Bromley parkrun

This parkrunday brought me back to Bromley parkrun for the second time. It was not the plan, originally. I had a different event on my planner for this week and it had been there for a long time. Unfortunately, it was an event 90 minutes drive away and when I did not hear the alarm and woke up at 7am, I knew it would not work out. I am a zombie in the morning and do not wake up fast. The new J near Bedford will have to wait a bit more.

Last week I had the same issue waking up, but it was even later, so the worst happened and I skipped a parkrunday. This week I could not let that happen: wake up and think of an alternative, lazy hooman! Bromley parkrun was a natural option, because it is not too far and it is one of the few remaining London venues that I have not covered on this site yet. I had ticked off Beckenham Place parkrun from that list a few weeks ago, in between two foreign escapades at Westpark parkrun, in Munich and Zielony Jar parkrun, in Krakow. And Hogmoor Inclosure parkrun was thrown in there for variety: why not get some sand in the mix, right?

A busy summer of parkrunning, but it was now time to come back to nearby events in London. The choice did not disappoint: I knew Bromley parkrun was a busy event, but I happened to visit on a day that was particularly busy event for their standards. The buzz was palpable and it made for a fun return to the capital!

Anyway, enough with my rumblings. It’s time to dive into some more info about Bromley parkrun!

Trip to Bromley parkrun and parking

Bromley parkrun takes place in Norman Park. The council defines as a ‘major level open space used for sports and events as the Borough’s showground’. And this is exactly what it is: a large flat green area with some functional outbuildings, play areas, sport facilities and convenient, free parking areas. Not particularly scenic, but functional.

Location-wise, Norman Park is South of Bromley town centre, roughly half way between Bromley station and Orpington and North of the A232. In this corner of South East London, you will not be able to take advantage of the underground network, but will have to rely on the less efficient overground one or buses if you want to come by public transport.

According to the official event site, the closest station is Bromley South. This is operated by Southeastern, with frequent connections to London Victoria and less frequent services to London Blackfriars. This is about 1 mile or 20 minutes walk away from the event meeting point. A number of local buses are outlined on the event site, also from the potential alternative station of East Croydon.

If you are driving, get ready to enjoy London’s traffic. As usual, going there won’t be too bad early on parkrunday morning, but leaving will be an interesting experience. Norman park is not far from a major A road and, if you are coming from outside London, the M25, so connections should be ok unless you decide to cross london from N or NW going through the centre. Once you get there, there are two large, free car parks. One on the East side, coming off Hook Farm Road and less than 5 minutes walk away from the event meeting points. It is a very narrow road, so be careful and follow the postcode details above. The car parks is also available as a destination on Waze.

The other car park is at the opposite end of the park. It is bigger, but very busy, so I would recommend to get here around 8:30 and use the first car park. When I arrived at 8:35, the car park was probably 2/3 full, with a decent number of spots left.

Both car parks were free to use at the time of writing (Aug 25).

Bromley parkrun: start and briefings

If you arrive through the Hook Farm car park as recommended, you will not be far from the meeting point. Leave the car park, enter the playing fields and start walking facing West, towards the centre of the fields. Once you reach the corner where the fields open up, you will see two small buildings on opposite sides of the field in front of you. Roughly half way through the long sides of the fields. The building on your right is where the finish funnel and the event pop-up sign are. Volunteers appear to meet here and, apparently, this is also where the toilets are.

The building on your left is where the start line and briefings will be. I walked to the one on the right, quickly looked for toilets I could not find and then cross the field with many other people to reach the start line.

Once you reach the area next to the start line, there are plenty of trees to provide shade if it is a hot day or some cover if it is raining. It is a very busy event, but the space is wide and open so it will not feel crowded or cramped until it’s time to get going.

The First Timers briefing was given by a very welcome and thorough gent, supported by a lady translating into BSL. It was very detailed, focusing mostly on usual parkrun procedure and safety announcements. There isn’t a lot to say about the route here, understandably.

Once this is done, people start bunching up on the tarmac path, or alongside it, facing the big trees and the outbuildings. The Main Briefing starts and eventually it is time to push everyone back to allow front runners to be on the start line and not 50m ahead of it. It took a bit of time, but it wasn’t as time consuming as it can be at places like Tooting parkrun or Battersea parkrun. Or as it was at Amager Faelled parkrun on special event day, where we spent 10 minutes walking back in short increments.

Then, I heard the RD start the countdown. ‘3, 2, 1, go!’. It was time to go.

Bromley parkrun course review – star ratings

Bromley parkrun course review – route highlights

There were 928 parkrunners on the day of my visit to Bromley parkrun. A sunny day and the last weekend before schools reopen probably brought a healthy number of people back to show the largest field in a while. However, this is not a record, with a couple of 900+ days over recent events and even one above 1,000 on Christmas Day 2024. This is a busy event, with baseline attendance comfortably above 600 and usually in the mid/high 700s. Does it feel busy? Yes, it does. It took a whole lap out of 2.5 laps for the field to thin down a bit and paths not to be completely full. While paths are not narrow, numbers mean that at least for the first 500 metres you will have to stray onto the fields not to get stuck. Not a problem on a dry day, but I guess this might get a tad more cumbersome if it has been raining for several days. Can this event sustain higher numbers? Sure, but we are skirting around the edges of what would start being ‘too busy’, I think. Luckily, there are a lot of great alternatives in South East London, so I am sure Bromely parkrun will continue being a great, welcoming and enjoyable event for the foreseeable future.

