Penge & Palace Wayfinding Trail

Location: Ten locations around Borough of Bromley

Date: 2023

Status: Temporary

Project Types: Wayfinding

Client: London Borough of Bromley

For LFA2023, London Borough of Bromley commissioned the LFA to to produce a 10-stop wayfinding trail which would link Crystal Palace Park to the surrounding highstreets and to draw attention to the highlights of Penge’s past and present.

Today, Penge sits on the South edge of Bromley’s largest greenspace, Crystal Palace Park. With a long and rich history, the development of Penge is intimately linked to the arrival of the Crystal Palace Exhibition building in 1854, whose legacy and design innovation can be seen today in the surrounding creative communities.

The trail

The trail was co-designed with invited members of the local community who were involved in a mapping workshop in February 2023, hosted at Penge Library. The result of this workshop was the creation of an extremely varied tour which reflected the themes and histories which the group wished to explore including the Celtic origin of Penge’s name, juxtaposition of architectural styles and theatrical history.

Installed in late May, the signs were attached to lampposts with a QR code underneath which, when scanned, led people to several webpages including the LFA programme and a digital version of the map – so passers-by could easily access the full trail.