Bow and Bromley-by-Bow: Britain in Old Photographs

Product Information

A hunting lodge that stood on what is now St Leonard’s Street was said to have been built by JamesI. Later known as the Old Palace, the building was split into two resi­dences in1750. From the 1930s the London County Council began a massive slum clearance programme, erasing the old village green and its houses andinns. Much of Bromley was a slum by the late 19th century and it became an early target for civic improvement.

Muriel and Doris Lester estab­lished the original Kingsley Hall in 1915, as part of their work among the poor of Bow. Shown in the small photo below,* the present hall was built on Powis Road in 1927–8. Bromley public hall was built on Bow Road in 1880 as the vestry hall for St Leonard’s parish. It now serves as Tower Hamlets’ register office.After the disso­lu­tion of the monas­teries the manor was granted to Sir Ralph Sadleir, principal secretary of state to Henry VIII. The British Museum holds his account of the estate’s prop­er­ties, drawn up in 1540. By this time, Bow had gained ascen­dancy over Bromley but the latter became a popular place to build rural retreats from the early 17th century. From the 1820s, Bromley began to fill with noxious indus­tries and workers’ housing, some built by charities, some by prof­i­teering jerry builders.

Fifty-six per cent of homes in the Bromley-by-Bow ward were rented from the council or a housing asso­ci­a­tion at the 2011 census – sharply down from 72 per cent at the previous census but still a very high figure. A further 24 per cent of homes were privately rented. The parish church of St Mary with St Leonard was among the buildings destroyed. Its church­yard is now a wilder­ness garden and adventure play­ground, entered via the How memorial gateway. Ruinous bomb damage in the Second World War brought further clearance after 1945 and municipal and social housing filled almost the entire area. A range of four tenements with a centre chapel, the Drapers’ Almshouses were built in 1706. The grade II listed group is shown in the photoabove.* The replace­ment of the Old Palace by a school in 1894 caused an outcry and played a pivotal role in promoting future (often unsuc­cessful) attempts to preserve east London’s heritage. The interior of the state room was salvaged and can be seen at the Victoria and Albert Museum.As well as meeting the needs of local people, Kingsley Hall also gave space to a variety of groups and movements, including the suffragettes and the Jarrow marchers. A blue plaque records Mahatma Gandhi’s stay here. Later it was a base for the psycho­an­a­lyst RDLaing. Kingsley Hall, PowisRoad

Bromley’ is a corrup­tion of Old English words meaning ‘woodland clearing with brambles’, and the extended name avoids confusion with its south London namesake. It was earlier known as Bromley St Leonard, after the Bene­dic­tine priory of St Leonard, once the oldest religious house in east London.