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A farmhouse was recorded here from the early C17th. The 1841 Tithe Map shows the land in the ownership of the Lord of the Manor, the Revd Sir Charles Farnaby. In 1935 the farm was sold for development, the farmhouse acquired by the church to be used as a rectory. Coney Hall Recreation Ground is an area of grass sloping to the north-east, almost completely surrounded by housing. The park is largely given over for sports, with some flower and shrub beds. A wide tarmac path, running north-east/south-west through the centre of the park, connects Layhams Road with Church Drive. It is part of the London Loop and has a meridian marker.

Crease Park was probably once part of Eden Park estate, formerly called Eden Farm. The park was opened in July 1936 by Alderman James Crease JP, after who it was named in honour of his ‘unremitting endeavours towards the acquisition of open spaces in Beckenham’. He had served as a member of the local authority since 1898.

In 1890 the Local Board purchased a 17-hectare meadow in Croydon Road next to the Cottage Hospital for a recreation ground. Croydon Road Recreation Ground was opened in 1891 and most of its original features are still intact, such as the ornamental entrance gates, lodge and railed bandstand, now listed. The bandstand is now known as the Bowie Bandstand to commemorate the influential musician David Bowie's associations with not only Beckenham but with the bandstand itself. Croydon Road Recreation Ground provided facilities for cricket, bowls and other sports that were gaining in popularity. Early sporting activities included an annual cricket match held between the coachmen and gardeners of the local gentry, and bowls commenced as early as 1902.

* on The National Heritage List for England, Parks & Gardens

Crystal Palace Park was pleasure grounds designed as a setting for the Crystal Palace, which had been built for the Great Exhibition in Hyde Park in 1851 and was moved at the close of the exhibition to Sydenham Hill in 1852. The park was laid out with terraces, Italian Garden, Great Maze, English Garden, gravel walks, statues and elaborate fountains fed by 3 lakes. In the south of the park an early attraction were the Crystal Palace Dinosaurs, a collection of models of prehistoric creatures. The Palace and Park were opened by Queen Victoria on 10 June 1854, but the Palace later burnt down in November 1936. Some of the trees from the original planting survive and the park has a number of lakes, initially part of the elaborate waterworks scheme.

Cudham is an old settlement mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086 and the parish church may date from the C10th. The fields to the east of the church were used as a sports ground by the early 1930s, crossed by various footpaths. The recreation ground had a cricket pavilion and by the 1960s there were tennis courts. On adjacent land to the east was the Angas Convalescent Home for Sailors, which had opened in 1918 as a branch of the Seamen's Hospital Society Dreadnought Hospital.

* on The National Heritage List for England, Parks & Gardens

Down House was the home of Charles Darwin from 1842-82 and the gardens retain some of the structure from his time, including a square lawn below the south-west front, shrubbery with trees planted on mounds, a series of walled gardens, and the wood with the 'sand walk' around it. The garden was an inspiration for his study and experiments, and he installed paths, flower beds and outbuildings associated with his research. An asphalt tennis court was constructed in 1881. Since acquisition by English Heritage in 1996, the gardens have been restored, as far as possible, to their appearance towards the end of Darwin’s life.

The site is shown as farmland on OS Map of 1871. Farnborough Recreation Ground was in existence by 1935, adjacent to Tugg Mutton or Tugmutton Common. A largely level area of mown grass, the park has sports pitches, tennis courts and children’s play area. Near the entrance to the car park is a low bank topped by mature and semi mature oak trees, which runs north/south and is probably an old field boundary. Shrubs and immature trees are along the fenced boundary of the park.

Fox Hill Green is a small triangular public open space, crossed by paths, with a number of well-grown trees and planted with spring bulbs.  

The 1st edition OS map of 1867 shows the area as farmland and it continued to be in use as such until housing was built in the C20th. The area was called Glentrammon Park until 1887 when the land was purchased for housing, built in 1909. The park, bordered by hedges and small trees, is divided into two fields, the boundary between them possibly a relict field boundary with shrubs and small trees. The park has the best views of surrounding countryside in the borough.

The manors of Chelsfield and Goddington were combined and passed to the Haddon family in the C16th. In the late C19th a Major Hallet rebuilt the mansion. Goddington House remained in private hands when the site of the park was sold to Goddington Council in 1931. Goddington Park consists of the Lower Park and the Upper Park and has remnants of C19th parkland trees.

From at least the C16th the area consisted of parkland with a few large houses and farmland. The Harvington Estate, as it has been known since 1964, was formed from land belonging to Eden Farm, built c.1834, and to three houses built from 1871: Harvington, Homewood and Chalfont. The land was acquired at various dates from 1946 onwards and the estate was unified by Beckenham Council in 1964 and given to the people of Beckenham as a public area for sport and recreation as Harvington Sports Ground. The four lodges that once served the houses remained although the houses were demolished.

Hayes Common and what remains of West Wickham Common are closely connected; Hayes Common was the waste of the Manor of Baston. It had for centuries been a place where local people could graze cattle and collect firewood. In the 1860s the Lord of both Baston and West Wickham manors, Sir John Lennard, began to sell off plots of West Wickham Common for villas and it was feared that Hayes Common would go the same way. In c.1868 a large body of commoners organised opposition, which in 1869 led to Hayes Common becoming the first common in England and Wales to be given legal protection against enclosure under the Metropolitan Commons Act of 1866.