This building, which dates from 1775, is the former palace of the Bishops of Rochester and the latest incarnation of the palace which the bishops used for centuries.

The land, which came to be known as the Manor of Bromley, was initially granted to the bishops of Rochester by Saxon kings of Kent over a couple of centuries. Following the Norman Conquest, an attempt by Odo, the Earl of Kent, to claim it failed thanks to the efforts of Bishop Gundulf (1075-1108) and the Archbishop of Canterbury, Lanfranc.