Built in 1863 in the centre of Market Square, on the site of the Bromley Market House. This multi-purpose building was funded by Cole-Childs, who had recently bought the local Manor. He was a coal merchant from Deptford with his own brick-pit (at what is now nearby Havelock Rec) which supplied the bricks. It housed a police station, a fire station, and a large upper room for civic meetings.
The Council moved to their new offices in 1906 and for much of its life the 1863 building was rented by an estate agents. Demolished 1933 and replaced with the neo-Tudor buildings on the site today.
The photo is dated 1899, possibly prompted by the Council planning the building's change of use.
Information from Bromley Civic Society.
