Brighton and Hove
Brighton and Hove () is a city and unitary authority in East Sussex, England. It consists primarily of the settlements of Brighton and Hove, alongside neighbouring villages.
Often referred to synonymously as Brighton, the City of Brighton and H ...
, a
city
A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...
on the
English Channel
The English Channel, "The Sleeve"; nrf, la Maunche, "The Sleeve" (Cotentinais) or ( Jèrriais), (Guernésiais), "The Channel"; br, Mor Breizh, "Sea of Brittany"; cy, Môr Udd, "Lord's Sea"; kw, Mor Bretannek, "British Sea"; nl, Het Kana ...
coast in southeast England, has a large and diverse stock of buildings "unrivalled architecturally" among the country's
seaside resort
A seaside resort is a town, village, or hotel that serves as a vacation resort and is located on a coast. Sometimes the concept includes an aspect of official accreditation based on the satisfaction of certain requirements, such as in the Germ ...
s.
The urban area, designated a city in 2000, is made up of the formerly separate towns of
Brighton and
Hove
Hove is a seaside resort and one of the two main parts of the city of Brighton and Hove, along with Brighton in East Sussex, England. Originally a "small but ancient fishing village" surrounded by open farmland, it grew rapidly in the 19th c ...
, nearby villages such as
Portslade
Portslade is a western suburb of the city of Brighton and Hove, England. Portslade Village, the original settlement a mile inland to the north, was built up in the 16th century. The arrival of the railway from Brighton in 1840 encouraged rapid de ...
,
Patcham
Patcham () is an area of the city of Brighton & Hove, about north of the city centre. It is bounded by the A27 (Brighton bypass) to the north, Hollingbury to the east and southeast, Withdean to the south and the Brighton Main Line to the west. ...
and
Rottingdean
Rottingdean is a village in the city of Brighton and Hove, on the south coast of England. It borders the villages of Saltdean, Ovingdean and Woodingdean, and has a historic centre, often the subject of picture postcards.
Name
The name Rotting ...
, and 20th-century estates such as
Moulsecoomb
Moulsecoomb () is a suburb of Brighton, Sussex, England, on the northeast side around Lewes Road, between Coldean and Bevendean, north of the seafront. The eastern edge adjoins Falmer Hill on the South Downs. It is often divided into smalle ...
and
Mile Oak. The conurbation was first united in 1997 as a
unitary authority
A unitary authority is a local authority responsible for all local government functions within its area or performing additional functions that elsewhere are usually performed by a higher level of sub-national government or the national governmen ...
and has a population of about 253,000. About half of the geographical area is classed as
built up
Games of patience, or (card) solitaires as they are usually called in North America, have their own 'language' of specialised terms such as "building down", "packing", "foundations", "talon" and "tableau". Once learnt they are helpful in des ...
.
Brighton's transformation from medieval fishing village into spa town and pleasure resort, patronised by royalty and fashionable high society, coincided with the development of
Regency architecture
Regency architecture encompasses classical buildings built in the United Kingdom during the Regency era in the early 19th century when George IV was Prince Regent, and also to earlier and later buildings following the same style. The period co ...
and the careers of three architects whose work came to characterise the seafront. The previously separate village of Hove developed as a comfortable middle-class residential area "under a heavy veneer of
ictoriansuburban respectability":
large houses spread rapidly across the surrounding fields during the late 19th century, although the high-class and successful
Brunswick estate was a product of the
Regency era
The Regency era of British history officially spanned the years 1811 to 1820, though the term is commonly applied to the longer period between and 1837. King George III succumbed to mental illness in late 1810 and, by the Regency Act 1811, h ...
. Old villages such as Portslade, Rottingdean,
Ovingdean
Ovingdean is a small, formerly agricultural, village in the east of Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, England.
Overview
It was absorbed into the administrative borough of Brighton, East Sussex, England in 1928, and now forms part of the city of ...
and Patcham, with ancient churches, farms and small flint cottages, became suburbanised as the two towns grew and merged, and the creation of "Greater Brighton" in 1928 brought into the urban area swathes of open land which were then used for housing and industrial estates. Many buildings were lost in the 1960s and 1970s, when Brighton's increasing regional importance encouraged redevelopment, but conservation movements were influential in saving other buildings.
Much of the city's built environment is composed of buildings of the Regency,
Victorian and
Edwardian
The Edwardian era or Edwardian period of British history spanned the reign of King Edward VII, 1901 to 1910 and is sometimes extended to the start of the First World War. The death of Queen Victoria in January 1901 marked the end of the Victori ...
eras.
The Regency style, typical of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, is characterised by pale
stuccoed exteriors with
Classical-style mouldings and
bay window
A bay window is a window space projecting outward from the main walls of a building and forming a bay in a room.
Types
Bay window is a generic term for all protruding window constructions, regardless of whether they are curved or angular, or ...
s.
Even the modest two-storey
terraced house
In architecture and city planning, a terrace or terraced house ( UK) or townhouse ( US) is a form of medium-density housing that originated in Europe in the 16th century, whereby a row of attached dwellings share side walls. In the United State ...
s which spread rapidly across the steeply sloping landscape in the mid-19th century display some elements of this style. Extensive suburban development in Hove and the north of Brighton in the late 19th and early 20th century displays architectural features characteristic of those eras, with an emphasis on decorative brickwork and
gable
A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesth ...
s. Postwar developments range from Brutalist commercial and civic structures to pastiches of earlier styles.
Sustainable building techniques have become popular for individual houses and on a larger scale, such as at the long-planned
New England Quarter
The New England Quarter is a mixed-use development in the city of Brighton and Hove, England. It was built between 2004 and 2008 on the largest brownfield site in the city, adjacent to Brighton railway station. Most parts of the scheme have b ...
brownfield development.
Local and national government have recognised the city's architectural heritage through the designation of
listed building
In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...
and
conservation area status to many developments. Since 1969, 34 conservation areas have been created, covering areas of various sizes and eras; and more than 1,200 structures have listed status based on their "special architectural or historic interest".
Historical context
Early buildings
Brighton was originally an agricultural and fishing village surrounded by fields where sheep were farmed and
corn was grown. In the
Saxon era, small buildings developed in an area bounded by four streets named after the points of the compass, and a church stood on higher ground inland. Modest cottages for the fishermen stood on the beach below the cliffs and the now vanished South Street.
[Berry, Sue (1988): ''Brighton and Hove: Historical Geography'', in ] A thriving fishing industry contributed to the town's first period of growth in the 16th and 17th centuries,
but development did not expand beyond the old boundaries.
The industry then contracted in the early 18th century, and depopulation occurred. Labour and land for redevelopment accordingly became cheaper, and because good travel and communication routes were already established the town was well placed to grow rapidly again when sea-bathing became fashionable in the mid-18th century.
Little pre-18th century architecture remains in Brighton,
therefore, although there are some individual buildings. For example, 27 King Street in
North Laine
North Laine is a shopping and residential district of Brighton, on the English south coast. Once a slum area, it is now seen as Brighton's bohemian and cultural quarter, with many pubs, cafés, theatres and museums.
History
"Laine" is a ...
is cobble-fronted and retains a
timber-framed
Timber framing (german: Holzfachwerk) and "post-and-beam" construction are traditional methods of building with heavy timbers, creating structures using squared-off and carefully fitted and joined timbers with joints secured by large woode ...
interior which could be 17th-century.
Hove, meanwhile, was a single-street village with a
manor house
A manor house was historically the main residence of the lord of the manor. The house formed the administrative centre of a manor in the European feudal system; within its great hall were held the lord's manorial courts, communal meals w ...
, some modest cottages and a church further inland. Although
St Andrew's Church remains in use and Hove Street survives, the manor house was demolished in 1936 and no other original buildings remain.
Early-18th-century descriptions of the old town of Brighton (the present
Lanes
In road transport, a lane is part of a roadway that is designated to be used by a single line of vehicles to control and guide drivers and reduce traffic conflicts. Most public roads (highways) have at least two lanes, one for traffic in each ...
) concentrated on how small and low the houses were, and how the lower storeys were characteristically set slightly below ground level. This, and the proximity of the houses to each other, may have offered protection against storms and flooding from the sea.
(In one of the earliest descriptions of Brighton - a letter dated 1736 - the rector of
Buxted
Buxted is a village and civil parish in the Wealden district of East Sussex in England. The parish is situated on the Weald, north of Uckfield; the settlements of Five Ash Down, Heron's Ghyll and High Hurstwood are included within its boundarie ...
claims that "we live here underground almost ... the second storey is finished something under 12 feet.")
"Huddling together" may have also helped the houses survive to the present day: they were poorly built and had little structural integrity. Typical Lanes buildings are
timber-framed
Timber framing (german: Holzfachwerk) and "post-and-beam" construction are traditional methods of building with heavy timbers, creating structures using squared-off and carefully fitted and joined timbers with joints secured by large woode ...
and plastered with load-bearing walls of
bungaroosh __NOTOC__
Bungaroosh (also spelt bungeroosh, bungarouche, bungarooge, bunglarooge, bunglarouge and other variations) is a composite building material used almost exclusively in the English seaside resort of Brighton and its attached neighbour Hov ...
with some flint.
Brick
quoins
Quoins ( or ) are masonry blocks at the corner of a wall. Some are structural, providing strength for a wall made with inferior stone or rubble, while others merely add aesthetic detail to a corner. According to one 19th century encyclopedia, t ...
and
courses added strength, and façades were often studded with pebbles from the beach. These would sometimes be coated with tar to keep water out,
although this only became common in the early 19th century. In The Lanes, such buildings can be seen at Bartholomews, Middle Street and Ship Street among others.
Buildings of the 16th and 17th centuries and earlier can be found in the old villages absorbed by modern Brighton and Hove. At
St Wulfran's Church, Ovingdean, the 12th-century
nave
The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...
and
chancel
In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse.
Ov ...
replaced a
Saxon structure.
St Helen's Church at Hangleton retains 11th-century
herringbone masonry and other ancient fabric.
The old parish churches of
Patcham
Patcham () is an area of the city of Brighton & Hove, about north of the city centre. It is bounded by the A27 (Brighton bypass) to the north, Hollingbury to the east and southeast, Withdean to the south and the Brighton Main Line to the west. ...
,
Portslade
Portslade is a western suburb of the city of Brighton and Hove, England. Portslade Village, the original settlement a mile inland to the north, was built up in the 16th century. The arrival of the railway from Brighton in 1840 encouraged rapid de ...
,
Preston,
Rottingdean
Rottingdean is a village in the city of Brighton and Hove, on the south coast of England. It borders the villages of Saltdean, Ovingdean and Woodingdean, and has a historic centre, often the subject of picture postcards.
Name
The name Rotting ...
and
Brighton itself all retain some features from the 12th to 14th centuries, although they were all subject to
Victorian restoration
The Victorian restoration was the widespread and extensive refurbishment and rebuilding of Church of England churches and cathedrals that took place in England and Wales during the 19th-century reign of Queen Victoria. It was not the same proc ...
.
Hove's oldest secular building is
Hangleton Manor (now a pub), a Vernacular-style flint building with some 15th-century fabric. Little has changed since the
High Sheriff of Sussex
The office of Sheriff of Sussex was established before the Norman Conquest. The Office of sheriff remained first in precedence in the counties until the reign of Edward VII when an Order in Council in 1908 gave the Lord-Lieutenant the prime office ...
rebuilt it a century later, and the dovecote outside it is 17th-century.
Other surviving manor houses and mansions in the old villages around Brighton and Hove include
Preston Manor,
Patcham Place
Patcham Place is a mansion in the ancient village of Patcham, now part of the English city of Brighton and Hove. Built in 1558 as part of the Patcham Place estate, it was owned for many years by Anthony Stapley, one of the signatories of King ...
,
Stanmer House
Stanmer House is a Grade I listed mansion set in Stanmer Park west of the village of Falmer and north-east of the city of Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, England.
The house stands close to Stanmer village and Church, within Stanmer Park. Cons ...
,
Moulsecoomb Place and
Ovingdean Grange, while Patcham and Rottingdean have well-preserved lesser houses such as Court House, Down House, Hillside and Southdown House, generally built of brick and flint in the 18th century.
Georgian and Regency periods
The first development outside the four-street boundary of the ancient village was in 1771–72, when North Row (soon renamed Marlborough Place) was built on the west side of the open land.
Some tarred cobble-fronted buildings survive there.
At the same time, inns were becoming established as fashionable venues: the Castle (demolished) and the
Old Ship both had "uncommonly large and expensive"
assembly rooms
In Great Britain and Ireland, especially in the 18th century Britain, 18th and 19th centuries, assembly rooms were gathering places for members of the higher social classes open to members of both sexes. At that time most entertaining was done ...
for dancing and high-class socialising. The Castle's assembly rooms of 1754 were redesigned by
John Crunden
John Crunden (c. 1741 – 1828) was an English architect of country houses and villas, and mobiliary designer.
Biography
Most of his early inspiration was drawn from Chippendale and his school. He produced a very large number of designs which wer ...
in 1776 in
Classical style
Classical architecture usually denotes architecture which is more or less consciously derived from the principles of Greek and Roman architecture of classical antiquity, or sometimes even more specifically, from the works of the Roman architect V ...
