A long time back the ‘hamlet' of Penge was part of the ancient ecclesiastical parish of Battersea. Penge was a wooded district, over which the tenants of Battersea Manor had common of pasture. 

1596 There seems to have been several tenants of the manor at Penge and in February 1604–5 the boundaries of the ‘hamlet’ of Penge that indicate the area covered by Penge were recorded as being quite extensive. 

1725 the vicar of Battersea reported to Bishop Willis that there were only 13 houses and 60 people living in Penge, and these went to Beckenham Church. 

Ian 1827 an Act enclosed the whole common. There were then 320 acres already enclosed and several houses standing there.  

Between 1821 and 1841 the population of Penge increased very slightly. In 1841 it was 270. In 1851, owing to the establishment of the Surrey School of Industry, the Queen Dowager's Almshouses and the Watermen's Almshouses, it had increased to 1,169. 

1853 Mr. Schuster sold his park on the summit of Penge Hill to the Crystal Palace Company for the re-erection of the gigantic building made by Sir Joseph Paxton for the Great Exhibition in Hyde Park in 1851.  

1854 The Palace was opened by Queen Victoria. The Palace was re-erected on this site, with the addition of high water towers to supply the fountains in the grounds. Inside courts were erected to illustrate the arts and architecture of different periods, from the Egyptian monarchy to the Italian Renaissance, and there was a great collection of plaster casts of famous statues. A School of Art and Music was established, and later a School of Forestry and Engineering. 

1874 The land surrounding the Palace was sold for building purposes. 

1877 Educational features of the declined owing to financial difficulties and to the 'Greenwich fair characteristics,' which had replaced the former educational objects of the Palace with theatre and music-hall exhibitions. The grounds, of great extent, including a cricket field, football ground and a lake, continue to furnish unrivalled scope for exhibitions, excursions, games and firework or aeronautical displays. 

1879 A town hall was built in the Anerley Road. Anerley, Penge and Upper Norwood were the three wards of the Penge Urban District. 

1899 The London Government Act led to Penges formation as a separate urban district and its transfer to the county of Kent in 1900. 

1901 the population of Penge was 22,465. One great cause of this increase was the advent of the London, Brighton and South Coast, and London, Chatham and Dover railways, which constituted Penge a suburb of both London and Croydon. 

One great cause of the increase in Penge residents was the advent of the London, Brighton and South Coast Railways and the London, Chatham and Dover railway. 

On the London, Brighton and South Coast Railways were the stations at the Crystal Palace, Anerley and Penge (Penge West); On the South Coast Railways and the London, Chatham and Dover railway Penge station (Penge East) is within the boundary of Beckenham. 

A town hall was built in the Anerley Road in 1879. Anerley, Penge and Upper Norwood are the three wards of the Penge Urban District. The ecclesiastical districts of St. John the Evangelist, St. Paul, Holy Trinity and Christ Church were formed in 1851, 1869, 1873 and 1886 respectively.