Take a tour of the Salomons Museum.

The name of this historic house perpetuates the memory of the two remarkable men who were largely responsible for its creation. In 1829 the first Sir David Salomons bought "a very elegant small villa" set in extensive grounds and known at the time as Broomhill. Sir David soon set about converting his new property into a substantial country house. The enlarging and rebuilding of the house, together with the landscaping of the grounds, continued for most of the first Baronet's life.

A financier by profession, Sir David Salomons was heavily engaged in public affairs. In 1839 he was Sheriff of the County of Kent, and in 1855 he became the first Jewish Lord Mayor of London, when he became the chief protagonist in the battle to secure for his people - Jews and others such as Roman Catholics and Quakers - the political rights enjoyed by other Englishmen. It was he who opened the campaign in public, fought out the issues in court, and laid himself open to considerable penalties, entering and speaking for his cause in Parliament.

On his death in 1873, the First Sir David was succeeded by his nephew, David Lionel Salomons, who was permitted to inherit the title by special remainder. His interests were both intellectual and practical, particularly in the field of science where his range of talents was outstanding. He was an electrician, an engineer and a craftsman in wood, ivory and metal. An expert on motor mechanics at a time when few people even knew what a motor car was, he organised in 1895 the first motor show in England at Tunbridge Wells on the area which is now known as Showfields. He was an accomplished photographer; in 1870 he invented an electric exposing camera and by 1895, when he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society, he was experimenting with and showing cinematograph films. In 1874 he was granted a patent for his invention of an automatic railway signalling system. A man engaged in so wide a variety of scientific and artistic pursuits clearly felt himself confined even by the substantially extended house left to him by his uncle. So acting as his own architect throughout (with the exception of The Stables), he threw himself into a programme of further extensions and additions which lasted until the outbreak of the First World War.

In 1876 the Water Tower was completed and in 1882 the workshops. Next came The Stables and in 1894 work was commenced on The Theatre - the largest privately constructed Theatre in England at the time, to which he attached a photographic studio, dark rooms and a chemical laboratory. This work was completed within two years. The last building works to be undertaken were the garages, the library (now the Dining Room) and the top storey of the main house. Throughout, Salomons employed local labour, stone from a local quarry and bricks made on the Estate.

By 1896 a dynamo had been installed to provide Broomhill with electricity for 1,000 16 candle power lights. As early as 1874 there was an arc light in the workshops, and by 1882 there were 60 lamps of 50 volts - supplied from accumulators up until 1911 when the current was supplied from the Tunbridge Wells plant. Broomhill was the first building in the country to use electricity for cooking and other domestic work.

In 1938 the name of Broomhill was changed to David Salomons House when it was presented to Kent County Council by Vera Bryce Salomons - the last surviving daughter of Sir David Lionel. Covenants limited its use to "a technical institute, college, museum, memorial hall, institute for scientific research or public park or as a convalescent home or hospital". In 1948, on the introduction of the National Health Service, the property was passed to the Ministry of Health and it was used as a convalescent home for women until 1971. Four years later, the South East Thames Regional Health Authority moved its Regional Conference and Training Centre from Greenwich to David Salomons House and residential facilities were subsequently developed with the construction of two accommodation buildings, appropriately named Broomhill and Greenwich. Broomhill was later converted to offices and Greenwich was refurbished in 1997 to provide en-suite single, twin and double rooms available for guests using the House facilities. Salomons Centre was created as a trading agency of the Authority in 1993.

In February 1996 Salomons Centre was divested to Canterbury Christ Church College. The Greenwich residential accommodation at Salomons was subsequently re-named Canterbury House and in February 1999 Salomons changed its corporate identity in line with Canterbury's. The College became a University College in October 1999 and achieved full University status (Canterbury Christ Church University) in 2005. Salomons continues to operate as a first class Conference and Training Centre.

Salomons Museum is open to the public from 2-5pm on Monday, Wednesday and Friday afternoons, for people to view the rooms and the artefacts on open display.

All enquiries to Salomons Library.

Acknowledgement is made to John Sharp, the late John Wheeler and the late Douglas Bennett - members of the Sir David Salomons Society - in initiating the compilation
of this history.