; in 1761
Robert Golden designed
Palladian-style rooms for the Old Ship, later redecorated in a "
Adamish">obertAdamish" style after Crunden's work at the Castle.
Robert Adam himself redesigned
Marlborough House
Marlborough House, a Grade I listed mansion in St James's, City of Westminster, London, is the headquarters of the Commonwealth of Nations and the seat of the Commonwealth Secretariat. It was built in 1711 for Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marl ...
in 1786–87: with its elegant
Neo-Palladian
Palladian architecture is a European architectural style derived from the work of the Venetian architect Andrea Palladio (1508–1580). What is today recognised as Palladian architecture evolved from his concepts of symmetry, perspective ...
façade and "spatially arresting interior",
it has been called the finest house of its era in the city.
Coaching inns became important in the late 18th century: there were many on North Street, but the only survivor is the former
Clarence Hotel (closed 1972; now Clarence House), a four-storey building of "
Classical severity". It had stables for 50 horses to the rear.
The Prince Regent visited Brighton regularly from 1783 and soon wanted a house.
A building near the Castle Inn was found, and
Henry Holland extended it in "a stilted Classical style" in 1786–87. The Royal Marine Pavilion, as it was called before its present name (the
Royal Pavilion
The Royal Pavilion, and surrounding gardens, also known as the Brighton Pavilion, is a Grade I listed former royal residence located in Brighton, England. Beginning in 1787, it was built in three stages as a seaside retreat for George, Princ ...
) was adopted, became increasingly important in the growing town as it became the centre of activities for the Prince and his entourage—and the focal point for his regularly changing architectural tastes. Holland revamped the building in 1801–04 in a Chinese style, and the French-inspired interior was changed as well. Meanwhile,
William Porden
William Porden (c. 1755 – 1822) was a versatile English architect who worked for the 1st Earl Grosvenor and the Prince Regent.
Life
Born in Kingston upon Hull, (Subscription required) he trained under James Wyatt and Samuel Pepys Cock ...
added a "monumental" complex of stables (now the
Brighton Dome
The Brighton Dome is an arts venue in Brighton, England, that contains the Concert Hall, the Corn Exchange and the Studio Theatre (formerly the Pavilion Theatre). All three venues are linked to the rest of the Royal Pavilion Estate by a tunnel t ...
complex) to the west in 1804–08, in an
Indian style.
James Wyatt
James Wyatt (3 August 1746 – 4 September 1813) was an English architect, a rival of Robert Adam in the neoclassical and neo-Gothic styles. He was elected to the Royal Academy in 1785 and was its president from 1805 to 1806.
Early life
W ...
and later
John Nash were then commissioned to alter the building again; Nash's work, finished in 1823, gave the building its present opulent
Indo-Saracenic Revival/
Orientalist appearance.
The Prince Regent's patronage helped Brighton become a fashionable, high-class resort.
As it became more popular, it further outgrew its four-street boundaries. Planned development, as opposed to ad hoc growth, started in the 1780s with North Parade and South Parade alongside
Old Steine
The Old Steine () is a thoroughfare in central Brighton, East Sussex, and is the southern terminus of the A23. The southern end leads to Marine Parade, the Brighton seafront and the Palace Pier. The Old Steine is also the site of a number of Cit ...
. By the 1790s it spread well to the east along the East Cliff: New Steine (1790–95, but refaced in the 1820s) was the first sea-facing square, then came Bedford, Clarence and Russell Squares (all early 19th century) and Brighton's first
crescent
A crescent shape (, ) is a symbol or emblem used to represent the lunar phase in the first quarter (the "sickle moon"), or by extension a symbol representing the Moon itself.
In Hinduism, Lord Shiva is often shown wearing a crescent moon on his ...
,
Royal Crescent (1799–1802).
Powered by "fashion, demand and the availability of capital",
the scale of building and architectural ambition kept growing—especially when the father-and-son architects
Amon
Amon may refer to:
Mythology
* Amun, an Ancient Egyptian deity, also known as Amon and Amon-Ra
* Aamon, a Goetic demon
People Momonym
* Amon of Judah ( 664– 640 BC), king of Judah
Given name
* Amon G. Carter (1879–1955), American pu ...
and
Amon Henry Wilds
Amon Henry Wilds (1784 or 1790 – 13 July 1857) was an English architect. He was part of a team of three architects and builders who—working together or independently at different times—were almost solely responsible for a surge in resid ...
and their associate
Charles Busby arrived in the town. They helped to develop the
Regency style which now characterises the seafront.
Hanover Crescent,
Montpelier Crescent
Montpelier Crescent is a mid 19th-century Crescent (architecture), crescent of 38 houses in the Montpelier, Brighton, Montpelier suburb of Brighton, part of the English coastal city of Brighton and Hove. Built in five parts as a set-piece reside ...
,
Park Crescent, the
Kemp Town
Kemp Town Estate, also known as Kemp Town, is a 19th-century Regency architecture residential estate in the east of Brighton in East Sussex, England, UK. It consists of Arundel Terrace, Lewes Crescent, Sussex Square, Chichester Terrace, and ...
estate (Sussex Square, Lewes Crescent, Arundel Terrace and Chichester Terrace) and
Brunswick Town (Brunswick Terrace, Brunswick Square and associated streets) were among their set-piece developments.
(The Brunswick estate was also the first significant development in the parish of Hove.)
Accordingly, by the early 19th century, Brighton was renowned for the splendour and "strongly individual character" of its architecture.
William Cobbett
William Cobbett (9 March 1763 – 18 June 1835) was an English pamphleteer, journalist, politician, and farmer born in Farnham, Surrey. He was one of an agrarian faction seeking to reform Parliament, abolish "rotten boroughs", restrain foreign ...
claimed in 1832 that it "certainly surpass
din beauty all other towns in the world".
Due to the quantity and quality of work produced by the Wilds–Wilds–Busby partnership and the groundbreaking designs produced by Holland, Nash and Porden—which "established a vocabulary of architectural elements" that defined the entire Regency style—Brighton's early urban development was characterised by an "overflowing of architectural inventiveness".
Around the same time, though, the first concerns were raised about the poor quality of houses on the edge of Brighton—especially on St James's Street, Edward Street and the roads running off West and North Streets. Many reports and studies were made by the Corporation and outsiders over the next decades, but little action was taken.
[Berry, Sue (1988): ''Brighton and Hove: Historical Geography'', in ] There was, however, some
slum clearance
Slum clearance, slum eviction or slum removal is an urban renewal strategy used to transform low income settlements with poor reputation into another type of development or housing. This has long been a strategy for redeveloping urban communities; ...
in 1845, when
Queen's Road was driven through the infamous Petty France and Durham districts to provide a direct link from
the recently built station to the town centre.
Railway age and Victorian era
The
London–Brighton railway reached the coast in 1841, and westward and eastward links were soon built from
Brighton railway station
Brighton railway station is the southern terminus of the Brighton Main Line in England, and the principal station serving the city of Brighton, East Sussex. It is from via .
The station is managed by Govia Thameslink Railway, which operat ...
. This was built in 1841 to
David Mocatta
David Alfred Mocatta (1806–1882) was a British architect and a member of the Anglo-Jewish Mocatta family.
Early career
David Alfred Mocatta was born to a Sephardic Jewish family in 1806, the son of the licensed bullion broker Moses Mocat ...
's
Italianate
The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style drew its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italian ...
design, then added to in 1882–83 when H.E. Wallis added the dramatically curved
train shed
A train shed is a building adjacent to a station building where the tracks and platforms of a railway station are covered by a roof. It is also known as an overall roof. Its primary purpose is to store and protect from the elements train car ...
and
F.D. Banister made further alterations, creating a building "entirely characteristic of the greater Victorian railway station".
The line to the east crossed the landmark
London Road viaduct, a 28-arch, , sharply curving brick structure which stood in empty fields when built by
John Urpeth Rastrick
John Urpeth Rastrick (26 January 1780 – 1 November 1856) was one of the first English steam locomotive builders. In partnership with James Foster, he formed Foster, Rastrick and Company, the locomotive construction company that built the '' ...
in 1846.
Development had not yet reached this part of Brighton because the ancient field system to the north and east of the town constrained its growth,
as did the ownership by the Stanford family of most of the remaining land surrounding Brighton and Hove. They carefully controlled its sale and development, releasing parcels of land gradually and ensuring that visually cohesive planned estates of high-quality housing were built.
The area's 19th- and early 20th-century housing accordingly has a clear pattern and "a distinctive character". The poorest housing was to the east of Brighton (slum clearance around
Carlton Hill, Albion Hill and Edward Street has replaced much of this); working-class housing for tradesmen, railway workers and other
artisan
An artisan (from french: artisan, it, artigiano) is a skilled craft worker who makes or creates material objects partly or entirely by hand. These objects may be functional or strictly decorative, for example furniture, decorative art ...
s spread to the northeast around Lewes Road, the viaduct and the station; middle-class developments lay north of the centre around London Road; and the highest-quality suburbs developed to the northwest of Brighton and north of Hove on the Stanford family's land.
[Berry, Sue (1988): ''Brighton and Hove: Historical Geography'', in ] As originally built, the inner suburbs were of variable architectural quality: small houses with very late Regency-style flourishes predominated, but scattered among these were small-scale industrial and commercial development (the latter especially along the main roads), a range of high-quality Victorian churches such as
St Bartholomew's,
St Martin's and
St Joseph's, and institutional buildings such as workhouses, hospitals and schools.
Improving access to education was a particular priority for Brighton Corporation in the 19th century, so straight after the
Elementary Education Act 1870
The Elementary Education Act 1870, commonly known as Forster's Education Act, set the framework for schooling of all children between the ages of 5 and 12 in England and Wales. It established local education authorities with defined powers, autho ...
was passed it set up a
school board
A board of education, school committee or school board is the board of directors or board of trustees of a school, local school district or an equivalent institution.
The elected council determines the educational policy in a small regional are ...
, appointed
Thomas Simpson
Thomas Simpson FRS (20 August 1710 – 14 May 1761) was a British mathematician and inventor known for the eponymous Simpson's rule to approximate definite integrals. The attribution, as often in mathematics, can be debated: this rule had been ...
as its architect and surveyor and provided several schools in suburban areas—most of which survive with little alteration. Simpson also worked for the Hove school board from 1876, the enlarged Brighton and Preston board from 1878 and took on his son
Gilbert to assist in 1890.
The coming of the railway changed Brighton from an exclusive resort to a town popular with all classes of holidaymaker and permanent resident alike: the population grew by nearly 50% in the first decade.
The seafront remained the main attraction, so an array of features were added: pleasure piers, promenades, hotels, entertainment kiosks and an aquarium. The
West Pier and
Palace Pier date from 1863 and 1891 respectively, although both were completed several years later; Madeira Drive was laid out in 1872 and received its "signature cast-iron terrace" (including a pagoda-shaped lift decorated with Greek gods) in the 1890s; Kings Road was widened in the 1880s; and large hotels began to line it even before this. Early-19th-century hotels such as the
Royal Albion,
Royal York and
Bedford
Bedford is a market town in Bedfordshire, England. At the 2011 Census, the population of the Bedford built-up area (including Biddenham and Kempston) was 106,940, making it the second-largest settlement in Bedfordshire, behind Luton, whilst ...
were joined by an Italianate pair by
John Whichcord Jr. (the
Grand
Grand may refer to:
People with the name
* Grand (surname)
* Grand L. Bush (born 1955), American actor
* Grand Mixer DXT, American turntablist
* Grand Puba (born 1966), American rapper
Places
* Grand, Oklahoma
* Grand, Vosges, village and c ...
, 1864) and
Horatio Nelson Goulty (the
Norfolk
Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...
, 1865). Then in 1890 the vast
Metropole Hotel by
Alfred Waterhouse "broke the orthodoxy of stucco along the seafront" due to its prominent red-brick and
terracotta
Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; ; ), in its material sense as an earthenware substrate, is a clay-based unglazed or glazed ceramic where the fired body is porous.
In applied art, craft, construction, and architecture, terracotta ...
façade.
Its deliberately different design caused shock and brought criticism, but the ''British Architect'' journal considered it "a wonderful relief" from the homogeneity of stuccoed Regency buildings.
Brighton's architecture was beginning to reflect trends in the country as a whole, but the Regency style and the Royal Pavilion's
onion-domed,
minaret-studded opulence continued to influence architecture throughout the town, and on the seafront in particular.
Hove, meanwhile, was also developing rapidly — but its influences were different. Although the Brunswick estate was successful, development of the neighbouring
Adelaide Crescent
Adelaide Crescent is a mid-19th-century residential development in Hove, part of the English city and seaside resort of Brighton and Hove. Conceived as an ambitious attempt to rival the large, high-class Kemp Town estate east of Brighton, the c ...
stalled for more than 20 years and
Decimus Burton's original design was scaled back. Next came
Palmeira Square
Palmeira Square () is a mid-19th-century residential development in Hove, part of the English city and seaside resort of Brighton and Hove. At the southern end it adjoins Adelaide Crescent, another architectural set-piece which leads down to the ...
