The architects of Bromley College, Kent

Extract

John Warner, Bishop of Rochester (1580–1666), celebrated in his lifetime for his munificence, left provision in his will for the foundation of an almshouse or hospital for ‘twenty poore widdowes being the relicts of Orthodox and loyall Clergie-men’. His intention was that it should be built adjacent to Rochester Cathedral but this proved impractical, and after an Act of Parliament in 1670 had given them leave to build elsewhere his executors purchased a site at Bromley, not far from Warner’s own episcopal residence. Building was effectively complete by September 1672. Edward Hasted, the historian of Kent, described Warner’s hospital as ‘a charity as unexampled at the time of its institution as it has been without compare since’, and in terms of size and architectural treatment it certainly surpasses its immediate successors at Winchester (1672) and Salisbury (1682).