Monks Orchard

Monks Orchard is not named after a monastery in the area, but in fact commemorates a family named Monk, from Addington, who owned a farm (Monksmead) and a wood (Monks Orchard) here in the 17th century. The land was acquired by Lewis Loyd in 1854, who built a mansion here and adopted the name of the Monks Orchard wood for the whole estate. The Lawdon Estate was developed in the late 1960s and includes Regency Walk, Sloane Walk and Kempton Walk. In 2015 the Bethlem Museum of the Mind opened in Bethlem Royal Hospital, which covers the history of the institution and changing attitudes to mental health over the decades.