( 1855–1865), where the evolution from Regency to
Victorian Italianate is clear,
and there was some suburban development (called Cliftonville) around the new
Hove railway station
Hove railway station serves Hove in the county of East Sussex, England. It is measured from . The station and the majority of trains serving it are operated by Southern.
Gatwick Express trains stable at Hove from time to time.
It is th ...
in the 1860s, but large tracts of land to the north and west remained undeveloped because of conditions in William Stanford's will. Only in 1872 did these conditions expire, and over the next 30 years Hove developed into a comfortable, spacious, suburban town with "a certain gentility" which it still possesses. Architects
James Knowles and
Henry Jones Lanchester were involved at first, and
William Willett
William Willett (10 August 1856 – 4 March 1915) was a British builder and a promoter of British Summer Time.
Biography
Willett was born in Farnham, Surrey, and educated at the Philological School. After some commercial experience, he ente ...
built the streets of ornately decorated
gault
The Gault Formation is a geological formation of stiff blue clay deposited in a calm, fairly deep-water marine environment during the Lower Cretaceous Period (Upper and Middle Albian). It is well exposed in the coastal cliffs at Copt Point in ...
brick villas they designed. Next came H. B. Measures and Amos Faulkner, who introduced more architectural variety and preferred red brick; then local architects
Thomas Lainson and
Clayton & Black
Clayton & Black were a firm of architects and surveyors from Brighton, part of the English city of Brighton and Hove. In a career spanning the Victorian, Edwardian and interwar eras, they were responsible for designing and constructing an eclec ...
laid out further estates of spacious tree-lined avenues and large half-timbered houses in the
Queen Anne Revival and Domestic Revival styles.
Public buildings were also provided, such as Hove Town Hall (1882; demolished 1966), a public library (1907–08) and
Hove Museum and Art Gallery
Hove Museum and Art Gallery is a municipally-owned museum in the town of Hove, which is part of the larger city of Brighton and Hove in the South East of England. The museum is part of "Royal Pavilion & Museums, Brighton and Hove", and admission ...
(a converted villa of 1877 designed in "drab Italianate" style by Thomas Lainson).
Good Gothic Revival churches of this era include Central United Reformed Church (1867 by Horatio Nelson Goulty), the "dignified and grand"
Sacred Heart (1880–81 by
John Crawley
John Paul Crawley (born 21 September 1971) is a former English first-class cricketer who played at international level for England and county cricket for Hampshire and Lancashire. Crawley, one of three brothers who all played first-class cricke ...
) and
Holy Trinity (1863 by James Woodman).
Specialist building development company Medical Centre Developments bought the disused Holy Trinity in February 2016 for conversion into a medical centre.
Early 20th century
Residential growth continued in the interwar and postwar periods, and the distinctive zonal pattern of development continued. Estates of
council housing were built east and northeast of Brighton (at
Whitehawk
Whitehawk is a suburb in the east of Brighton, England, south of Bevendean and north of Brighton Marina. The area is a large, modern housing estate built in a downland dry valley historically known as Whitehawk Bottom. The estate was original ...
,
Bevendean
Bevendean is a district of the city of Brighton and Hove, in East Sussex, England.
The estate lies to the north-east of central Brighton, and was largely developed after World War II with a mixture of council housing and private development. ...
and
Moulsecoomb
Moulsecoomb () is a suburb of Brighton, Sussex, England, on the northeast side around Lewes Road, between Coldean and Bevendean, north of the seafront. The eastern edge adjoins Falmer Hill on the South Downs. It is often divided into smalle ...
, and in the redeveloped
Carlton Hill inner suburb which had been subject to
urban renewal
Urban renewal (also called urban regeneration in the United Kingdom and urban redevelopment in the United States) is a program of land redevelopment often used to address urban decay in cities. Urban renewal involves the clearing out of blighte ...
); middle-class residential housing developed to the north in the
Patcham
Patcham () is an area of the city of Brighton & Hove, about north of the city centre. It is bounded by the A27 (Brighton bypass) to the north, Hollingbury to the east and southeast, Withdean to the south and the Brighton Main Line to the west. ...
and
Preston areas; and suburbs such as
Westdene
Westdene is an area of the city of Brighton and Hove, East Sussex. It is an affluent northern suburb of the city, west of Patcham, the A23 (London Road) and the London to Brighton railway line, north of Withdean and northeast of West Blat ...
,
Withdean
Withdean is a former village, now part of Brighton and Hove, East Sussex.
Overview
The area was originally named in the 12th century, when it was called Wictedene. The area was historically farm land but has been developed, mainly in the 1920s ...
, Tongdean and
West Blatchington
West Blatchington is an area in Hove, East Sussex, England.
The area grew rapidly in the inter-war period, but unlike nearby Hangleton it had more infrastructure, with St Peter's Church, a working farm, a windmill and an industrial area gro ...
to the northwest of Brighton and the north of Hove had an upper middle-class character.
[Berry, Sue (1988): ''Brighton and Hove: Historical Geography'', in ] The rapid interwar suburban growth was similar to that seen throughout southeast England, but it was particularly stimulated by the introduction of electric trains
on the
main railway route to London—bringing a quicker and much more frequent service and increasing the attractiveness of commuting.
Meanwhile, Brighton Corporation began major slum clearance operations in the 1930s when the government offered financial incentives.
Moulsecoomb
Moulsecoomb () is a suburb of Brighton, Sussex, England, on the northeast side around Lewes Road, between Coldean and Bevendean, north of the seafront. The eastern edge adjoins Falmer Hill on the South Downs. It is often divided into smalle ...
and the Pankhurst Avenue area near
Queen's Park, both started in the early 1920s, were the first council estates.
In the former, the South Moulsecoomb area was laid out first; its 478 houses, on taken from the parish of
Patcham
Patcham () is an area of the city of Brighton & Hove, about north of the city centre. It is bounded by the A27 (Brighton bypass) to the north, Hollingbury to the east and southeast, Withdean to the south and the Brighton Main Line to the west. ...
in 1920, were designed along "
garden city" lines with
semi-detached
A semi-detached house (often abbreviated to semi) is a single family duplex dwelling house that shares one common wall with the next house. The name distinguishes this style of house from detached houses, with no shared walls, and terraced hou ...
houses set in large green spaces.
North Moulsecoomb's 390 houses, including many brick-built terraces at a much higher density, followed from 1926.
Brighton's first council flats were the four-storey Milner (1934) and Kingswood (1938) blocks, built as part of the
Carlton Hill slum clearance programme.
Several streets in central Brighton were also transformed by the Corporation in the 1920s and 1930s: they sought to improve the flow of traffic by widening main roads in the commercial heart of the town. Western Road (1926–36),
West Street (1928–38)
and North Street (1927–36, and again in the 1960s)
were all widened. Many 19th-century buildings were demolished: on North Street, a mixture of shops, houses (some in "squalid courtyards") and inns disappeared, on West Street all buildings on the west side (mostly large houses of the late 18th and early 19th century, when the road was high-class) were removed,
and the north side of Western Road was demolished. Most buildings there were shops with tall 19th-century houses behind.
Another 1930s development could have changed the Regency face of Brighton and Hove and redefined it along
Modernist
Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...
lines.
Wells Coates
Wells Wintemute Coates OBE (December 17, 1895 – June 17, 1958) was an architect, designer and writer. He was, for most of his life, an expatriate Canadian who is best known for his work in England, the most notable of which is the Modernist ...
was commissioned to build a block of flats next to Brunswick Terrace. The high-class speculative development was named
Embassy Court and was completed in 1935.
Praise from the ''
Architects' Journal
''Architects' Journal'' is an architectural magazine published in London by Metropolis International.
History
The first edition was produced in 1895. Originally named ''The Builder's Journal and Architectural Record'', from 1906 to 1910 it was ...
'' was matched by Alderman Sir
Herbert Carden, who campaigned for every other building along the seafront to be demolished and replaced with Embassy Court-style Modernist structures, all the way from
Hove
Hove is a seaside resort and one of the two main parts of the city of Brighton and Hove, along with Brighton in East Sussex, England. Originally a "small but ancient fishing village" surrounded by open farmland, it grew rapidly in the 19th c ...
to
Kemp Town
Kemp Town Estate, also known as Kemp Town, is a 19th-century Regency architecture residential estate in the east of Brighton in East Sussex, England, UK. It consists of Arundel Terrace, Lewes Crescent, Sussex Square, Chichester Terrace, and ...
.
He also wanted to demolish the Royal Pavilion and replace it with a conference centre. This encouraged the formation of the Regency Society, the first of many local conservation and architectural interest groups.
This era also saw a transformation in Brighton's leisure and entertainment venues as it continued to flourish as a popular resort. Many large cinemas, theatres and dance halls were built, some in the fashionable
Art Deco
Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...
style: among them were the Savoy, the
Astoria, the
Regent
A regent (from Latin : ruling, governing) is a person appointed to govern a state '' pro tempore'' (Latin: 'for the time being') because the monarch is a minor, absent, incapacitated or unable to discharge the powers and duties of the monarchy ...
, the Imperial Theatre and Sherry's Dance Hall—which was near another "much-loved venue", the SS Brighton complex. Also in the Art Deco style were the
Saltdean Lido
Saltdean Lido at Saltdean Park Road, Saltdean, in the Brighton and Hove district, in the ceremonial county of East Sussex, England, is an Art Deco lido designed by architect R.W.H. Jones. Originally listed at Grade II by English Heritage for it ...
and another open-air swimming pool at
Black Rock. Older buildings given a new look included the
Brighton Dome
The Brighton Dome is an arts venue in Brighton, England, that contains the Concert Hall, the Corn Exchange and the Studio Theatre (formerly the Pavilion Theatre). All three venues are linked to the rest of the Royal Pavilion Estate by a tunnel t ...
(originally the Royal Pavilion's stables, built by
William Porden
William Porden (c. 1755 – 1822) was a versatile English architect who worked for the 1st Earl Grosvenor and the Prince Regent.
Life
Born in Kingston upon Hull, (Subscription required) he trained under James Wyatt and Samuel Pepys Cock ...
) and the Brighton Aquarium.
Local architect
John Leopold Denman
John Leopold Denman (15 November 1882 – 5 June 1975) was an architect from the English seaside resort of Brighton, now part of the city of Brighton and Hove. He had a prolific career in the area during the 20th century, both on his own and ...
designed many new buildings, typically in a "well-mannered and individual" Neo-Georgian style:
most were for commercial use, such as
20–22 Marlborough Place, Regent House and the offices for the ''
Brighton & Hove Herald'' newspaper at
2–3 Pavilion Buildings,
but the
Hounsom Memorial Church at Hangleton
and the Downs Crematorium are also his. The latter may have been inspired by
Harry Stuart Goodhart-Rendel
Harry Stuart Goodhart-Rendel (1887 in Cambridge – 21 June 1959 in Westminster, London) was a British architect, writer and musician.
Life
Harry Stuart Goodhart was born on 29 May 1887 in Cambridge, England. He added the additional name Rende ...
's
St Wilfrid's Church on nearby
Elm Grove.
Goodhart-Rendel, a native of Brighton, also produced "his own inimitable response to
Modernism
Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...
" at
Princes House, a steel-framed building with red and blue patterned brickwork. Several of its neighbouring commercial buildings on North Street are by Denman or the Clayton & Black firm.
Postwar
The urban area was not as badly affected by World War II bombing as some coastal towns, notably
Eastbourne
Eastbourne () is a town and seaside resort in East Sussex, on the south coast of England, east of Brighton and south of London. Eastbourne is immediately east of Beachy Head, the highest chalk sea cliff in Great Britain and part of the la ...
,
but some buildings were damaged or destroyed. The central arches of London Road viaduct had to be rebuilt after a direct hit left the tracks hanging in mid-air; the different coloured replacement brickwork is still visible.
St Cuthman's Church, built in 1937 on the new
Whitehawk
Whitehawk is a suburb in the east of Brighton, England, south of Bevendean and north of Brighton Marina. The area is a large, modern housing estate built in a downland dry valley historically known as Whitehawk Bottom. The estate was original ...
estate, was destroyed in 1943.
The first council-owned
tower block
A tower block, high-rise, apartment tower, residential tower, apartment block, block of flats, or office tower is a tall building, as opposed to a low-rise building and is defined differently in terms of height depending on the jurisdicti ...
s date from 1961, when four were built on the steep slopes of Albion Hill; Highleigh, opened on 16 May 1961, was the first.
Other tower blocks of ten or more floors stand in the Edward Street and Upper Bedford Street areas of
Kemptown, where five were built in the mid-1960s to complete an urban renewal programme begun in 1926;
Hollingdean
Hollingdean is a district in the city of Brighton & Hove. The Ward is called Hollingdean and Stanmer with a population of 15,681 at the 2011 Census. Hollingdean is in effect the older part of Hollingbury. It is bounded by Ditchling Road to the w ...
