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Bromley

Themes	Explorers and Adventurers	Nobel Prize Winners
Actors and Directors	Famous People	Places of Interest
Anglo-Saxons and Danes	Historic Events	Prime Ministers
AONB (National Landscapes)	Inventors and Scientists	Royal Consorts and Heirs
Artists and Architects	Monarchs	World Heritage Sites
Composers	National Parks	Writers and Poets

London | Bromley

The County of London was formed in 1889 from parts of the ancient counties of Middlesex, Kent and Surrey, with the City of London remaining an independent body. In 1965 Greater London was formed, taking in the rest of Middlesex (which no longer existed as a county) together with parts of Essex and Hertfordshire and further areas of Kent and Surrey.

Greater London is made up of 13 Inner and 19 Outer London boroughs together with the City of London.

Bromley once lay in Kent and Surrey and is today one of the 19 boroughs making up Outer London. It is London's largest borough and lies on the southeast edge of the capital.

London Boroughs

Anglo-Saxons and Danes

Anglo-Saxon Kings

Danish Kings

The borough once lay in Kent which was an independent kingdom, but was later to become part of Wessex. The kingdom of Kent reached north to the river Thames, across which lay the kingdom of the East Saxons (Essex) and south and west to the kingdom of the South Saxons (Sussex).

Famous People

Napoleon III, the French Emperor in exile and nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte, died in Chislehurst (then in Kent) in 1873 where he had resided since 1871. He was buried in Farnborough in Hampshire.

Inventors and Scientists

The naturalist and author of "The Origin of the Species", Charles Darwin, died at his home Down House in Downe (then in Kent) in 1882 where he had lived since 1842. He is buried in Westminster Abbey.

Charles Darwin
Famous people buried at Westminster Abbey
Darwin Online

Man with all his noble qualities... still bears in his bodily frame the indelible stamp of his lowly origin.
The Descent of Man (1871)

Places of Interest

Historic Buildings

Down House, Charles Darwin's home

Prime Ministers

18th Century

Born in Hayes (then in Kent) in 1759 William Pitt, the Younger was twice Prime Minister in 1783-1801 and 1804-06. He was the second son of the former Prime Minister the Earl of Chatham, and in 1783 was aged only 24, the youngest Prime Minister ever.

Pitt the Younger's second administration was faced with the growing Napoleonic threat to Europe and it was Pitt who formed the coalition of countries which defeated the French at the Battle of Trafalgar. Pitt's glory was short-lived and in the same year the coalition fell apart and Napoleon was victorious at Austerlitz. Pitt died the following year and it was nearly a decade before Napoleon was eventually defeated at Waterloo in 1815.

William Pitt, the Younger

Battle of Trafalgar

William Pitt's father the Earl of Chatham (also known as William Pitt, the Elder) was Prime Minister from 1766-68. In 1778 he collapsed during a speech at the House of Lords and died a few weeks later at his home Hayes Place in Hayes (then in Kent). He is buried in Westminster Abbey.

Earl of Chatham

Famous people buried at Westminster Abbey

Unlimited power is apt to corrupt the minds of those who possess it.
(Speech at the House of Lords, 1770)

Writers and Poets

The author of The War of the Worlds and The Time Machine H.G. Wells, was born in Bromley (then in Kent) in 1866.

H.G. Wells

Moral indignation is jealousy with a halo.
The Wife of Sir Isaac Harman (1914)