The buildings are colleges in the original meaning of the word – to collect or gather together, in this case people. The first Bromley College was built in 1666 under the will of the recently deceased Bishop of Rochester, John Warner. He had been kicked out of his home, the Bishop’s Palace in Bromley, during the Civil War and when he got his home back following the Restoration in 1660 he realised that there were many clergymen's widows who were not so lucky and wanted to establish a place for them to live. This building that fronts London Road, behind a high wall and trees, is one of Bromley’s few Grade 1 listed properties. It is believed to have been designed by Captain Richard Ryder, one of Sir Christopher Wren’s associates.