, where the landmark Nettleton Court and Dudeney Lodge towers date from 1966;
and
Whitehawk
Whitehawk is a suburb in the east of Brighton, England, south of Bevendean and north of Brighton Marina. The area is a large, modern housing estate built in a downland dry valley historically known as Whitehawk Bottom. The estate was original ...
, where the Corporation built four ten-storey blocks called Swanborough Flats in 1967.
Meanwhile, Hove had a high proportion of multi-occupancy residential buildings. Thousands lived in small bedsits hidden "behind the classic proportions
fmany of the older houses": a report by the council in 1976 stated that 11,000 people in Hove lived in "substandard housing".
Given the lack of open land to build on, demolition and redevelopment was championed. Based on Herbert Carden's pre-war suggestion, the whole of Brunswick Square, Brunswick Terrace and Adelaide Crescent were to be replaced by tower blocks after Hove Council approved plans in 1945, but public opposition was too great.
Two decades later, the Conway Street redevelopment scheme (1966–67) replaced 300 slum houses on an site near the railway station with several tower blocks. A committee was formed to ensure householders received a suitable price for their compulsorily purchased houses.
The Borough Councils changed their emphasis in the 1970s towards "densely packed low-rise flats" such as Hampshire Court (Kemptown) and Ingram Crescent (Hove).
This new direction was not matched by private firms, which continued to build residential towers into the 1980s—especially in Hove.
Two of the city's tallest privately built blocks,
Chartwell Court
Chartwell Court is a residential tower block in the centre of Brighton, part of the city of Brighton and Hove, United Kingdom. The tower is unusual in that is built directly on top of a car park serving the Churchill Square shopping centre. Cons ...
and
Sussex Heights (the latter, at , is Sussex's tallest tower block),
sit on top of Brighton's largest postwar redevelopment scheme—the
Churchill Square shopping centre. This development by
Russell Diplock & Associates
Russell Diplock & Associates was a British firm of architects, founded by Philip Russell Diplock.
They designed a three-storey office block for Amalgamated Dental Prosthetic Products in 1957 on an industrial estate between Addlestone and Weybri ...
(1963–68) has been condemned as "a disaster architecturally":
its vast scale and poor relationship to surrounding buildings made it "very typical of its date".
It was rebuilt as a covered shopping mall by Comprehensive Design Group (1995–98).
Most other postwar schemes, whether commercial, residential or mixed-use, have amounted to small-scale infill. Brighton Square, a new pedestrian shopping square in the heart of The Lanes, dates from 1966 and is in harmony with the "intimate" surroundings in terms of scale and architecture.
Elsewhere in The Lanes,
Postmodern Regency-style pastiche architecture characterises infill schemes at Nile Street (1987–89 by the Robin Clayton Partnership)
and Duke's Lane (1979 by Stone, Toms & Partners).
A large site between Middle Street and West Street is covered by Avalon, a curvaceous double-fronted block of flats by Christopher Richards (2004–06).
The largest redevelopment scheme in the city since Churchill Square has been the laying out of the
New England Quarter
The New England Quarter is a mixed-use development in the city of Brighton and Hove, England. It was built between 2004 and 2008 on the largest brownfield site in the city, adjacent to Brighton railway station. Most parts of the scheme have b ...
mixed-use area on the site formerly occupied by
Brighton railway works
Brighton railway works (also known as Brighton locomotive works, or just the Brighton works) was one of the earliest railway-owned locomotive repair works, founded in 1840 by the London and Brighton Railway in Brighton, England, and thus pre-da ...
and Brighton station's car park. The early buildings (2004–07 by Chetwood Associates; mostly residential) are "standard 21st-century developers' fare"; but a second phase of building (2007–09 by Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios), with retail buildings integrated with residential blocks under the name ''One Brighton'', is more distinctive.
BioRegional and the
World Wide Fund for Nature
The World Wide Fund for Nature Inc. (WWF) is an international non-governmental organization founded in 1961 that works in the field of wilderness preservation and the reduction of human impact on the environment. It was formerly named the Wor ...
's "One Planet Living" design principles were used to ensure the development was
sustainable. The best building, a residential block, comes to "a dramatic sharp point" at an acute road junction.
Sustainable design also informs smaller developments around the city: Conran and Partners' Atlanta Apartments (2007) in
Bevendean
Bevendean is a district of the city of Brighton and Hove, in East Sussex, England.
The estate lies to the north-east of central Brighton, and was largely developed after World War II with a mixture of council housing and private development. ...
have
chestnut wood cladding, recycled copper and
living roofs of
sedum
''Sedum'' is a large genus of flowering plants in the family Crassulaceae, members of which are commonly known as stonecrops. The genus has been described as containing up to 600 species, subsequently reduced to 400–500. They are leaf succul ...
; the Sea Saw Self-Build scheme in Whitehawk (1993) consists of 24
timber-framed
Timber framing (german: Holzfachwerk) and "post-and-beam" construction are traditional methods of building with heavy timbers, creating structures using squared-off and carefully fitted and joined timbers with joints secured by large woode ...
houses; the Hedgehog Housing development at Bevendean (2000) is similar; and a multiple award-winning scheme for the South London Family Housing Association at
Hollingdean
Hollingdean is a district in the city of Brighton & Hove. The Ward is called Hollingdean and Stanmer with a population of 15,681 at the 2011 Census. Hollingdean is in effect the older part of Hollingbury. It is bounded by Ditchling Road to the w ...
(1988) was also built according to sustainable principles.
Architectural characteristics
Since the present urban area's settlements first developed as fishing villages and
downland
Downland, chalkland, chalk downs or just downs are areas of open chalk hills, such as the North Downs. This term is used to describe the characteristic landscape in southern England where chalk is exposed at the surface. The name "downs" is deriv ...
hamlets, the local architecture has been influenced by characteristic styles and the use of materials rarely seen elsewhere. Black glazed
mathematical tile
Mathematical tiles are tiles which were used extensively as a building material in the southeastern counties of England—especially East Sussex and Kent—in the 18th and early 19th centuries. They were laid on the exterior of timber-framed ...
s and
bungaroosh __NOTOC__
Bungaroosh (also spelt bungeroosh, bungarouche, bungarooge, bunglarooge, bunglarouge and other variations) is a composite building material used almost exclusively in the English seaside resort of Brighton and its attached neighbour Hov ...
are unique to Brighton and its immediate surroundings,
and tarred cobblestones with brick
quoins
Quoins ( or ) are masonry blocks at the corner of a wall. Some are structural, providing strength for a wall made with inferior stone or rubble, while others merely add aesthetic detail to a corner. According to one 19th century encyclopedia, t ...
, salt-glazed brickwork and knapped or plain flints were also common in early buildings.
Stucco—perfectly suited to seaside conditions—predominated throughout the 19th century, such that "of nowhere else did it become so universally characteristic."
Bay window
A bay window is a window space projecting outward from the main walls of a building and forming a bay in a room.
Types
Bay window is a generic term for all protruding window constructions, regardless of whether they are curved or angular, or ...
s, a common feature of seaside resorts, were treated distinctively; balconies, sometimes roofed, were included on most 19th-century houses;
Victorian and Edwardian houses were often designed as villas, with elaborate porches and decorative gables;
and
terraced housing
In architecture and city planning, a terrace or terraced house ( UK) or townhouse ( US) is a form of medium-density housing that originated in Europe in the 16th century, whereby a row of attached dwellings share side walls. In the United State ...
is prevalent. The Regency style was so popular and influential that it persisted much longer than in other places,
while
Gothic Revival architecture
Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an Architectural style, architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th cent ...
is almost absent in secular buildings—although the style was popular for 19th-century churches, of which the city has a large, high-quality range.
Building materials
Bungaroosh, a low-quality composite material, was commonly used in construction in the 18th century. The material contained miscellaneous objects such as broken bricks, lumps of wood, pebbles and stone; this mixture was then
shuttered in
hydraulic lime until it hardened. Bungaroosh walls were often hidden behind stucco or mathematical tile façades, and are susceptible to water penetration.
Mathematical tiles, a similarly localised material, were designed to be laid overlapping each other, giving the appearance of brickwork.
Glazed black tiles are closely associated with Brighton,
and survive on 18th- and early 19th-century buildings such as
Royal Crescent,
Patcham Place
Patcham Place is a mansion in the ancient village of Patcham, now part of the English city of Brighton and Hove. Built in 1558 as part of the Patcham Place estate, it was owned for many years by Anthony Stapley, one of the signatories of King ...
and
the shop at 9 Pool Valley.
Other colours of tile are occasionally seen, such as cream (in the East Cliff area)
and honey (commonly used by
Henry Holland, including on his design for the original
Marine Pavilion).
The tiles gave bungaroosh buildings an expensive-looking façade
and were easier to work with than bricks.
Rendered
stucco façades "are a defining characteristic of Brighton and Hove's historic core".
Stucco gave the appearance of stone, left a smooth finish and could be worked into intricate patterns on mouldings, capitals,
architraves and other embellishments. It was used prominently on long, continuous terraces of houses, such as in the Brunswick and Kemp Town estates.
Rustication was sometimes used, especially at ground-floor level.
Typical decorative mouldings include standard features of Classical architecture such as columns of various
orders,
pilaster
In classical architecture, a pilaster is an architectural element used to give the appearance of a supporting column and to articulate an extent of wall, with only an ornamental function. It consists of a flat surface raised from the main wal ...
s,
parapet
A parapet is a barrier that is an extension of the wall at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony, walkway or other structure. The word comes ultimately from the Italian ''parapetto'' (''parare'' 'to cover/defend' and ''petto'' 'chest/breast'). ...
s,
cornices and capitals.
Stucco façades were not always well-regarded: writing in 1940,
Louis Francis Salzman
Louis Francis Salzman (26 March 1878 – 4 April 1971) was a British economic history, economic historian who specialised in the medieval period.
He was born in Brighton in 1878, the son of Dr. F. W. Salzmann, and educated at Haileybury College ...
considered that stucco "hides what architectural features
he buildingsmay possess and produces dull uniformity, entirely lacking in character".
Brick buildings are common throughout the area. Pale
gault brick is characteristic of some mid-19th-century residential developments, such as the area around Grand Avenue in Hove and the Valley Gardens area of Brighton (both
conservation areas). Later in that century, smooth red brickwork became more common. Yellowish
stock bricks were popular in the 19th century for non-residential buildings and walls which were not readily visible. Different coloured bricks, such as brown and grey-blue, were often used in
quoins
Quoins ( or ) are masonry blocks at the corner of a wall. Some are structural, providing strength for a wall made with inferior stone or rubble, while others merely add aesthetic detail to a corner. According to one 19th century encyclopedia, t ...
and dressings on walls made of flint or red bricks.
The layout of brickwork "has a significant effect on a building's appearance"; the Flemish bond pattern is encountered most frequently in the city.
On Victorian and Edwardian houses, brick chimney-stacks often served a decorative as well as a functional purpose, and were sometimes tall and ornate:
examples include the
Queen Anne-style
The Queen Anne style of British architecture refers to either the English Baroque architecture of the time of Queen Anne (who reigned from 1702 to 1714) or the British Queen Anne Revival form that became popular during the last quarter of the ...
houses at 8–11 Grand Avenue, Hove (1900–03, by Amos Faulkner).
Stone was rarely used as a building material, as it was not prevalent locally. Some churches and banks of the 19th and early 20th centuries were built of
Bath or
Portland
Portland most commonly refers to:
* Portland, Oregon, the largest city in the state of Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States
* Portland, Maine, the largest city in the state of Maine, in the New England region of the northeas ...
stone, and
Kentish ragstone was used for
St Joseph's Church on
Elm Grove, but few ordinary residential or commercial buildings have any stonework.
Artificial stone was sometimes used for exterior features such as
cornices and columns, though, especially during the Victorian era.
Flint
Flint, occasionally flintstone, is a sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as the variety of chert that occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Flint was widely used historically to make stone tools and sta ...
was historically a common building material as it was "always readily available in Hove, Portslade, West Blatchington and Hangleton". Agricultural buildings and cottages used random (
unknapped) flintwork extensively, as did all four parishes' ancient churches
and others further east such as
Ovingdean
Ovingdean is a small, formerly agricultural, village in the east of Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, England.
Overview
It was absorbed into the administrative borough of Brighton, East Sussex, England in 1928, and now forms part of the city of ...
and
Rottingdean
Rottingdean is a village in the city of Brighton and Hove, on the south coast of England. It borders the villages of Saltdean, Ovingdean and Woodingdean, and has a historic centre, often the subject of picture postcards.
Name
The name Rotting ...
. Flints were collected from the beach and the
South Downs
The South Downs are a range of chalk hills that extends for about across the south-eastern coastal counties of England from the Itchen valley of Hampshire in the west to Beachy Head, in the Eastbourne Downland Estate, East Sussex, in the eas ...
or dug out of the fields, where they were often found near the surface. A flint pit survived at Southern Cross near Portslade until the 20th century.
It became popular again as a building material in the early 19th century, by which time several styles of flintwork had developed: rounded pebbles in seafront buildings, whole flints in rural cottages and agricultural buildings,
knapped (split) flints, and random flintwork with brick dressings.
