The Romans knew Beckenham and it became a substantial village by the time of Domesday Book. However, it remained a village for the next eight centuries until the arrival of the railway and the Crystal Palace which transformed it, as a new town sprang up on its green fields. Fortunately, the camera had been invented in time to record those dramatic changes and a rich legacy of old photographs survives to tell how a sleepy Kentish village became a bustling London suburb. First published in 1993, the book has now been updated and redesigned.M590