Beckenham is a post town and district of London in the London Borough of Bromley, England. It borders Beckenham Place Park and Bellingham in the London Borough of Lewisham (to the north) and is centred 8.4 miles (13.5 km) south east of Charing Cross. Until the coming of the railway in 1857, Beckenham was a small village as with the rest of the borough in Kent with almost most of its land rural and private parkland: a family of entrepreneurs began the building of villas commencing a soar in population from 2,000 to 26,000 (1850–1900). Housing and population growth has continued at a lesser pace since 1900.