The use of stone or brick quoins and dressings on flint walls, necessary for structural reasons, enhances the appearance of such buildings, "sometimes to great decorative effect".
Knapped flint was used particularly in farmhouses in nearby villages which later became part of the urban area: Court House and Down House in Rottingdean, Home Farmhouse in
Withdean
Withdean is a former village, now part of Brighton and Hove, East Sussex.
Overview
The area was originally named in the 12th century, when it was called Wictedene. The area was historically farm land but has been developed, mainly in the 1920s ...
, Southdown House in Patcham and several houses in
Ovingdean
Ovingdean is a small, formerly agricultural, village in the east of Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, England.
Overview
It was absorbed into the administrative borough of Brighton, East Sussex, England in 1928, and now forms part of the city of ...
and
Stanmer
Stanmer is a small village on the eastern outskirts of Brighton, in East Sussex, England.
History
The etymological root of the name is "Stony Mere", Old English for "stone pond", referring to the sarsen stones around Stanmer village pond. The ...
have them.
The
Sussex dialect includes specialist words for types of flint: the irregular joints between randomly laid knapped flints are "snail-creeps", and rounded pebbles are "pitchers".
An old "Brighton Vernacular" style has been identified: small cottages with cobblestone walls laid in
courses, whose windows and doors were edged with red brickwork. Many examples of this style were demolished during the mid 20th-century slum clearance programmes.
Weatherboarding
Clapboard (), also called bevel siding, lap siding, and weatherboard, with regional variation in the definition of these terms, is wooden siding of a building in the form of horizontal boards, often overlapping.
''Clapboard'' in modern Americ ...
is uncommon, but there are several examples at Stanmer and Patcham (barns and cottages) and in Meeting House Lane in The Lanes.
Nearby, 37a Duke Street—the oldest building on that road—is a "remarkable" late 18th-century house with a façade of painted wooden blocks imitating stonework.
Timber framing
Timber framing (german: Holzfachwerk) and "post-and-beam" construction are traditional methods of building with heavy timbers, creating structures using squared-off and carefully fitted and joined timbers with joints secured by large wooden ...
is also rare in the city, but modern
self-build
Self-build is the creation of an individual home for oneself through a variety of methods. The self-builder's input into this process varies from doing the actual construction to contracting the work to an architect or building package company.
...
schemes at Sea Saw Way,
Whitehawk
Whitehawk is a suburb in the east of Brighton, England, south of Bevendean and north of Brighton Marina. The area is a large, modern housing estate built in a downland dry valley historically known as Whitehawk Bottom. The estate was original ...
(1993) and Hogs Edge,
Bevendean
Bevendean is a district of the city of Brighton and Hove, in East Sussex, England.
The estate lies to the north-east of central Brighton, and was largely developed after World War II with a mixture of council housing and private development. ...
(1997–2000) feature this structural system. The latter development was built according to
Walter Segal's self-build methods and has sustainable features including recycled paper insulation.
Waste House, a conceptual
sustainable building within the
University of Brighton Faculty of Arts
Founded as the Brighton School of Art in 1859, the University of Brighton School of Art and Media is an organisational part of the University of Brighton, with courses in the creative arts, visual communication, media, craft and fashion and textil ...
campus in central Brighton, was built between 2012 and 2014. Nearly 90% of its materials—from the timber-framed structure (made of reclaimed wood from building sites) and exterior walls formed of waste chalk and clay to the household-rubbish insulation (VHS cassettes, toothbrushes and denim offcuts)—were destined for landfill. The project, which has won several architectural awards, attempts to show how unwanted materials can be used to create a viable and energy-efficient building.
Concrete and steel framing became common in the 20th century: examples include the new Hove Town Hall, Brighton's police station and courthouse, and the original Churchill Square shopping centre.
Amex House, a
corporate headquarters in the
Carlton Hill area, was the first building in Britain to use
glass-reinforced plastic.
The
New England Quarter
The New England Quarter is a mixed-use development in the city of Brighton and Hove, England. It was built between 2004 and 2008 on the largest brownfield site in the city, adjacent to Brighton railway station. Most parts of the scheme have b ...
, an early 21st-century
mixed-use development, has many buildings clad in an elastomeric render with timber cladding and large areas of glass.
Structural and decorative features
Many of the city's old buildings have "butterfly roofs"—double-pitched, with a central depression between the slopes.
The oldest roofs tended to be laid with handmade clay tiles; slate tiles and mass-produced clay tiles were popular later.
Elaborately decorated
gable
A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesth ...
s characterise the roofs of many houses and villas of the Victorian and Edwardian eras, especially in suburban areas. These are usually steep and triangular: curved and shaped gables are uncommon in the area. Stucco, plaster,
weatherboarding
Clapboard (), also called bevel siding, lap siding, and weatherboard, with regional variation in the definition of these terms, is wooden siding of a building in the form of horizontal boards, often overlapping.
''Clapboard'' in modern Americ ...
and woodwork were often used to decorate the face of the gable.
Bow or
bay window
A bay window is a window space projecting outward from the main walls of a building and forming a bay in a room.
Types
Bay window is a generic term for all protruding window constructions, regardless of whether they are curved or angular, or ...
s were the "chief architectural feature" of Brighton's early houses.
Vertical sliding timber-framed
sash windows with
glazing bars were usually inserted into these, although
casements were sometimes used—typically on the oldest or most modest buildings. Casements would sometimes be given glazing bars as well. Such bars were usually slim and had
mouldings in various patterns. The combination of partly recessed sashes and bow windows is characteristic of Brighton's Regency-era residential developments.
The
Queen Anne Revival-style housing popular in Hove in the late 19th century
had its own window pattern: two-part sashes with many panes on the upper section, separated by wider glazing bars than those used in earlier years.
Casement windows were popular on interwar
Tudor Revival
Tudor Revival architecture (also known as mock Tudor in the UK) first manifested itself in domestic architecture in the United Kingdom in the latter half of the 19th century. Based on revival of aspects that were perceived as Tudor architecture ...
houses,
as at Woodland Drive (a conservation area) in
West Blatchington
West Blatchington is an area in Hove, East Sussex, England.
The area grew rapidly in the inter-war period, but unlike nearby Hangleton it had more infrastructure, with St Peter's Church, a working farm, a windmill and an industrial area gro ...
;
and steel-framed
Crittall windows are found in interwar Modernist buildings such as
Embassy Court and the
Moderne-style mansion flats at 4 Grand Avenue, Hove.
Elaborate
doorcases and
porticos with
Classical-style details are seen on many 19th-century houses, especially those built in the
Regency era
The Regency era of British history officially spanned the years 1811 to 1820, though the term is commonly applied to the longer period between and 1837. King George III succumbed to mental illness in late 1810 and, by the Regency Act 1811, h ...
. A typical form consisted of two columns with decorative
mouldings, an
entablature and a straight roof, all stuccoed, supporting a
cast-iron
Cast iron is a class of iron–carbon alloys with a carbon content more than 2%. Its usefulness derives from its relatively low melting temperature. The alloy constituents affect its color when fractured: white cast iron has carbide impuriti ...
balcony.
Suburban villas often feature brick and timber porches with gabled tiled roofs.
In central areas, many old houses have been converted into shops and have lost their original doorways in favour of glazed shopfronts.
Balconies and canopied
veranda
A veranda or verandah is a roofed, open-air gallery or porch, attached to the outside of a building. A veranda is often partly enclosed by a railing and frequently extends across the front and sides of the structure.
Although the form ''vera ...
s are often seen on larger Regency- and Victorian-era houses in central Brighton and Hove. Typically at first-floor level, made of
Portland stone or lead-coated timber and surrounded by cast iron railings with elaborate patterns, they sometimes span entire terraces of houses. They were provided to extend the living space of the drawing room, considered the most important room in the house for socialising during that era; accordingly they extended some way beyond the ground floor. Many terraces and squares faced central gardens or the sea, so balconies would give uninterrupted views of these.
Queen Anne Revival and Arts and Crafts-style villas of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, especially in Hove and around
Preston Park, featured wooden balconies with simple
balustrades
A baluster is an upright support, often a vertical moulded shaft, square, or lathe-turned form found in stairways, parapets, and other architectural features. In furniture construction it is known as a spindle. Common materials used in its con ...
formed of upright timbers.
Mouldings of various types were common external decorative features in the 18th and 19th centuries, especially on Regency-style buildings. Many structural elements would typically feature moulded stucco work—
pilaster
In classical architecture, a pilaster is an architectural element used to give the appearance of a supporting column and to articulate an extent of wall, with only an ornamental function. It consists of a flat surface raised from the main wal ...
s,
entablatures,
pediment
Pediments are gables, usually of a triangular shape.
Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the lintel, or entablature, if supported by columns. Pediments can contain an overdoor and are usually topped by hood moulds.
A pedim ...
s,
brackets
A bracket is either of two tall fore- or back-facing punctuation marks commonly used to isolate a segment of text or data from its surroundings. Typically deployed in symmetric pairs, an individual bracket may be identified as a 'left' or ' ...
and
courses—while other mouldings would be merely decorative. Typical designs included shells, foliage (especially on
capitals) and
vermiculation
Vermiculation is a surface pattern of dense but irregular lines, so called from the Latin ''vermiculus'' meaning "little worm" because the shapes resemble worms, worm-casts, or worm tracks in mud or wet sand. The word may be used in a number of ...
. The
Ammonite Order is a
Classical order found almost exclusively in Brighton and Hove, consisting of
fluted
Fluting may refer to:
*Fluting (architecture)
* Fluting (firearms)
* Fluting (geology)
* Fluting (glacial)
*Fluting (paper)
Arts, entertainment, and media
*Fluting on the Hump
''Fluting on the Hump'' is the first album by avant-garde band Kin ...
columns topped by capitals whose
volute
A volute is a spiral, scroll-like ornament that forms the basis of the Ionic order, found in the capital of the Ionic column. It was later incorporated into Corinthian order and Composite column capitals. Four are normally to be found on an Ion ...
s are shaped like
ammonite fossils. Architect
Amon Henry Wilds
Amon Henry Wilds (1784 or 1790 – 13 July 1857) was an English architect. He was part of a team of three architects and builders who—working together or independently at different times—were almost solely responsible for a surge in resid ...
used them extensively. Pilasters and columns of the
Corinthian order are also common. Victorian and Edwardian buildings made use of intricately moulded courses and bracketed
eaves.
Elaborate carved
relief
Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term '' relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that th ...
s are found on some of
John Leopold Denman
John Leopold Denman (15 November 1882 – 5 June 1975) was an architect from the English seaside resort of Brighton, now part of the city of Brighton and Hove. He had a prolific career in the area during the 20th century, both on his own and ...
's buildings of the 1930s as a result of his collaboration with sculptor
Joseph Cribb. In central Brighton,
20–22 Marlborough Place has a series of reliefs showing workers in the building trade,
and 2–3 Pavilion Buildings have
Portland stone capitals with scallops and
seahorse
A seahorse (also written ''sea-horse'' and ''sea horse'') is any of 46 species of small marine fish in the genus ''Hippocampus''. "Hippocampus" comes from the Ancient Greek (), itself from () meaning "horse" and () meaning "sea monster" or " ...
s.
Terracotta
Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; ; ), in its material sense as an earthenware substrate, is a clay-based unglazed or glazed ceramic where the fired body is porous.
In applied art, craft, construction, and architecture, terracotta ...
was popular in the Victorian and Edwardian eras as an external decorative element, as was yellowish
faience
Faience or faïence (; ) is the general English language term for fine tin-glazed pottery. The invention of a white pottery glaze suitable for painted decoration, by the addition of an oxide of tin to the slip of a lead glaze, was a major a ...
earthenware. They were commonly used to top off a structure such as a wall or roof, in the form of
finials, urns and caps. Carved terracotta panels were also used to decorate façades, especially below windows:
the former Hove Hospital (now Tennyson Court) has prominent examples of this.
Basements are a very common feature of houses in Hove: it was customary for servants to live in them in the Victorian and Edwardian era. According to a Hove Council survey in 1954, 2,573 houses were built with basements.
Types
Residential architecture
Brighton's earliest
council house
A council house is a form of British public housing built by local authorities. A council estate is a building complex containing a number of council houses and other amenities like schools and shops. Construction took place mainly from 1919 ...
s date from the 19th century. Two landowners donated land around the present St Helen's Road in 1897, and simple
polychromatic
Polychrome is the "practice of decorating architectural elements, sculpture, etc., in a variety of colors." The term is used to refer to certain styles of architecture, pottery or sculpture in multiple colors.
Ancient Egypt
Colossal statu ...
brick cottages were built to commemorate
Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee
The Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria was officially celebrated on 22 June 1897 to mark the occasion of the 60th anniversary of Queen Victoria's accession on 20 June 1837. Queen Victoria was the first British monarch ever to celebrate a Diamond ...
.
Much council building took place in the 1960s and 1970s, often in the form of tower blocks.
In Hove, the Conway Redevelopment Scheme lasted from April 1966 until July 1967. Hundreds of slum houses were replaced by five towers with between 54 and 72 flats each; the ten-storey Conway Court is the tallest. Dark red and buff brickwork, small areas of blue plastic panelling and recessed balconies characterise the buildings.
