Family member name: William and Anne Amelia Bromley and their son Henry Bromley
Relation: My 2x great grandfather (Henry) and my 3x great grandparents
William and Anne lived in Bath. Ah, Bath! Known for its beautifully preserved white Georgian style buildings and its curative hot springs, Bath has been a destination for who's who of British society for centuries.
And the Bromleys lived right in the middle of it. Anyone who has lived in Bath or has ever visited Bath for even one day is familiar with where they lived.
In 1858, they moved into the downtown area of Bath. They lived on the 3rd and 4th floor attic of 25 Union Street. The ground floor and second floor was used for retail. Union Street is a pedestrian shopping area in the heart of the town. And just across the street is the Roman hot baths along with the famous Pump Room restaurant. The Pump Room is named for the actual water pump that brings the mineral water up from the deep spring below directly into the restaurant. Centuries old plumbing!
Here I am directly below their apartment. Downstairs is now a clothing store called COS. Their windows would have been the ones above the letters COS. The Bromleys were so downtown.
Jane Austen, who lived in Bath from 1801 to 1806 wrote about the Bromleys' corner.
From chapter 7 of
Northanger Abbey:
Half a minute
conducted them through the pump-yard to the archway, opposite Union Passage;
but here they were stopped. Everybody acquainted with Bath may remember the
difficulties of crossing Cheap Street at this point; it is indeed a street of
so impertinent a nature, so unfortunately connected with the great London and
Oxford roads, and the principal inn of the city, that a day never passes in
which parties of ladies, however important their business, whether in quest of
pastry, millinery, or even (as in the present case) of young men, are not
detained on one side or other by carriages, horsemen, or carts. This evil has been felt and lamented, at
least three times a day, by Isabella since her residence in Bath.
In the 1860s, William was the manager and editor of a newspaper, also listed as a printer, which I think is fantastic since I also work for a publishing company. Maybe that's where I get some of my obsession with grammar and punctuation. (I know I get some from you too mom!) That profession meant he was educated and no doubt well-known around town. Anne Amelia was a dressmaker. Did she create fashion-forward clothes for the high society ladies to show off at the theatre? How cool would that be? Anne made enough to support herself since William moved out of the home in the late 1860s. We don't know why. Anne lived there until 1874.
Here are some pictures of the sources I found at the Bath Records Office.
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| Bath City Directory 1860-1861 |
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| Bromleys listed in Bath 1860 Directory at 25 Union Street |
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| 1852 map of Bath. I added the star at 25 Union Street. |
