Café award result, reggae and local favourites

Published Thursday 24 September 2026

Find out who won our café award, catch free reggae in the park and share a Beckenham favourite for our local guide.

Top Updates

Branching Out wins our independent café award

Congratulations to Branching Out, the winner of the Beckenham Biscuit’s Best Independent Café Award 2026, chosen by public vote. Thank you to everyone who nominated a café or voted, and to all five nominees: Branching Out, Daisy Grey, Fee & Brown, Jams on the Hill and Piccolo Cafe.

Fancy a visit? Branching Out’s coffee shop serves hot and cold sandwiches, soups and homemade cakes, with gluten-free and vegan options. Visit the award page.

Help build our Beckenham Local Favourites Guide

If you had one day to show a friend around Beckenham, what’s the one place or experience you’d insist on? Tell us your pick and why you love it — it could be a walk, shop, café or something else entirely. We’ll bring selected tips together in a guide for local readers. Share your local favourite.

Dates For Your Diary

Sunday 18 October 2026 · 2–4pm · £35

Try an autumn aromayoga workshop

This two-hour session at Beckenham Place Mansion combines essential oils with yoga, breathwork, journalling and guided relaxation. See the workshop and booking details.

What's On

Friday 25 September

Hear the Dowling Trio at St George’s, 12.30–1pm · free. The Dowling Trio gives a lunchtime recital at St George’s Church on Beckenham High Street. Admission is free, with a collection. See the Dowling Trio recital.

Saturday 26 September

Trail running workshop in Beckenham Place Park, 9.45am–12.15pm · £50. Road runners who can comfortably run 5km can learn trail technique, pacing and fuelling in this small-group workshop led by running coach Mary Brooking and sports nutritionist Rebecca Palser. See workshop details and how to sign up.

Bring a repair to Penge Repair Café, 10am–1pm. The Beckenham & Penge Repair Café meets on Green Lane, Penge SE20 7JA. Bring an item that could use a fix — perhaps a lamp or a piece of clothing — and meet local volunteers who help give things a second life. See the repair café details.

Reggae in the park at the Homestead, 2–7.30pm · free. Deptford Dub Club brings reggae, rocksteady and ska to the Homestead Café courtyard in Beckenham Place Park. The outdoor session is free and family-friendly. See the Deptford Dub Club event.

Tour the Manasa Chitra exhibition, 2–2.30pm · free. Curator Rebecca Raybone leads a half-hour tour of Manasa Chitra at Bethlem Museum of the Mind, on Monks Orchard Road. Discover the artworks and how the collection came to Bethlem from India. No booking is needed: arrive just before 2pm for the curator tour.

Roadworks and Transport

Replacement buses at Beckenham Junction on Sunday: Beckenham Junction, Kent House and Penge East have no Southeastern trains on Sunday 27 September. Replacement buses run between Denmark Hill and Bromley South via Beckenham Junction. Victoria–Orpington trains are diverted via Denmark Hill and run non-stop from there to Shortlands. Check Sunday’s replacement buses and diversions.

Hayes-line trains skip Lewisham all weekend: Trains between Charing Cross and Hayes will not call at Lewisham on Saturday 26 or Sunday 27 September while engineering work closes the station. See the Lewisham closure and alternative travel arrangements.

Planning Watch

More seating proposed at BR3WERY 255: Plans for BR3WERY 255 at 255 Beckenham Road seek permission for a ground-floor rear extension to provide more food-preparation and customer-seating space. Bromley Council received application 26/03643/FPA on Thursday 17 September. View the planning application.