About £2 million was spent.
In 1976–77, old council houses in the Ingram Crescent area off Portland Road were replaced by low-rise flats in a modern style with varied architectural features such as
weatherboarding
Clapboard (), also called bevel siding, lap siding, and weatherboard, with regional variation in the definition of these terms, is wooden siding of a building in the form of horizontal boards, often overlapping.
''Clapboard'' in modern Americ ...
-style timber, dark brickwork and catslide roofs.
The first council houses built in the city since the 1980s were completed in 2013. In July 2010 the council announced plans to demolish Ainsworth House, a 1960s low-rise block in the
Elm Grove area, and build a higher-density high-rise "family complex".
Planning permission
Planning permission or developmental approval refers to the approval needed for construction or expansion (including significant renovation), and sometimes for demolition, in some jurisdictions. It is usually given in the form of a building per ...
was granted in April 2011, and the 15-home development called Balchin Court was opened in September 2013.
In November 2011
squatters
Squatting is the action of occupying an abandoned or unoccupied area of land or a building, usually residential, that the squatter does not own, rent or otherwise have lawful permission to use. The United Nations estimated in 2003 that there ...
had occupied Ainsworth House, which was in a dangerous condition because it contained
asbestos.
In February 2016 work started on a larger development of council flats on the site of the old Whitehawk Library. Kite Place, a block of 57 flats, was finished in January 2018, at which time it was reported another 29-unit block was under construction nearby.
The shortage of building materials caused by the First World War prompted the government to seek alternatives. Hundreds of
prefabricated home
Prefabricated homes, often referred to as prefab homes or simply prefabs, are specialist dwelling types of prefabricated building, which are manufactured off-site in advance, usually in standard sections that can be easily shipped and assembled. ...
s were built, especially on the outskirts of the urban area,
but more innovative were the two all-metal houses built in 1923 on the Pankhurst estate. The government paid half the cost of construction of the "Weir Steel Homes". They were demolished in 1969.
In 1934, the New Zealand-based architecture firm Connell, Ward and Lucas built three
Cubist
Cubism is an early-20th-century avant-garde art movement that revolutionized European painting and sculpture, and inspired related movements in music, literature and architecture. In Cubist artwork, objects are analyzed, broken up and reassemble ...
houses on a hillside site on the
Saltdean
Saltdean is a coastal village in the city of Brighton and Hove, with part (known as East Saltdean) outside the city boundary in Lewes district. Saltdean is approximately east of central Brighton, west of Newhaven, and south of Lewes. It is ...
estate—among the earliest buildings of that style in Britain. More were planned, in an attempt to demonstrate that the design could work on a large scale; but no more were built, although some later houses in the area adopted elements of the style. Two of the three "iconoclast machines for living", as they were called in 1987, survive in much-altered form,
"forlorn among their conformist brothers and sisters". The starkly white-painted cubes were originally sold for £550.
The fields around the ancient village of Hove were owned by a few large landholders, whose gradual release of land for development in the 19th and early 20th centuries contributed to the town's distinctive pattern of growth: individual architects or firms designed small estates with a homogeneous overall style but with much variation between them.
The Wick Estate's land was transformed between the 1820s and 1860s into the
Brunswick Town estate, consisting of grand
Regency
A regent (from Latin : ruling, governing) is a person appointed to govern a state '' pro tempore'' (Latin: 'for the time being') because the monarch is a minor, absent, incapacitated or unable to discharge the powers and duties of the monarchy ...
/
Classical-style squares and crescents of houses, with smaller versions in grid-pattern side streets.
Next came the Cliftonville estate, which filled the gap between Brunswick Town and Brighton. Two-storey semi-detached
stuccoed villas in the
Italianate style
The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style drew its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italian R ...
, often with
canted bay window
A bay window is a window space projecting outward from the main walls of a building and forming a bay in a room.
Types
Bay window is a generic term for all protruding window constructions, regardless of whether they are curved or angular, or ...
s, characterised the early part of the estate—the long north–south roads between Church Road and the seafront.
Cliftonville (now Hove) railway station opened to the north in 1865, stimulating further development in a similar style. A railway architect,
F.D. Banister, designed most of Cliftonville,
including number 42 Medina Villas (his own home during the 1850s) and three surrounding houses, whose
Jacobethan red-brick exteriors and curved gables contrast with the surrounding villas.
The West Brighton estate's rapid development began in 1872 on land bought from the Stanford family, the area's largest landholders. Until the Stanford Estate
Act of Parliament
Acts of Parliament, sometimes referred to as primary legislation, are texts of law passed by the Legislature, legislative body of a jurisdiction (often a parliament or council). In most countries with a parliamentary system of government, acts of ...
was passed in 1871, no houses could be built on the land, despite tremendous pressure for growth; within 12 years, were developed and Hove's housing stock had trebled.
Sir James Knowles and
Henry Jones Lanchester were the principal architects, and
William Willett
William Willett (10 August 1856 – 4 March 1915) was a British builder and a promoter of British Summer Time.
Biography
Willett was born in Farnham, Surrey, and educated at the Philological School. After some commercial experience, he ente ...
built the houses to a high standard.
Many flats and mansion blocks were built in Brighton, Hove and Portslade in the interwar and immediate postwar periods. St Richard's Flats (mid-1930s, by
Denman and Son), "cottagey and jazzy at the same time", are stuccoed with wooden balconies and a clay-tiled roof. King George VI Mansions at
West Blatchington
West Blatchington is an area in Hove, East Sussex, England.
The area grew rapidly in the inter-war period, but unlike nearby Hangleton it had more infrastructure, with St Peter's Church, a working farm, a windmill and an industrial area gro ...
consist of three long groups of three-storey brick and tile terraces forming a quadrangle around an area of open space; designed by T. Garratt and Sons in the "
Vernacular Revival" style, they are little changed since their construction. Wick Hall (1936) and Furze Croft (1937, by Toms and Partners) occupy the old gardens of the original Wick Hall mansion. Their "elegant" form and high quality makes them "well-respected local landmark
. Furze Croft retains its
Crittall steel windows and is characteristic of the 1930s
Moderne style.
Courtenay Gate occupies a prime site on Hove seafront; designed in 1934, it rises to seven storeys and has good architectural detail. In The Drive in Hove, numbers 20 and 22 are brick- and stone-built flats which enhance the streetscape of this important residential road; number 22 was "designed to resemble a castle".
John Leopold Denman
John Leopold Denman (15 November 1882 – 5 June 1975) was an architect from the English seaside resort of Brighton, now part of the city of Brighton and Hove. He had a prolific career in the area during the 20th century, both on his own and ...
's Harewood Court (1950s), built for the Royal Masonic Benevolent Institution, is a seven-storey brick-built block in the
Art Deco
Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...
style.
Nearby, at the junction of The Drive and Cromwell Road, Eaton Manor dates from 1968–72, rises to eight storeys and contains over 100 flats. It is described on the local list as "handsome ... well articulated ...
ndan excellent example of the type".
For many years, convalescent homes and similar institutions have taken advantage of the mild climate and sea air. The
Convalescent Police Seaside Home in Hove was Britain's first when it opened in 1890 in a house in Clarendon Villas. Almost immediately, architect J.G. Gibbins was engaged to design a purpose-built home on land nearby. This plot on Portland Road was in "a charming position,
..open to the sea" at the time.
William Willett
William Willett (10 August 1856 – 4 March 1915) was a British builder and a promoter of British Summer Time.
Biography
Willett was born in Farnham, Surrey, and educated at the Philological School. After some commercial experience, he ente ...
erected the building, which opened in July 1893. The red-brick home has
gable
A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesth ...
d roofs, substantial chimney-stacks and a visually prominent entrance, and is a dominant presence on Portland Road.
The home moved to Kingsway in 1966, and East Sussex County Council converted the old building into the Portland House Nursing Home.
The French government paid for a large home to be built on the cliffs at
Black Rock in 1895–98. The
château
A château (; plural: châteaux) is a manor house or residence of the lord of the manor, or a fine country house of nobility or gentry, with or without fortifications, originally, and still most frequently, in French-speaking regions.
Now ...
-like
French Convalescent Home was converted into flats in 1999, but retains its slate
mansard-roofed corner pavilions, gabled entrance and garden-facing colonnade. The
French Renaissance Revival style chosen by architects
Clayton & Black
Clayton & Black were a firm of architects and surveyors from Brighton, part of the English city of Brighton and Hove. In a career spanning the Victorian, Edwardian and interwar eras, they were responsible for designing and constructing an eclec ...
contrasts with surrounding seafront developments.
St Dunstan's, a charity which looks after blind former members of the Armed Forces, is based at
Ovingdean
Ovingdean is a small, formerly agricultural, village in the east of Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, England.
Overview
It was absorbed into the administrative borough of Brighton, East Sussex, England in 1928, and now forms part of the city of ...
, and its rest and rehabilitation home is based on a prominent downland site overlooking the
coast road. The Burnet, Tait and Lorne Partnership's
International
International is an adjective (also used as a noun) meaning "between nations".
International may also refer to:
Music Albums
* ''International'' (Kevin Michael album), 2011
* ''International'' (New Order album), 2002
* ''International'' (The T ...
Modern
Modern may refer to:
History
* Modern history
** Early Modern period
** Late Modern period
*** 18th century
*** 19th century
*** 20th century
** Contemporary history
* Moderns, a faction of Freemasonry that existed in the 18th century
Phil ...
steel-frame and pale brick home has a
cruciform
Cruciform is a term for physical manifestations resembling a common cross or Christian cross. The label can be extended to architectural shapes, biology, art, and design.
Cruciform architectural plan
Christian churches are commonly describe ...
plan with a symmetrical west-facing façade. Some windows are recessed, and others are flanked by brown-tiled columns. Described as "slightly reminiscent of
Charles Holden
Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English and French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''*karilaz'' (in Latin alphabet), whose meaning was " ...
's
London Underground
The London Underground (also known simply as the Underground or by its nickname the Tube) is a rapid transit system serving Greater London and some parts of the adjacent counties of Buckinghamshire, Essex and Hertfordshire in England.
The ...
stations", its shape recalls that of a biplane. A low chapel in front is topped by a Winged Victory sculpture.
On The Drive in Hove, the Grade II-listed number 55 (now flats) was a convalescent home called ''Catisfield House'' between 1939 and 1999. It was run by the Rose Elizabeth Greene Charitable Trust: Miss Greene had left the original Catisfield House (in rural Sussex) in her will to house poor women recovering from stays in hospital. It moved to Hove when larger premises were needed.
Commercial and industrial architecture
The redevelopment of Brighton's three major commercial streets—North Street, West Street and Western Road—in the 1930s means that they are now
characterised by distinctive interwar commercial buildings. Western Road has "a good run of large" department stores and other shops:
a ship-like
Art Deco
Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...
corner building by Garrett & Son (1934) incorporating
Clayton & Black
Clayton & Black were a firm of architects and surveyors from Brighton, part of the English city of Brighton and Hove. In a career spanning the Victorian, Edwardian and interwar eras, they were responsible for designing and constructing an eclec ...
's Imperial Arcade (1924), the
Moderne former Wade's (now New Look) and Woolworth's stores (1928), the British Home Stores (1931 by Garrett & Son; now
Primark
Primark Stores Limited (; trading as Penneys in the Republic of Ireland) is an Irish multinational fast fashion retailer with headquarters in Dublin, Ireland. It has stores across Europe and in the United States. The Penneys brand is not us ...
) and the Stafford's hardware shop (1930; now Poundland) in
American-influenced and
Continental European-influenced versions of the
Classical style
Classical architecture usually denotes architecture which is more or less consciously derived from the principles of Greek and Roman architecture of classical antiquity, or sometimes even more specifically, from the works of the Roman architect V ...
and both decorated with elaborate motifs, and the "unusually palatial"
Neoclassical Boots the Chemist (1927–28; now McDonald's).
Covering the block between Dean and Spring Streets, its stone façade has four evenly spaced
Ionic columns
The Ionic order is one of the three canonic orders of classical architecture, the other two being the Doric and the Corinthian. There are two lesser orders: the Tuscan (a plainer Doric), and the rich variant of Corinthian called the composite ...
in the centre of the upper storey—originally a restaurant and tearoom which featured regular orchestral performances.
Mitre House is a monolithic red-brick and stone structure dating from 1935. Now housing miscellaneous shops at ground-floor level, it originally incorporated the south coast's largest branch of
International Stores
International Tea Co. Stores was a leading chain of grocers based in London. It was an original constituent of the FT 30 index of leading companies listed on the London Stock Exchange.
History
The business was founded in 1878 by Hudson Kearley ...
, a car showroom and Brighton's branch of
W H Smith
WHSmith (also written WH Smith, and known colloquially as Smith's and formerly as W. H. Smith & Son) is a British retailer, headquartered in Swindon, England, which operates a chain of high street, railway station, airport, port, hospital and ...
below its five storeys of flats. It replaced the 19th-century premises of
Le Bon Marché
Le Bon Marché (lit. "the good market", or "the good deal" in French; ) is a department store in Paris. Founded in 1838 and revamped almost completely by Aristide Boucicaut in 1852, it was one of the first modern department stores. It was ...
