |
Created from | Bromley and Orpington |
Overlaps | |
European Parliament constituency | London |
Beckenham /ˈbɛkəˌnəm/ is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2010 by Bob Stewart of the Conservative Party.
The northernmost third of the constituency is contiguous with Penge and Crystal Palace and has similar demographics to the London Borough of Lewisham in the north-west and to Norwood Junction, in having significantly more social housing than the Greater London average. However, these wards in 2005 and 2010 voted strongly for the Liberal Democrats, with Labour also competitive.
The other three wards, in the south, have a larger majority of private housing than the other wards and can be described as leafy Bromley suburbia in the "BR2 postcode" — one widely-known gazetteer summarised this in 2012:
"The properties on these streets typically include a range of styles, from modern to Mock Tudor. However many local residents are wealthy city commuters. Keston Common and Keston Ponds are both popular attractions for locals...The common theme is large, detached houses with substantial land and typically with asking prices of over £1 million. At the lower end of the market, a one bedroom period conversion flat on Turpington Lane near Bromley Common, or a one bedroom flat in a modern block on Homesdale Road, near the Bickley border, would demand an asking price of approximately £160,000."