IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Royal Parade Mews, CHISLEHURST, BR7 6TN

It is unusual to see Royal Parade without cars but this was just after eight o,clock in the morning before the shops had opened. The 'Royal' refers to Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte (1808 – 1873) who was the President of the French Second Republic and as Napoleon III, the ruler of the Second French Empire. He was the nephew and heir of Napoleon I. Elected President by popular vote in 1848, he initiated a coup d'état in 1851, before ascending the throne as Napoleon III in 1852. After defeat in the Franco-Prussian War, Napoleon spent the last few years of his life in exile in England, with his wife Eugenie and their only son. The family lived at Camden Place Chislehurst, where he died on 9th January 1873.

Built in the 1860s, it was named Royal Parade in the 1870s, not because of Queen Victoria but because of its connection with Napoleon III whose family moved into nearby Camden Place in 1870 (hence the 1870 alongside the words Royal Parade along the top of the building here). The family moved there following Napoleon's defeat and capture in the Battle of Sedan and subsequent removal as Emperor, with the deposed Emperor himself moving there in exile in 1871.

This grade II listed house, originally called Dolobran, dates from around 1720. For listing particulars seehttp://list.english-heritage.org.uk/resultsingle.aspx?uid=1204387.

This stretch of white painted houses, from no 7 to no 1, form a contrast to their pale brick neighbours further along the road (see Image).

The sign depicts the knighting of Thomas Walsingham by Queen Elizabeth I in 1597. The Walsinghams were Lords of the Manor of Scadbury (see http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/2111039) and have a tomb in St Nicholas Church.