, which after closure in 1926 were acquired by Brighton Corporation to house shops whose premises had been compulsorily purchased.
Older buildings survive on the south side, including two Classical-style bank branches—
Thomas Bostock Whinney's
Doric-columned Classical-style
Bath stone Midland Bank (1905; now HSBC) and Palmer & Holden's heavily rusticated National Westminster Bank of 1925, with large arched windows flanked by pilasters and a prominent balustrade on the parapet.
The north side of North Street became the centre for bank and office buildings, though.
Survivors include
Denman & Son's "sombre Classical" Barclays Bank branch (1957–59), a very late use of that style,
the
Modernist
Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...
/
Brutalist Prudential Buildings (1967–69, by the Prudential's in-house architect K.C. Wintle),
originally that company's headquarters but now shops and a hotel;
another
Thomas Bostock Whinney-designed Midland Bank branch, built in 1902 with a colonnade of
Tuscan columns and a balustrade at the top, typical of the
Edwardian era
The Edwardian era or Edwardian period of British history spanned the reign of King Edward VII, 1901 to 1910 and is sometimes extended to the start of the First World War. The death of Queen Victoria in January 1901 marked the end of the Victor ...
;
and
the former National Provincial Bank branch by Clayton & Black and F.C.R. Palmer (1921–23; now a Wetherspoons pub), with intricate carving and use of detail throughout the
Louis XVI-style Neoclassical stone façade.
Nearby at
163 North Street is "the ''chef d'œuvre'' of
Clayton & Black
Clayton & Black were a firm of architects and surveyors from Brighton, part of the English city of Brighton and Hove. In a career spanning the Victorian, Edwardian and interwar eras, they were responsible for designing and constructing an eclec ...
, an ebullient essay in
Edwardian Baroque
Edwardian architecture is a Neo-Baroque architectural style that was popular in the British Empire during the Edwardian era (1901–1910). Architecture up to the year 1914 may also be included in this style.
Description
Edwardian architecture is ...
", which they built in 1904 for an insurance company.
The Boots store which replaced the
Regent Cinema in 1974 had a "sculptural quality" because of the way its steel frame projected beyond the glazed
curtain walls. Derek Sharp of Comprehensive Design Group undertook the work, but it the building was re-clad and redesigned in 1998, losing the original impact.
Waterstones
Waterstones, formerly Waterstone's, is a British book retailer that operates 311 shops, mainly in the United Kingdom and also other nearby countries. As of February 2014, it employs around 3,500 staff in the UK and Europe. An average-sized Wa ...
bookshop opposite, designed for
Burtons in 1928 by their in-house architect Harry Wilson, has a Classical theme with full-height
pilaster
In classical architecture, a pilaster is an architectural element used to give the appearance of a supporting column and to articulate an extent of wall, with only an ornamental function. It consists of a flat surface raised from the main wal ...
s.
Several financial services companies made Hove their base in the late 20th century. The Sussex Mutual Building Society's new head office on Western Road (1975), called "one of the finest new office buildings in the locality" in contemporary reports, is a well-lit slate-roofed building with a glazed clay mosaic mural depicting scenes from Sussex, designed by Philippa Threlfall.
The Alliance Building Society's three-storey steel-framed head office building at Hove Park was designed in the 1960s by Jackson, Greenen and Down, who gained the commission at the end of a competition started in 1956. It had strong horizontal lines offset by granite columns and tall, narrow steel-framed windows.
On its opening in 1967, it was anticipated to be "a great contribution to the architectural thought of the 20th century"; but by the 1980s it was derided as a "carbuncle" and a "white elephant", its stark Modernist form having dated badly. The merged and greatly enlarged
Alliance & Leicester
Alliance & Leicester plc was a British bank and former building society, formed by the merger in 1985 of the Alliance Building Society and the Leicester Building Society. The business demutualised in the middle of 1997, when it was floated o ...
Building Society moved out in 1994 and the building was knocked down in 2001. David Richmond and Partners' £65 million "City Park" scheme, consisting of houses and three curved-roofed office blocks rising to four storeys, replaced it.
The
Legal & General
Legal & General Group plc, commonly known as Legal & General, is a British multinational financial services and asset management company headquartered in London, England. Its products and services include investment management, lifetime mortg ...
insurance company moved there from their earlier home at the former Hanningtons furniture depository on Montefiore Road (now the
Montefiore Hospital); architects Devereux and Partners had "elegantly converted" this 1904 building for its new purpose in 1972.
High-tech offices of the 21st century include Exion 27 (built in 2001 by the Howard Cavanna consultancy), now used by the
University of Brighton
The University of Brighton is a public university based on four campuses in Brighton and Eastbourne on the south coast of England. Its roots can be traced back to 1858 when the Brighton School of Art was opened in the Royal Pavilion. It achiev ...
.
The exterior is panelled with aluminium cladding and has extensive areas of tinted glass. Structurally, the building is steel-framed with steel and concrete floors and a large
brise soleil.
The "imposing" building was the city's first ultramodern commercial property and was intended for mixed commercial and industrial use, but its completion coincided with a slump in demand for high-tech premises.
Brighton's first large-scale industry was the railway works, established next to the railway station in 1842. Several extensions were built as demand grew for locomotive manufacture and repair: in 1889, the buildings had to be extended on iron
piers across the floor of the steeply sloping valley.
After closure in 1957, some of the buildings were converted into a
bubble car
Microcar is a term often used for the smallest size of cars, with three or four wheels and often an engine smaller than . Specific types of microcars include bubble cars, cycle cars, invacar, quadricycles and voiturettes. Microcars are oft ...
factory, which made 30,000 three-wheeled
Isetta
The Isetta is an Italian-designed microcar built under license in a number of different countries, including Argentina, Spain, Belgium, France, Brazil, Germany, and the United Kingdom. Because of its egg shape and bubble-like windows, it became k ...
s in the next seven years.
The whole site was cleared between 1962 and 1969, and the mixed-use
New England Quarter
The New England Quarter is a mixed-use development in the city of Brighton and Hove, England. It was built between 2004 and 2008 on the largest brownfield site in the city, adjacent to Brighton railway station. Most parts of the scheme have b ...
now covers the area.
(The LBSCR also established a railway mission chapel for employees of the locomotive works; the flint-built Gothic Revival-style building on Viaduct Road is still in religious use, having been taken over by an Evangelical group.)
The
British Engineerium
The British Engineerium (formerly Brighton and Hove Engineerium) is an engineering and steam power museum in Hove, East Sussex. It is housed in the Goldstone Pumping Station, a set of High Victorian Gothic buildings started in 1866. The Goldst ...
in
West Blatchington
West Blatchington is an area in Hove, East Sussex, England.
The area grew rapidly in the inter-war period, but unlike nearby Hangleton it had more infrastructure, with St Peter's Church, a working farm, a windmill and an industrial area gro ...
is a museum which occupies a mid-Victorian former water pumping station. Its bold polychromatic brickwork, symmetrical
High Victorian Gothic
High Victorian Gothic was an eclectic architectural style and movement during the mid-late 19th century. It is seen by architectural historians as either a sub-style of the broader Gothic Revival style, or a separate style in its own right.
Promo ...
engine room building, visually dominant chimney and associated structures—all of which are listed—combine to form "an unusually fine asset"
which is "a splendid example of Victorian industrial engineering".
A former brewery in the ancient village centre of
Portslade
Portslade is a western suburb of the city of Brighton and Hove, England. Portslade Village, the original settlement a mile inland to the north, was built up in the 16th century. The arrival of the railway from Brighton in 1840 encouraged rapid de ...
dominates the surrounding flint buildings. The "characterful" Classical/Italianate five-storey yellow-brick building was built in 1881 and is now in mixed industrial and commercial use.
The former Phoenix Brewery (1821) between Grand Parade and the
Hanover
Hanover (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,932 (2021) inhabitants make it the 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-largest city in Northern Germany ...
district was historically significant but architecturally modest, apart from the later brewery office and adjacent Free Butt pub. Closure came in the early 1990s, and the site was redeveloped for student housing.
Allen West & Co. Ltd, an electrical engineering company which was a major employer in northeast Brighton from 1910, built several distinctive factories on Lewes Road and the
Moulsecoomb
Moulsecoomb () is a suburb of Brighton, Sussex, England, on the northeast side around Lewes Road, between Coldean and Bevendean, north of the seafront. The eastern edge adjoins Falmer Hill on the South Downs. It is often divided into smalle ...
estate, especially in the 1940s and 1950s. Most were demolished in the 1960s and 1970s, and the large warehouses of the Fairway Trading Estate occupy the Moulsecoomb site; but the company's wide brown-brick administrative and design office, built in 1966 on Lewes Road, was sold to
Brighton Polytechnic
The University of Brighton is a public university based on four campuses in Brighton and Eastbourne on the south coast of England. Its roots can be traced back to 1858 when the Brighton School of Art was opened in the Royal Pavilion. It achiev ...
and became Mithras House.
Ecclesiastical architecture
Brighton's
parish church
A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in community activities, ...
,
dedicated to St Nicholas, dates from the 14th century,
St Andrew's Church at Hove is a century older,
and the formerly outlying villages of
Ovingdean
Ovingdean is a small, formerly agricultural, village in the east of Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, England.
Overview
It was absorbed into the administrative borough of Brighton, East Sussex, England in 1928, and now forms part of the city of ...
,
Hangleton
Hangleton is a residential suburb of Hove, part of the English city and coastal resort of Brighton and Hove. The area was developed in the 1930s after it was incorporated into the borough of Hove, but has ancient origins: its parish church was ...
,
Rottingdean
Rottingdean is a village in the city of Brighton and Hove, on the south coast of England. It borders the villages of Saltdean, Ovingdean and Woodingdean, and has a historic centre, often the subject of picture postcards.
Name
The name Rotting ...
,
West Blatchington
West Blatchington is an area in Hove, East Sussex, England.
The area grew rapidly in the inter-war period, but unlike nearby Hangleton it had more infrastructure, with St Peter's Church, a working farm, a windmill and an industrial area gro ...
and
Portslade
Portslade is a western suburb of the city of Brighton and Hove, England. Portslade Village, the original settlement a mile inland to the north, was built up in the 16th century. The arrival of the railway from Brighton in 1840 encouraged rapid de ...
have even more ancient buildings at their heart. Nevertheless, the defining characteristic of Brighton and Hove's religious architecture is the exceptional range of richly designed, landmark
Victorian churches—particularly those built for the
Anglican community.
The city's stock of such churches is one of the best outside London: this is attributable to the influence of fashionable society and the money it brought, and to the efforts of two Vicars of Brighton,
Henry Michell Wagner and his son Arthur, to endow and build new churches throughout Brighton's rapidly developing suburbs and poor districts. Both men were rich and were willing to pay for well-designed, attractive and even flamboyant buildings by well-known architects such as
Benjamin Ferrey,
Richard Cromwell Carpenter
Richard Cromwell Carpenter (21 October 1812 – 27 March 1855) was an English architect. He is chiefly remembered as an ecclesiastical and tractarian architect working in the Gothic style.
Family
Carpenter was born on 21 October 1812 in ...
and
George Frederick Bodley
George Frederick Bodley (14 March 182721 October 1907) was an English Gothic Revival architect. He was a pupil of Sir George Gilbert Scott, and worked in partnership with Thomas Garner for much of his career. He was one of the founders of Watt ...
. An early preference for the
Classical style
Classical architecture usually denotes architecture which is more or less consciously derived from the principles of Greek and Roman architecture of classical antiquity, or sometimes even more specifically, from the works of the Roman architect V ...
, as at Christ Church (now demolished) and
St John the Evangelist's at
Carlton Hill, gave way to various forms of
Gothic Revival design—principally in the starkly plain form of the gigantic
St Bartholomew's Church and the even larger
St Martin's, whose fixtures and furnishings are classed among the best in England.
However,
Charles Barry
Sir Charles Barry (23 May 1795 – 12 May 1860) was a British architect, best known for his role in the rebuilding of the Palace of Westminster (also known as the Houses of Parliament) in London during the mid-19th century, but also respons ...
's imposingly sited
St Paul's Church (1824), which began the Gothic trend,
was not commissioned by the Wagners; nor were Hove's new parish church, the Grade I-listed
All Saints (1889–91) or Cliftonville's
St Barnabas' (1882–83), both by
John Loughborough Pearson
John Loughborough Pearson (5 July 1817 – 11 December 1897) was a British Gothic Revival architect renowned for his work on churches and cathedrals. Pearson revived and practised largely the art of vaulting, and acquired in it a proficiency ...
.
St Michael and All Angels Church, built in two stages by Bodley (1858–61) and
William Burges
William Burges (; 2 December 1827 – 20 April 1881) was an English architect and designer. Among the greatest of the Victorian art-architects, he sought in his work to escape from both nineteenth-century industrialisation and the Neoc ...
(1893–95), was established by Rev. Charles Beanlands, a
curate under Arthur Wagner at St Paul's. The two parts, in different interpretations of the
Gothic Revival style
Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...
