Toponymy The earliest records of Mottingham are from 862 AD during the
Anglo-Saxon era when it was recorded as
Modingahema, which means the land of Moda's people and is commonly interpreted as "the proud place". In
William Henry Ireland's 1830 work ''England's Topographer: Or A New and Complete History of the County of Kent Volume 4'', he writes In the seventeenth century
Thomas Fuller recorded in
The Worthies of England a curious incident that happened on 4 August 1585: The cause of the incident, referred to as a "marvellous accident" at the time, was then unknown, and it is likely that a sinkhole had developed. The area is well coursed with streams, both above and below ground, and the collapse or shifting of subsoil might be attributed to them. The site of the sinkhole is now unknown, and the incident is also largely unknown. The only body of standing water that is in the area today is a lake at
The Tarn Bird Sanctuary. is a Grade II listed structure Mottingham was originally a farming hamlet, with a few large houses on Mottingham Lane, one of them Fairy Hall. Development began in the mid-19th century with the building of cottages on what is now Mottingham Road and the Terrace shops.
Mottingham station opened in 1866, but was originally named for Eltham. In the 1880s the West Park estate, housing intended for the middle class, was developed and St. Andrew's church was built between the station and the village.
Local government Mottingham was originally a
hamlet in
Eltham parish, in the
Blackheath hundred of Kent. In 1840 it was included in the
Metropolitan Police District by the
Metropolitan Police Act 1839. In 1866, the same year the station was opened, Mottingham was separated from Eltham as a distinct civil parish. In 1881, the parish had a population of 779 and covered an area of . When the
County of London was created in 1889, Mottingham was excluded from the new county and formed a protrusion of Kent, bordering London to the west, north and east. From 1894 to 1934, it formed a 'detached part' of
Bromley Rural District and had its own
parish council. In 1931, the parish had a population of 2,120. In 1934, the rural district and the Mottingham civil parish were abolished and the area was transferred to
Chislehurst and Sidcup Urban District. In 1965, the urban district was abolished and the area was transferred from Kent to
Greater London, to form part of the London Borough of Bromley. The boundary between Bromley and Greenwich, and between Bromley and Lewisham, around Mottingham was adjusted in 1994. Most of the area is in the
Mottingham ward but the area around Mottingham Station is in the
Mottingham, Coldharbour and New Eltham ward. Both wards are in
Eltham and Chislehurst constituency.
Landmarks The first church in Mottingham was St Andrew's Church on Court Road, which was established in 1884 and further helped establish Mottingham as separate from Eltham.
Martins Bank had a branch in Mottingham village, facing the war memorial; it was the first branch of the bank to undergo an armed raid, in 1967. It became a Barclays following their 1969 takeover of Martins, and was closed in 1992. Also by the war memorial stood the Porcupine Inn public house, licensed as long ago as 1688. The premises dated from about 1800 and were replaced in 1922. The pub closed in 2013 and was acquired by German global discount supermarket chain
Lidl, who tried and failed to obtain permission to develop the site. In 2022, Lidl appealed over the head of Bromley Borough and were given permission to clear the site and build their new supermarket. The new store opened for business in April 2023. Mottingham has a branch of the fraternal order
Independent Order of Oddfellows Manchester Unity. Mottingham village contains a sign depicting Eltham College within the branches of a tree, a cricket bat and ball (making reference to
W G Grace) and the date AD 862. Mottingham and some of its landmarks appear in filmmaker Dewyne Lindsay's mini-documentary series
London Districts.
Education in Mottingham Road
Mottingham Primary School Elmstead Wood Primary School Eltham College Eltham College, an independent day school for girls and boys 7–18, founded in 1842 as the
London Missionary Society's School for the Sons of Missionaries, has been housed since 1912 in the former Fairy Hall in Mottingham, which had earlier been the
Royal Naval School from 1889 to 1910. ==Geography==