Bromley Hall, Blackwall Tunnel Approach Road (geograph 2685275)

Bromley Hall is an early

Tudor period The Tudor period occurred between 1485 and 1603 in England and Wales and includes the Elizabethan period during the reign of Elizabeth I until 1603. The Tudor period coincides with the dynasty of the House of Tudor in England that began wit ...

manor house A manor house was historically the main residence of the lord of the manor. The house formed the administrative centre of a manor in the European feudal system; within its great hall were held the lord's manorial courts, communal meals ...

in Bromley-by-Bow,

Tower Hamlets The London Borough of Tower Hamlets is a London borough covering much of the traditional East End. It was formed in 1965 from the merger of the former metropolitan boroughs of Stepney, Poplar, and Bethnal Green. 'Tower Hamlets' was originally ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. Located on the

Blackwall Tunnel The Blackwall Tunnel is a pair of road tunnels underneath the River Thames in east London, England, linking the London Borough of Tower Hamlets with the Royal Borough of Greenwich, and part of the A102 road. The northern portal lies just south ...

northern approach road, it is now owned and restored by Leaside Regeneration. Built around 1485, it is thought to be the oldest brick house in London.

History

The Hall is thought to be the oldest brick house in London and was built by Holy Trinity Priory in the 1490s on the foundations of the 12th century Lower Bramerley Manor. These remain visible today in the cellar. Tree ring analysis has established the Hall was constructed around 1485 at the time of the

Battle of Bosworth The Battle of Bosworth or Bosworth Field was the last significant battle of the Wars of the Roses, the civil war between the houses of Lancaster and York that extended across England in the latter half of the 15th century. Fought on 22 Au ...

, which signalled the enthronement of Henry Tudor and the beginning of the Tudor period. In the early stages of the project it was discovered by

English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses. The charity states that i ...

and the

Museum of London The Museum of London is a museum in London, covering the history of the UK's capital city from prehistoric to modern times. It was formed in 1976 by amalgamating collections previously held by the City Corporation at the Guildhall Museum (fou ...

, that the building was once occupied by John Blount, an important figure in the court of Henry VIII and father of

Elizabeth Blount Elizabeth Blount (// – 1540), commonly known during her lifetime as Bessie Blount, was a mistress of Henry VIII of England. Early life Blount was the daughter of Sir John Blount and Catherine Pershall, of Kinlet, Bridgnorth, Shropshire. S ...

, the King's teenage mistress who went on to have a son by the King. The Hall was seized in 1531 during the Dissolution of the Monasteries, part of the

English Reformation The English Reformation took place in 16th-century England when the Church of England broke away from the authority of the pope and the Catholic Church. These events were part of the wider European Protestant Reformation, a religious and poli ...

, before being refurbished for personal use by

Henry VIII Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is best known for his six marriages, and for his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. His disa ...

. The Hall was hung with rich tapestries and paintings, and the area was a popular retreat from London for hunting. Despite the toll of years, traces of the early decoration remain, including a carved hunting scene, 1490s beams complete with the original leather washers used for hanging the tapestries, Tudor windows and three 15th and 16th century wall paintings. From the 15th century this was the

of Lower Bromley. The building on the corner of Gillender Street was originally thought to be the gatehouse to Bromley Manor, but it has now been established by the

that it is the main hall itself built between 1482 and 1495. Bromley Hall had many subsequent uses, serving as a gunpowder factory during the

English Civil War The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians (" Roundheads") and Royalists led by Charles I (" Cavaliers"), mainly over the manner of England's governance and issues of r ...

and later as a calico printing works and a residence for wealthy City merchants. William S. Woodin, an entertainer and author who gave a series of monologues at the '' Polygraphic Hall'', lived at the Manor House, Brunswick Road from 1872 till his death in 1889. During the 1880s it was used by the

Regions Beyond Missionary Union The Regions Beyond Missionary Union was a Protestant Christian missionary society founded by Henry Grattan Guinness, D.D. and his wife Fanny in 1873. The name is a reference to the goal declared by Paul the Apostle in his Second Epistle to the Cor ...

to house nurses, and in 1914 it became a paediatric training hospital.

Modern use

The Hall suffered bomb damage during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. It was purchased from the

Crown estate The Crown Estate is a collection of lands and holdings in the United Kingdom belonging to the British monarch as a corporation sole, making it "the sovereign's public estate", which is neither government property nor part of the monarch's priv ...

by Alfred Tyler, who carried out reconstruction, donating the rare panelwork to the

V&A Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...

. It also contained a fine example of a Queen Anne staircase. The Hall was used as both a residence and office for Tylers (London) Ltd and was sold in the late 1990s when it became a carpet warehouse. Bromley Hall fell into disrepair and was placed on the Buildings At Risk register by

. Bromley Hall was purchased in 2001 by Leaside Regeneration. This partnership has completed a £1.1m restoration project to bring the building back into use as serviced office units for small businesses. Leaside is proposing to use the ground floor for a permanent exhibition on the hall, the manor and the Tudors. It hopes to also provide a meeting room, presentation materials and access to elements of the internal structure. These consist of a staircase, an original Tudor arched oak doorframe and the remains of the cellars of a structure pre-dating Bromley Hall itself. The restoration of Bromley Hall won two London region awards in 2006 from the

Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) is a global professional body for surveyors, founded in London in 1868. It works at a cross-governmental level, and aims to promote and enforce the highest international standards in the va ...

References

Sources

* English Heritage * Leaside Regeneration * No description of this house is contained in any of the historical works relating to the district, but the manor itself is described in Lysons' ''Environs of London'' (Middlesex, vol. i., p. 41), and in Dunstan's ''History of Bromley St. Leonard'', pp. 152–154. The house is marked on Rocque's ''Map of London'', 1741–5. Gascoyne's ''Map of Stepney and Neighbourhood'', 1703. Brewer, ''Beauties'', vol. x., page 290. *

External links

Leaside Regeneration
{{Coord, 51.519183, -0.009943, format=dms, type:landmark, display=title Buildings and structures completed in 1495 Houses completed in the 15th century Grade II* listed buildings in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets Tourist attractions in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets Bromley-by-Bow History of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets Houses in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets Grade II* listed houses in London