Bromley, a market-town and a parish in Kent. The town has stations on the L.C. & D.R. and S.E.R., is 10 miles from London, and stands on high ground, rising from the Ravensbourne river. It commands good views to the W, SW, and S, and has many fine residences. It has a post, money order, and telegraph office. The town hall is a brick structure in the Elizabethan style, erected in 1865. There are Conservative and Liberal clubs, a drill hall and gymnasium, a recreation ground, a school of science .and art, a cottage hospital, a literary institute, and a bank. The town is governed by a local board of 12 members. The church has traces both of Norman and Decorated work, but was mainly rebuilt in 1829, and consists of nave, chancel, and aisles. It has at the west end an ancient embattled tower, surmounted by a cupola, and contains a Norman font, a brass of 1356, a monument of Dr Hawkesworth, the chief writer of the "Adventurer," and the graves of Bishop Pearce, Bishop Yonge, and the wife of Dr Johnson. It was enlarged in 1873, and again in 1884, and now has 1200 sittings. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Canterbury; gross value, .£500 with residence. Patron, the Bishop of Worcester. The Church of St John is a stone building in the Perpendicular style. The living is a vicarage; net value, £325 with residence. Christ Church was erected in 1887, and is a brick structure in the Early English style. There are Congregational, Wesleyan, Primitive Methodist, and Swedenborgian chapels, and a cemetery of 5 acres. Bromley College is a large brick structure, founded in 1666 by Bishop Warner, and repaired in 1765; gives residences and support to 40 widows. In 1875 the Gothic chapel in connection with this college was rebuilt. The civil parish comprises 4706 acres; population, 21,684; population of the ecclesiastical parishes of Holy Trinity, Bromley Common, 927; of St John the Evangelist, 2849; of St Luke, Bromley Common, 4135; and of St Peter and St Paul, 8505. The manor was given in the 8th century by Ethelbert, King of Kent, to the bishops of Rochester, continued with some slight interruptions to be held by them till a few years ago. A palace was built on it by one of the bishops soon after the Conquest, underwent improvements by successive bishops, was visited by Walpole and Pope, and gave place in 1776 to a new palace, a plain brick mansion, now the residence of the Child family. A chalybeate spring is in the palace-grounds, and another spring was formerly there called St Blaize's Well, which had anciently a small oratory, and was a resort of pilgrims in the Romish times at Whitsuntide. An old moated mansion, at the southern extremity of the town, belonged successively to the Bangnels, the Clarks, and the Simpsons. Plaistow Lodge, Bickley Park, and Sundridge are in the neighbourhood.
