Bromley Palace

Bromley Palace (also known as the Bishop's Palace) is a manor house in Bromley, London Borough of Bromley; and was the residence of the Bishops of Rochester from the 12th century to 1845. It is now part of Bromley Civic centre.

In the 8th century, King Æthelbert II of Kent granted 6 "sulings" of land, which came to be known as the Manor of Bromley, to Eardwulf, Bishop of Rochester. In 862 Æthelberht III, king of Wessex and Kent, granted 10 sulings in Bromley to his minister Dryhtwald. In 967, King Edgar I of England again granted 10 sulings of land to Bishop Ælfstan in return for a large sum in gold and silver.

In the year 987, a dispute between King Ethelred II and the Bishop of Rochester led to the land being seized and given to one of the king's ministers (Æthelsine) though a royal act of contrition led to its return in 998. After the conquest, another expropriation was attempted by Bishop Odo of Bayeux (half-brother of William the Conqueror himself) and Archbishop Lanfranc (of Canterbury) had to intervene to restore the land to the diocese.

The Manor of Bromley was described as "poor....neither pasture nor arable land being worth much". It is thought that a manor house was first built here around the year 1100. One source claims that the architect was Bishop Gundulph but this seems unlikely because he had a reputation for commissioning buildings of "massive and enduring character" and records show that Bromley Palace had fallen into dilapidation by the time of Bishop Waleran, who died in 1184. As a result, Waleran's successor, Gilbert de Glanville, ordered the manor house to be rebuilt – "in a more commodious manner". A historian had this to say about the original manor house:

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