Bromley Hall
The renovation of London’s “oldest brick house”, the medieval Bromley Manor at the approach to the Blackwall Tunnel, means that one of the East End’s most remarkable buildings has been saved, hopefully for another half millennium or so. But the more remarkable thing is that the house has survived at all. The former convent, which when built stood in countryside beside the River Lea, has survived not just the ravages of time, but the depradations of Henry VIII and massive developments around it … with one of Britain’s busiest roads running right outside its door.
The former royal residence was unveiled once more on Friday 30th June following a £1.1m make-over led by Leaside Regeneration. The work was funded through the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, the European Regional Development Fund of the European Union, English Heritage, the Tower Hamlets Partnership’s Neighbourhood Renewal Fund and the London Borough of Tower Hamlets - by you and me in other words. Leaside worked with English Heritage and the Heritage of London Trust; in restoring the two listed buildings to become the new Leaside Business Centre.
Bromley Hall, which was recently named winner of this year’s RICS Building Conservation Award, was originally built by Holy Trinity Priory in the 1490s and after it was seized by the crown in 1531 (part of Henry VIII’s larger programme of Dissolution of the Monasteries, which was to gather pace following the Act of Supremacy in 1534), the king used it as a lodge, extravagantly refurbishing it with rich tapestries and paintings. Traces of the early decoration remain to this day. Examples include a carved hunting scene, 1490s beams with the leather washers that hung the tapestries, Tudor windows and, most spectacularly, three wall paintings dating from the 15th and 16th centuries. But the history of the Hall’s foundations go back even further, with evidence of an even older house, the Lower Bramberley Manor of the 12th century, found in the cellar.
Since Tudor times, Bromley Hall has been used for many purposes, including a Civil War gunpowder factory, a calico printing works, a residence for a series of wealthy City merchants, a health centre and more recently a garage and carpet showroom. Its many uses are reflected in the building’s variety of architectural styles but also in some of the damage caused to the building. As well as damp and dry rot, some of the 16th century floorboards had been Tarmac’d over, and many of the walls lined with cement. So, in the 1990s the house was put on the English Heritage Buildings At Risk register and then discovered by Leaside Regeneration who campaigned for its restoration.
Paul Latham director of architects TRP described it as “an incredible document of London’s East End heritage from royal lodge to merchant house to vicarage and midwifery training home and finally to garage and carpet showroom.” Its frequent changes of use are in large part down to its strategically useful location next to the main arteries in this part of London. Its position next to the River Lea made it industrially useful once it was no longer wanted as a home. The former possession of the Priory of Christ Church, in London was, in 1799, owned by Joseph Foster. Foster was an eminent calico printer, and the water from the Lea (which lay almost at the Hall’s back door, was essential to his work. Foster’s success was to lay the foundation for one of Bromley’s main industries in the years to come and hasten the change of the area from largely agricultural to urban and industrial. Factories had always thrived along the Lea. Limehouse Cut was opened for traffic in 1770, linking the Thames and the Lea, cutting out circuitous navigation round the Isle of Dogs. Factories grew up, and houses were thrown up to house the workers. In 1801 the population of Bromley was 1,684. By 1881 it had risen to 4,846, and by 1931 to 64,111.
The opening of the Blackwall Tunnel in 1897 (and the second in 1967) and the construction of the A102 Approach Road, carved a barrier between Bromley Hall and Bromley itself, marooning it between river and highway. The fine old building was a victim of what Paul Brickell of Leaside Regeneration has described as the Lower Lea Valley’s “change over the centuries from desolate marshland to industrial powerhouse to post-industrial dereliction.” Like so much else in this area, the renaissance of the building is tied into the sporting extravaganza that will hit London in six years time. Brickell sees “the restoration of Bromley Hall as a symbol of the coming transformation of the Lower Lea Valley into a Water City as a result of the 2012 Olympics and Paralympics and related regeneration programmes.”
* The Hall has been let for office space, but members of the public can still view the building by appointment. For more information please visit www.leasidebusinesscentre.com or call 0845 262 0846. For more information see www.leasideregeneration.co.uk and www.rics.org