Bromley FC Community Trust has launched a monthly evening meet for veterans at the Crown & Anchor on Park Road, with the council. The next one is Wednesday 21 October.

Veterans in Bromley now have an evening meet-up as well as a morning one. Bromley FC Community Trust held the first Bromley Armed Forces Community Meet at the Crown & Anchor pub on Park Road in mid-September, and it will run monthly. The next one is on Wednesday 21 October (Bromley FC Community Trust, 21 September 2026).

The Trust set it up with Bromley Council and the pub. It says the idea came from an introduction by Chris Percival, the Mayoral Attendant and a veteran, who put the Crown & Anchor’s landlord Martin Lloyd in touch with the council and the Trust. The landlord then offered the pub as a home for a monthly social.

Why an evening

The Trust already runs a Veterans Hub at Bromley Football Club on Friday mornings. The evening meet is aimed at people who cannot get to a daytime session because of work or other commitments, the Trust says.

The first evening was described as a relaxed way to meet others and find out what support exists locally. Representatives of Satos Media, a Bromley-based firm that also holds the Ministry of Defence’s Employer Recognition Scheme Gold Award, attended the launch.

What the Trust runs for veterans

The Trust received the Armed Forces Covenant Employer Recognition Scheme Gold Award in August, the Ministry of Defence’s highest tier (Bromley FC Community Trust, 7 August 2026). At that point it listed its Armed Forces programme as:

  • the Veterans Hub, with breakfast
  • a free weekly Military Veterans Football programme, funded by the Veterans Foundation
  • Veterans Connect support in local care homes
  • monthly Walk & Talk sessions
  • employment initiatives for service leavers and military families
  • commemorative and community events

The council’s own events listing carries the veterans’ football at Bromley FC as running from 4 February to 4 November 2026 (London Borough of Bromley, events).

The Trust is also a founding partner of Bromley’s Armed Forces Task Force, alongside the council and Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust. Its chair of trustees, Graham Orr, is a Navy veteran. When the Gold Award was announced he called it “the springboard for all the exciting work ahead on behalf of those who serve, have served and our Armed Forces Community in the Borough of Bromley”.

The council side of this is Councillor Mike Botting, the ward councillor for Chelsfield, who is the council’s Armed Forces Champion and chairs its Health and Wellbeing Board. The council has signed the Armed Forces Covenant and holds the same Gold Award (London Borough of Bromley, services for the Armed Forces community).

What it means for you

  • If you served, or someone in your family did, the next meet is at the Crown & Anchor, 19 Park Road, Bromley BR1 3HJ, on Wednesday 21 October. The Trust’s announcement gives the date but not a start time; email Gary.Thompson@bromleyfc.org to check.
  • For the Friday morning Veterans Hub, the veterans’ football or the walk and talk sessions, the Trust’s contact is veterans@bromleyfc.org.
  • The council’s Armed Forces contact is ArmedForces@bromley.gov.uk.
  • The Crown & Anchor is a short walk from Bromley North station. Our parking page covers the town centre car parks if you are driving in.

Bromley Online will report on the October meet once the Trust publishes details of it. Other regular things to do across the borough are on our things to do in Bromley page.

Sources