The glass in a Bromley house, era by era
Our route into BR1 and BR2 runs out along the A232 through Shirley, West Wickham and Hayes. That makes JM Glass & Glazing a Croydon glazier in Bromley rather than a local one: glass cut to size at 24 Waddon Close, CR0 4JT, then fitted into Bickley box sashes, templated curved bays, and the blown sealed units of the Hayes and Shortlands semis.
BR1 and BR2 hold some of the largest period houses in south-east London. Bickley, Sundridge Park and the roads around Mavelstone Road are late-Victorian and Edwardian villas and big early twentieth-century houses, with a thick layer of 1930s detached on top. Bickley has the highest share of detached housing of any ward in the borough, at 37%. Mavelstone Road is still unadopted, which is a good part of why so many of its original houses have survived largely as built.
Houses like that bring a particular set of glass jobs. Tall timber box sashes with old panes that have cracked, gone thin or slipped in the putty. Curved and splayed bay glass, where the only honest way to get it right is a template, not a tape measure. Stained and leaded panels in hall doors, stair windows and fanlights, usually bowed with a few cames gone soft. We're glaziers rather than a window-replacement outfit, so on a house like that the answer is normally to reglaze what's already there. Window repairs in Bromley more often means new glass in a sound frame than a new frame.
Shortlands, Hayes and Bromley Common are a different proposition: interwar semis, heavily owner-occupied, now on the second or third go at double glazing. Hayes and Coney Hall ward records 88.2% owner-occupation, and it shows: people fix these houses rather than move. What fails is the sealed unit. Misted double glazing in Bromley is the single most common thing we're called about in BR2, and glass replacement here usually means a new unit into a sound frame rather than a new window.
Downham, in BR1, is the LCC cottage estate put up in the 1920s and 30s, and a fair amount of it still has its original steel Crittall windows and small casements. That glass is thin, the beads are old putty or steel clips, and the openers drop out of square. It's slow, careful work. Worth using someone who has done it before rather than someone finding out on your window.
What we get called out for, by part of Bromley
- Bickley, Sundridge Park and Keston Park: box sash reglazing, templated bay and curved glass, leaded and stained panels, big rear glazing and roof lights on 1930s detached.
- Shortlands, Hayes and Bromley Common: misted sealed units, cracked panes, door and side-panel glass in interwar semis.
- Downham, Plaistow and Widmore: Crittall and small-casement glazing, obscure glass to bathrooms, boarding up after a break-in.
- Bromley town centre: flats and recent apartment blocks: balcony balustrades, mirrors, splashbacks and shower screens in refits.
Rear extensions on the bigger Bromley houses usually end in glass: a lantern, an orangery roof, or a run of sliding doors. That's the sort of work Edge Building Products picked out when they made us their Installation of the Month for July 2025: 44 shaped double-glazed units into 50mm capped aluminium glazing bars on a roof light refurbishment. Shaped units and roof glazing are measured, templated and made to order, so they take planning rather than a same-day visit.
Bromley is the fourth largest retail centre in Greater London by floor area, and it competes for the same shoppers Croydon does. That makes it the strongest shop-front catchment in the BR postcodes. The pedestrianised High Street and Market Square carry the independents and the chains, the Charter Market trades there Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, and The Glades handles the covered mall units. Outside the core there are proper parades at Bickley, Shortlands, Hayes village, Widmore Road and Bromley Common, plus the office cluster around Bromley South and Masons Hill.
Shop front glass in Bromley town centre
Broken shop fronts get boarded first and measured second. Toughened and laminated panes for retail frontages are made to size, so there is always a gap between making a unit safe and making it right. The pedestrianised High Street adds a wrinkle nobody mentions until the day: a glass rack cannot just pull up outside, so we work to the servicing hours and set the fit early or late to suit the shop and the access times. Shop front glass replacement and overnight board-ups are the two calls we take most from BR1 businesses.
