This feature first appeared in June 2025 on Londonist: Time Machine, our much-praised history newsletter. To be the first to read new history features like this, sign up for free here.
Hands up if you can identify this Tudor confection?
Image from 1981: Chirstine Matthews, creative commons licence
I’m not seeing many hands go up. Anyone? Ah, a few at the back. Locals, I presume.
There are at least two reasons why the treasure box called Broomfield House is under-appreciated. First, the years have not been kind. This is the same view today 👇. The Tudor estate’s in a chewed-up state, for reasons we’ll come to shortly. I suspect it does not suffer from a surfeit of Instagrammers.
