"The approach to New York is most impressive and whatever may be said of the beauty or otherwise of the sky-scraper it is certainly a most wonderful piece of engineering and daring.
"It must be a subject of great regret that their number has not been controlled by better state supervision, as New York must have today somewhat the appearance of a fretful porcupine. When I was in the States the important ones were then few and in the sunlight of a fine morning they were very attractive.
"We might in England, with certain reservations, build higher than we do with advantage and convenience."
As a Fellow of the R.I.B.A. he had many introductions to American architects but he appears to have spent most time with Cass Gilbert. Gilbert had suddenly shot to prominence with his proposals for the US Custom House in New York (1907), features in his detailing had some similarity with Bromley's more modest bank works in Nottingham. Bromley noted "This beautiful design…is a fine composition…the beautiful detail of this fine piece of work." It has been described elsewhere as "an eloquent Beaux-Arts statement."
Bromley was shown the Metropolitan Life Insurance Building (1909), which was modelled on the San Marco Campanile in Venice. (The Campanile was then under reconstruction. It had suddenly collapsed in 1902; he had made a water-colour drawing of the Doge's Palace from its top in 1872). Bromley considered the insurance building "charming in simplicity of design, and its great height (700ft) and size is somewhat awe-inspiring to a European." It was the tallest building in the world 1909-1913!
Bromley made no mention of the Woolworth Building, which was the next major, and no doubt the finest, achievement of his friend Cass Gilbert. The Woolworth Building at 752 ft replaced the Metropolitan Life Building as the world's tallest on its completion in 1913, a title held until taken by the Chrysler Building in 1930. Presumably Gilbert, at the time of Bromley's visit, had not received the Woolworth commission of c.1912. Thus Bromley's visit was probably 1910/1911.
Back in Nottingham Bromley continued in his careful low-rise manner. On 24 November 1911 he received approval for Printing Works and Dining Hall on Station Street* for an old client, Boots Pure Drug Co. Thereafter until the outbreak of war in 1914 his output was largely confined to a warehouse for the Boot's company, two commissions from the Mechanics Institute, a branch office for Lloyd's Bank Ltd. on Alfreton Road; and a large factory and other work for J. B. Lewis & Sons Ltd on Haydn Road.
When Boots finally embarked on an extensive expansion programme in the late 1920s on their new Beeston site, D10 the "Wet Goods" factory came not from the ageing Bromley's practice but from Sir E. Owen Williams (1890-1968). With modern ideas and materials Owen Williams, a virtuoso in constructional concrete, built large but still not tall. D10, completed in 1932 was 550 feet long with almost 218,000 sq ft of glass but was only four storeys high.
Ken Brand
April 2002
*Some of Bromley's buildings for Boots on Station Street were destroyed during the Nottingham blitz of May 1941.