Congestion is real for most of the first lap, if you are around the middle of the pack. The only other unusual feature of the course is the crossing of some metal bollards when you approach the Western car park, about 1/3 of the way into the first lap. There is a volunteer there and they are wide enough, but they kind of sneak on you the first time, since they will be covered by a wall of people.

Surface-wise, the ‘winter course’ was being used when I visited. And I visited in August, so maybe this has become the traditional route for Bromley parkrun. Ignoring grassy excursions to overtake at the beginning, it is all tarmac of decent quality. Road shoes will be totally fine and you might even risk racers if you want to.

Elevation-wise, at 22m elevation gain over 2.5 laps, this is and feels flat. The short sides show mild climbs and the Southern long straight shows a bit of a downhill. But they are all fairly mild and the climbs won’t negatively affect your effort. Sometimes, Bromley parkrun comes up as one of the fastest events in London. I assume if you are upfront this event could compete with Dulwich parkrun or Burgess parkrun. It is flat and it has decent tarmac path and no sharp turns, after all. However, since the start of Battersea parkrun, I don’t think there is a challenge for the fastest events in London anymore.

In terms of course layout, it is very simple. 2 laps around the fields than one more half lap to reach the finish funnel opposite the start line.

A quick Relive route plot is on my YouTube Channel, with longer video highlights embedded below.

Once it is time to go, the group starts moving slowly. Regardless of numbers, this is not a walking start, just a slow one. Everyone can get going immediately, slowly first than a bit faster for those who decide to stray to the sides. On the day of my visit, it was very dry, so many people went very wide, adding to the course distance to a small extent. You start under tree cover and enjoy the shade while passing by the small buildings and, eventually, reaching a more open profile with full view of the fields to your right.

Keep going for a short while until the path takes a wide curving turn to the right at the back of end of the fields. At the end fo the curve, the path straightens again for a little while and you run on a slightly narrower path alongside some courts. Suddenly, you will reach a metal traffic barrier with a couple of bollards. A volunteer will be here to make sure everyone sees them and not to many people impale themselves on the bollards. After you pass through that, you will be running by the Western car park for a short segment. This ends pretty soon and you will again take a right turn to start the other long side of the course.

This start in the sun (or rain) with trees only on your left. You will eventually reach the copse of trees that mark the middle of the fields and soon afterwards reach the area where the finish funnel is. Keep to the left twice when getting here and fight the temptation to claim your PB before you have reached 5K(ish). After the humongous funnel area, keep going with the fields on your right for a short while before you reach another area with mature trees only both sides.

Shortly after you have reached the trees, take a sharper right turn into the only wiggly segment of the course. Run under the trees for a short while until you turn left and left again to start running alongside some basketball courts and reach the car park where we originally came from. When you reach the end of the car park section, turn 90 degrees right and go along the other short side of the course. It won’t be long before you reach the original long side and get into it via another gentle right turn.

Here we start a long straight under trees that will get us back to the start line. This is where you will notice the a light downhill, so enjoy it. Eventually you will reach the start line once more. Do it all again once more then when you reach the start line for the second time, keep going for half a lap only.

Once you reach the finish area for the third time, stray to the right and let it go for a sprint finish.

Congratulations on completing Bromley parkrun!

Facilities at Bromley parkrun

Norman park hosts a good amount of sports facilities, courts and a couple of children playgrounds. Not much more besides that though, it is essentially a big, flat open air area dedicated to outdoor activities. There are a lot of people doing morning exercise, some with music. It gives off a very nice vibe on a Saturday morning.

Toilets are supposed to be in the building by the finish funnels. I did not find them, but I did not need them so I didn’t go out of my way to locate them. I am sure some volunteer could have directed me to them.

The main cafe seems to be on the opposite side of the park, after the athletics track. I did not go there to check it, but there was a nice and incredibly well stocked coffee cart in the car park. Surprising how much it could pack since it was, essentially, just a little van. The guy working there was extremely friendly and hard working, but given numbers and the nice day, the queue was long and relatively slow moving. I don’t know if this is a seasonal thing or if he is here all year around. If people know, please add a comment below!

As a competitor to the McDonald’s index, I am continuing to collect data for the parkbreakfast index: how much is breakfast at each location?

At Bromley parkrun, I ordered a Diet Coke, a pain of chocolat and an espresso. This cost me £5.5, very affordable for London standards.

Bromley parkrun: Video Highlights

As usual, I’ve taken a few video snippets during the run to give an idea of the course. If you like it, please subscribe, it’s a fun past time for me 🙂

The other parkrun videos on my YouTube channel are all linked on the course review and video highlights summary page.

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Achievements and performance

Conclusions

I enjoyed Bromley parkrun. It is not a pretty course, but among the ones with repeated laps around playing fields, it is actually one of the best ones. And the very large field makes it a buzzing, exciting event.

I think I will come back here eventually, it is not too far and it is a cool parkrun.

Finally, obviously, thank you, Bromley parkrun team for your hospitality, once again!