The area now occupied by the park had previously been part of the church and then crown estates, before being occupied by John Styleman and then Sir John Boyd, 1st Baronet, both senior figures in the British East India Company. In the 1760s, Boyd built Danson House, a Grade I-listed Georgian mansion that stands in the centre of the park, and commissioned much of the landscaping that can be seen in the park today. The landscape was designed and laid out between 1761 and 1763, by either Capability Brown or his assistant Nathaniel Richmond.
At its centre is a large and picturesque 12-acre lake, described by Edward Hasted in his History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent of 1797 as "a most magnificent sheet of water so contrived as to seem a beautiful serpentine river, flowing through the grounds". A small house with a spire, named Chapel House, was constructed to the south of the lake, which is now separated from the rest of the park by a motorway, but can still be seen today near the roundabout at Blendon. By the time of Boyd's death the Danson Estates comprised over 600 acres of pleasure grounds and agricultural estate.
The other key previous occupant of the estates was Alfred Bean, a railway engineer who bought the property in 1862. Bean was the driving force behind the Bexleyheath Railway Company, and chairman of Bexley Local Board, and envisaged transforming the now 582-acre estate into a residential suburb. Outlying areas were sold off for residential development according to Bean's will, but the house and 224 acres of the estate remained in Bean's family after his death in 1890. On the death of his widow in 1921, when it was auctioned, and eventually acquired by Bexley Urban District Council (UDC) for £16,000 in 1924. The council spent another £3,500 converting the estate into a public park.
The park was opened to the public in 1925 by Princess Mary. Land was reserved for football pitches, tennis courts and a bowling green, which have been added over time. In 1929 the Morris Wheeler Gates were erected at the north-east corner of the park, donated by Alfred Morris Wheeler, a prominent local businessman and chairman of Bexley UDC. An open-air swimming pool opened in 1936, and in 1964 the Boathouse and Cafe opened to the public. The park grounds were restored, funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund, in 2006, alongside a major English Heritage restoration of Danson House. The park is now used extensively by the community.
So 2025 marks the centenary of the park being opened to the public.
You should be standing in front of a bench. There is a small silver plaque on it. It has 24 words (or 24 groups of numbers or letters) on it. In the given word in the sentence, count the position of the letter indicted within that word e.g. 22K=4
N51 27. 7Y 19Y 14B
E0 7. 12S 2C+13R 21D
