1943
  • Born in Harpenden, Hertfordshire, to Sidney Herbert Rome and his wife, Elsie Mary (née Gosling). Father is a marine engineering project draughtsman and amateur painter.
    • 1960
  • After leaving school works for Trollope and Colls, the construction company, mostly on sites in central London.
    • 1962
  • Enrols on the diploma course at St Albans School of Art where he is taught by, among others, the sculptors George Fullard, John Mills and John Wragg.
    • 1964
  • Shows sculpture in exhibition with recent graduates of the art school in the grounds of Lockers, Hemel Hempstead.
    • 1966
  • Completes one-year postgraduate course at Chelsea School of Art where Fullard and Wragg are now teaching.
  • Begins teaching part-time at Brighton College of Art and Walthamstow School of Art.
    • 1967
  • Moves studio to disused laundry in Blantyre Street, Chelsea, an area earmarked for demolition and rebuilding as flats. Stays three years.
    • 1969
  • Shares exhibition with the painter David Whitaker at new sculpture annexe, Brighton College of Art, showing sculpture alongside Whitaker’s paintings.
  • Marries. 
    • 1970
  • Shows recent sculpture in exhibition with Whitaker at Kingston upon Thames Museum and Art Gallery. Shows again at Kingston in 1972.
  • Birth of son, William.
    • 1971
  • Moves to new studio in Kingsland Road, Shoreditch, shared with Derek Boshier, John Maine and Glynn Williams. Lee Grandjean joins later.
  • Installs 300 metre-long sculpture at Bull’s Field, his father-in-law’s property near Blean, Kent.
    • 1972
  • Moves home to former vicarage in the Elephant and Castle district of south London.
    • 1975
  • Selected by the sculptor Hubert Dalwood for Summer Show 2 at Serpentine Gallery with Ted Charlton, Charles Grafton, David Holt and Robert Russell.
  • Appointed senior lecturer at Canterbury College of Art.
    • 1977
  • Solo open-air exhibition of large steel sculptures, University of Kent at Canterbury.
  • Receives major award from the Arts Council of Great Britain and an award from the South East Arts Association from which Rome receives a second award in 1984.
    • 1979
  • Selected by Nicholas Pope for the Hayward Annual 1979, showing with fellow sculptors Garth Evans, Katherine Gili and Jeff Lowe.
    • 1980
  • Moves studio to former London Electricity Board depot in Greenwich where other artists are setting up studios, among them the painters Mali Morris and Clyde Hopkins.
    • 1983
  • Attends Triangle Artists’ Workshop, Pine Plains, New York, organised by Anthony Caro, where he meets Clement Greenberg and visiting American artists, including Larry Poons.
    1984
  • Resident artist for three months at Sculpture Space, Utica, New York.
    • 1986
  • Father dies.
  • Appointed member of the visual arts panel, South East Arts Association, serving until 1992.
  • Delivers public lecture about David Smith at Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, during the major retrospective exhibition of the American artist’s sculpture and drawings.
    • 1989
  • Appointed course leader in site-specific sculpture at Wimbledon School of Art, based in studios in Cannizaro Park.
    • 1990
  • Makes sculpture during summer at Hamish Black’s studio in Sussex. Returns to Black’s studio in summer 1993.
    • 1991
  • Appointed tutor in bronze casting at Royal College of Art, London.
    • 1994
  • Participates in XVIIème Moussem Culturel at Asilah, Morocco.
  • Moves studio from Greenwich to a building in rural Kent which he converts from its former use as a hop packing shed.
    • 1995
  • With Glynn Williams broadcasts talk entitled ‘Statue in Bronze’ on Meridian programme, BBC World Service.
    • 1995–6
  • New foundry completed at RCA, designed by Rome and on which work began in 1991.
  • Elected fellow of Royal British Society of Sculptors and fellow of the RCA. 
    • 1997
  • Short residency at School of the Art Institute of Chicago arranged by school’s president Tony Jones, former rector of the RCA.
    • 1998
  • Collaborates with Centre of Additive Layer Manufacturing (CALM) at Coventry and Exeter universities to produce Dreamboat, a sculpture from drawings using computer 3D modelling technology. 
    • 2001
  • The Millennium Fountain inaugurated, a public commission for Cannizaro Park, Wimbledon.
    • 2003
  • Publishes Fine art metal casting: an illustrated guide to mould making and lost wax processes (Robert Hale, London, 2003) co-authored with research assistant Hamish Young.
    • 2004
  • Mother dies.
    • 2005
  • Participates in workshop at the Ironbridge Museum of Steel Sculpture. Returns each summer until 2009.
    • 2008
  • Retires from teaching.
    • 2009
  • Appointed honorary fellow of the Royal College of Art, London.
    • 2010
  • Makes iron sculptures at Sculpture Trails at Solsberry, near Bloomington, Indiana, USA.