The provision of school dinners at Bromley Common started in 1929 when the local authority provided a gas stove so that the caretaker, Mrs Allgrove, could "undertake the warming of school food and the necessary supervision at a weekly wage of 5s (25p) a week." 

The log records that "As many as 50 on average stay for dinner and the supply of cooking stove and caretaker’s help are much appreciated by parents. Also attendance in the afternoon has been much better."

One pupil, Doris Turner (nee Ricketts), remembered that, "We were told at school that if we wanted to take a dinner between two plates in the winter, Mrs Allgrove… would hot it up for us in her oven. I remember doing this once but I think we found the journey with a dinner too cumbersome. Mrs Allgrove used to bring Horlicks round at about 11 o’clock, ½d a cup, but not many had it."

The dinners were only provided in the winter.