[1] He was born in Stafford on 15 July 1850, the son of Charles Nelson Bromley, a surgeon (1817–1853) and Emma Bakewell (1819–1907).

His father died two years later and the family moved to Nottingham, where they lived with Bromley's maternal uncle, the architect and surveyor Frederick Bakewell.

In 1867 he was articled to his uncle but by 1871 he was back in Lincoln and working as an architect's clerk in Henry Goddard's architectural practice.

In 1928 Harry Garnham Watkins left the partnership[4] and Thomas Nelson Cartwight (1905-1984) joined, and Bromley, Cartwright and Waumsley were architects to Boots the Chemist.

He married Elizabeth Skepper Brogden (1853–1940) on 11 April 1878 in St Swithin's Church, Lincoln[5] and they had one daughter, Kathleen Christiana Bromley (1879–1967).