Conservation areas: check before you order glass
Bromley has 47 conservation areas and several sit right in BR1 and BR2: Bromley Town Centre, Sundridge Avenue (designated in 1988), Mavelstone Road, Shortlands Village, Hayes and Keston. Bromley Town Centre, Shortlands Village, The Covert, The Thrifts and Chislehurst Road all had new appraisals and management plans adopted in June 2025, so the published guidance is current. If your road is in one, changes to windows visible from the street can need permission, and where an Article 4 direction applies the usual permitted development rights are removed. Ask Bromley Council's planning team before anything is ordered.
Our own position on that is simple. We do not self-certify work under Building Regulations, so if a job needs a registered installer for full frame replacement we will say so rather than take the money. Where we can, we reglaze the original sash or repair the leaded panel instead, which keeps the elevation looking as it did and usually keeps the conversation with the planners short.
How far we are, and when we are worth the trip
We're at 24 Waddon Close in Croydon, about eight miles west of Bromley. The usual run is out through Croydon along the A232 Wickham Road, through Shirley and West Wickham, then across through Hayes and into town: call it half an hour on a normal morning, longer if Bromley South is backed up. That is not round the corner and we won't pretend otherwise. Bromley has long-established glass shops of its own, and if you need somebody at the door in ten minutes at three in the morning, one of them will probably beat us to it.
What we are worth the trip for is the planned and the awkward: templated bay and curved glass, sash reglazing, roof lights, balustrades, and large panes that need three people and a proper rack on the van. We do send an emergency glazier to BR1 and BR2, and we aim to make a property safe the same day where we can. We would rather tell you that than promise a time we cannot hold.
Glazing services we provide in Bromley
These are the jobs we come over to BR1 and BR2 for most often. Each one has its own page if you want the detail.
Areas near Bromley
We also cover Croydon, Selsdon, Shirley, Beckenham, West Wickham. See every area on our areas covered page.
Frequently Asked Questions
About half an hour on a normal run. We're at Waddon in Croydon, roughly eight miles west, and the usual route is the A232 through Shirley and West Wickham, then across through Hayes. Traffic around Bromley South and the town centre one-way can add to that. Ring us and we'll give you an honest window rather than a headline figure.
Possibly, and it's worth checking first. Bromley has 47 conservation areas, including Sundridge Avenue, Mavelstone Road, Shortlands Village, Hayes, Keston and the town centre. Changes visible from the street can need consent, and an Article 4 direction removes the usual permitted development rights. Ask Bromley Council's planning team before you order glass. Reglazing the original sash often avoids the question altogether.
Yes, that's one of the most common jobs we do in BR2. We measure the unit, check the frame and the beading, then order the glass to size. There's a wait between measuring and fitting because every unit is made to order. We'll give you the lead time once we've measured, not before.
We do, and we aim to make a property safe the same day where we can. Being straight about it: Bromley is eight miles from us and there are glaziers based in the town. If minutes matter, ring round. If you want the pane properly made and fitted afterwards, that's the part we're good at.
Yes. The Downham cottage estate still has a lot of its original steel windows and small casements, and they need a different approach to modern frames: thin glass, old putty or steel clips, and openers that have dropped out of square. Where the frame is still sound we reglaze rather than rip out.
We cut glass to size and fit it. We're not a walk-in shop for BR1, so it's a measure-and-fit service rather than a counter you collect from. We take the sizes on site, or work to a template for anything curved or shaped, then come back and fit it. Mirrors, splashbacks, shelves and table tops included.
Yes. Curved, splayed and shaped glass is templated on site rather than measured with a tape, because a Bickley or Sundridge Park bay is rarely the shape the drawing says. We take the template, have the pane made and come back to fit it, so it is never a same-day job. The same applies to stair windows, fanlights and the leaded hall panels in the older BR1 houses.
Only the glass. We do not fit new frames and we do not self-certify under Building Regulations, so full window replacement is a job for a registered installer. In Hayes, Shortlands and Bromley Common the frame is usually still fine and it is the sealed unit that has failed, which is quicker and cheaper to put right. On a Bickley sash or a Downham steel window, re-glazing usually keeps the conservation area question from arising at all.