, harmonise well, and the interior (mostly by
W. H. Romaine-Walker) is one of the city's grandest.
The present
St Mary the Virgin Church is the second on the site:
Amon Henry Wilds
Amon Henry Wilds (1784 or 1790 – 13 July 1857) was an English architect. He was part of a team of three architects and builders who—working together or independently at different times—were almost solely responsible for a surge in resid ...
's Classical building collapsed during renovation and was replaced in 1877–79 by
William Emerson's "dynamic" Early English/French Gothic design—his only church in England.
Also characteristic of the Victorian era was the
rebuilding or restoration of the area's ancient churches.
Richard Cromwell Carpenter
Richard Cromwell Carpenter (21 October 1812 – 27 March 1855) was an English architect. He is chiefly remembered as an ecclesiastical and tractarian architect working in the Gothic style.
Family
Carpenter was born on 21 October 1812 in ...
rebuilt St Nicholas' Church from a ruined state in 1853–54, and
Somers Clarke
George Somers Clarke (1841–1926) was an architect and English Egyptologist who worked on the restoration and design of churches and at a number of sites throughout Egypt, notably in El Kab, where he built a house. He was born in Brighton.
A ...
did more work in 1876.
George Basevi
Elias George Basevi FRS (1 April 1794 – 16 October 1845) was a British architect who worked in both Neoclassical and Gothic Revival styles. A pupil of Sir John Soane, his designs included Belgrave Square in London, and the Fitzwilliam Mus ...
carried out an "uninspiring" neo-Norman revamp of the 13th-century St Andrew's Church in the 1830s,
James Woodman and
Ewan Christian
Ewan Christian (1814–1895) was a British architect. He is most frequently noted for the restorations of Southwell Minster and Carlisle Cathedral, and the design of the National Portrait Gallery. He was Architect to the Ecclesiastical Commiss ...
"over-restored"
St Peter's Church at
Preston Village in 1872 and 1878,
and the 11th- and 12th-century
St Peter's Church at
West Blatchington
West Blatchington is an area in Hove, East Sussex, England.
The area grew rapidly in the inter-war period, but unlike nearby Hangleton it had more infrastructure, with St Peter's Church, a working farm, a windmill and an industrial area gro ...
was initially rebuilt by
Somers Clarke
George Somers Clarke (1841–1926) was an architect and English Egyptologist who worked on the restoration and design of churches and at a number of sites throughout Egypt, notably in El Kab, where he built a house. He was born in Brighton.
A ...
in 1888–91
and comprehensively extended in 1960 in a complementary style by
John Leopold Denman
John Leopold Denman (15 November 1882 – 5 June 1975) was an architect from the English seaside resort of Brighton, now part of the city of Brighton and Hove. He had a prolific career in the area during the 20th century, both on his own and ...
.
The partly Saxon
St Wulfran's Church, Ovingdean (the city's oldest building) was altered in the 1860s, although the overwhelming impression is that of a 12th-century
Downland village church;
and similar work was carried out at
St Helen's Church in
Hangleton
Hangleton is a residential suburb of Hove, part of the English city and coastal resort of Brighton and Hove. The area was developed in the 1930s after it was incorporated into the borough of Hove, but has ancient origins: its parish church was ...
in the 1870s, which nevertheless "retains its medieval character".
Anglican churches continued to be built in the 20th century. The stripped-down
Modern Gothic of
Edward Maufe
Sir Edward Brantwood Maufe, RA, FRIBA (12 December 1882 – 12 December 1974) was an English architect and designer. He built private homes as well as commercial and institutional buildings, and is remembered chiefly for his work on places ...
's
Bishop Hannington Memorial Church
Bishop Hannington Memorial Church is an Anglicanism, Anglican church in the West Blatchington area of Hove, in the English city of Brighton and Hove. Built between 1938 and 1939, it commemorates James Hannington, first Bishop of East Equatorial ...
(1938–39), with its "simple and gracious interior", has been called "Historicism at its most simplified".
The Gothic Revival style was also used for
Edward Prioleau Warren
Edward Prioleau Warren (30 October 1856 – 23 November 1937) was a British architect and archaeologist.
Life
He was born at Cotham, Bristol, the fifth son of Algernon William Warren, JP. Sir Thomas Herbert Warren was his elder brother. He was ed ...
's
Church of the Good Shepherd (1921–22) and Lacy Ridge's St Matthias Church (1907), with its round tower and hammerbeam roof.
Harry Stuart Goodhart-Rendel
Harry Stuart Goodhart-Rendel (1887 in Cambridge – 21 June 1959 in Westminster, London) was a British architect, writer and musician.
Life
Harry Stuart Goodhart was born on 29 May 1887 in Cambridge, England. He added the additional name Rende ...
's widely praised
St Wilfrid's Church of 1932–34 (closed 1980), which embraced architectural
Eclecticism
Eclecticism is a conceptual approach that does not hold rigidly to a single paradigm or set of assumptions, but instead draws upon multiple theories, styles, or ideas to gain complementary insights into a subject, or applies different theories i ...
and
Rationalism
In philosophy, rationalism is the epistemological view that "regards reason as the chief source and test of knowledge" or "any view appealing to reason as a source of knowledge or justification".Lacey, A.R. (1996), ''A Dictionary of Philosophy ...
, used two-tone brick and reinforced concrete and had an unusual interior layout designed to make the altar highly visible.
John Betjeman said it was "about the best 1930s church there is".
Postwar churches are mostly
Modernist
Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...
in style: the Church of the Good Shepherd in
Mile Oak (1967, by M.G. Alford) has two angular roofs with six irregular vertical windows mounted between them,
and
Bevendean
Bevendean is a district of the city of Brighton and Hove, in East Sussex, England.
The estate lies to the north-east of central Brighton, and was largely developed after World War II with a mixture of council housing and private development. ...
's brick and
knapped flint
In architecture, flushwork is decorative masonry work which combines on the same flat plane flint and ashlar stone. If the stone projects from a flat flint wall then the term is proudwork, as the stone stands "proud" rather than being "flush" w ...
Church of the Holy Nativity (1963, by Reginald Melhuish) has a distinctive roof with two unequal upward slopes.
An exception is the 1950s St Mary Magdalene's Church on the
Coldean
Coldean is a suburb of the English city of Brighton and Hove. Located in the northeast corner of the urban area, it was developed by Brighton Corporation in the 1950s as one of several postwar council estates necessitated by the acute housin ...
estate, converted from an 18th-century barn in 1955 by
John Leopold Denman
John Leopold Denman (15 November 1882 – 5 June 1975) was an architect from the English seaside resort of Brighton, now part of the city of Brighton and Hove. He had a prolific career in the area during the 20th century, both on his own and ...
and still wholly
Vernacular
A vernacular or vernacular language is in contrast with a "standard language". It refers to the language or dialect that is spoken by people that are inhabiting a particular country or region. The vernacular is typically the native language, n ...
in style.
The city's 11 Roman Catholic churches range in style from the Classical
St John the Baptist's Church (1832–35) in Kemptown—with monumental
Corinthian Corinthian or Corinthians may refer to:
*Several Pauline epistles, books of the New Testament of the Bible:
**First Epistle to the Corinthians
**Second Epistle to the Corinthians
**Third Epistle to the Corinthians (Orthodox)
*A demonym relating to ...
columns and
pilaster
In classical architecture, a pilaster is an architectural element used to give the appearance of a supporting column and to articulate an extent of wall, with only an ornamental function. It consists of a flat surface raised from the main wal ...
s—to the varied Gothic Revival designs of
St Joseph,
St Mary Magdalen, the
Church of the Sacred Heart and St Mary's at Preston Park (which has some
Arts and Crafts elements).
The "startling"
Romanesque Revival
Romanesque Revival (or Neo-Romanesque) is a style of building employed beginning in the mid-19th century inspired by the 11th- and 12th-century Romanesque architecture. Unlike the historic Romanesque style, Romanesque Revival buildings tended to ...
St Peter's Church at
Aldrington
Aldrington is an area of the city of Brighton and Hove, previously part of the old borough of Hove. For centuries it was meadow land along the English Channel stretching west from the old village of Hove to the old mouth of the River Adur, and i ...
(1915) has a landmark
campanile,
while Henry Bingham Towner's design for the Church of Our Lady of Lourdes, Queen of Peace at
Rottingdean
Rottingdean is a village in the city of Brighton and Hove, on the south coast of England. It borders the villages of Saltdean, Ovingdean and Woodingdean, and has a historic centre, often the subject of picture postcards.
Name
The name Rotting ...
(1957) was a "very conservative" and simplified modern interpretation of the Gothic form.
Other postwar churches are
vernacular
A vernacular or vernacular language is in contrast with a "standard language". It refers to the language or dialect that is spoken by people that are inhabiting a particular country or region. The vernacular is typically the native language, n ...
or
Modernist
Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...
in style, such as St Thomas More Church at Patcham (1963)—distinguished by a wooden
geodesic dome
A geodesic dome is a hemispherical thin-shell structure (lattice-shell) based on a geodesic polyhedron. The triangular elements of the dome are structurally rigid and distribute the structural stress throughout the structure, making geodesic do ...
and large areas of glass.
Nonconformist churches and chapels vary in age and style.
Holland Road Baptist Church in Hove (1887, by
John Wills) is a landmark
Purbeck stone
Purbeck stone refers to building stone taken from a series of limestone beds found in the Upper Jurassic to Lower Cretaceous Purbeck Group, found on the Isle of Purbeck, Dorset in southern England. The best known variety of this stone is Purbeck ...
Transitional Gothic Revival building—a rare design for that denomination,
although the flint-built Florence Road Baptist Church near Preston Park (1894–95, by George Baines) is in the similar Early English style.
The same architect designed a smaller flint and brick chapel at Gloucester Place in 1904; its symmetrical façade was spoiled by wartime bomb damage to the miniature
flanking tower
A flanking tower is a fortified tower that is sited on the outside of a defensive wall or other fortified structure and thus forms a flank. From the defensive platform and embrasures the section of wall between them (the curtain wall) could be ...
s.
Strict Baptists meet at the starkly plain
Neoclassical Galeed Strict Baptist Chapel (1868).
Methodist
Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's ...
church designs include
Romanesque Revival
Romanesque Revival (or Neo-Romanesque) is a style of building employed beginning in the mid-19th century inspired by the 11th- and 12th-century Romanesque architecture. Unlike the historic Romanesque style, Romanesque Revival buildings tended to ...
(the Grade II-listed
Hove Methodist Church, by John Wills in 1895 and featuring a prominent
rose window),
Early English
Gothic Revival (E.J. Hamilton's 1897–98 building at Stanford Avenue in Preston Park, with stone-faced brickwork)
and
Modernist
Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...
at
Patcham
Patcham () is an area of the city of Brighton & Hove, about north of the city centre. It is bounded by the A27 (Brighton bypass) to the north, Hollingbury to the east and southeast, Withdean to the south and the Brighton Main Line to the west. ...
(1968)
and
Dorset Gardens in Kemptown (2003). Former chapels of that denomination include the Gothic Revival United Church in Hove (1904),
the
Renaissance-style church at nearby Goldstone Villas (converted into offices in 1968),
W.S. Parnacott's distinctive Gothic-style
stuccoed and
pinnacled Primitive Methodist chapel (1886) in Kemptown,
Thomas Lainson's Romanesque Revival church at nearby
Bristol Road and James Weir's Free Renaissance design of 1894 on the main London Road.
The
Brutalist Brighton and Hove National Spiritualist Church (1965) on Edward Street has a "starkly unperforated" windowless concrete exterior softened by the effect of its "sinuous" curving walls.
The headquarters of the Anglican
Diocese of Chichester
The Diocese of Chichester is a Church of England diocese based in Chichester, covering Sussex. It was founded in 681 as the ancient Diocese of Selsey, which was based at Selsey Abbey, until the see was translated to Chichester in 1075. The cath ...
are in the grounds of Aldrington House, a Victorian villa now used as a mental health support centre. The Diocese previously used two houses in Brunswick Square, but in 1995 James Longley & Co. of
Crawley constructed the new building—Church House—to the design of architect David Grey and at a cost of £670,000. It is in the Sussex
vernacular style and makes extensive use of local materials. The uppermost of the three storeys is hidden within a deep tiled roof with high-level windows. The red-brick walls have contrasting
string courses of dark blue brick.
Civic and institutional architecture
Brighton, Hove, Brunswick Town and Portslade have each had a
town hall, but only those at Hove and
Brighton are still in use and Hove's was rebuilt after a fire. Medieval Brighthelmston used a building (called the Townhouse) which was more of a market hall, and a later building (1727) known as the Town Hall was principally used as a
workhouse
In Britain, a workhouse () was an institution where those unable to support themselves financially were offered accommodation and employment. (In Scotland, they were usually known as poorhouses.) The earliest known use of the term ''workhouse' ...
.
Work on the first purpose-built town hall began in 1830;
Thomas Read Kemp
Thomas Read Kemp (23 December 1782 – 20 December 1844) was an English property developer and politician.
Life
He was the son of Sussex landowner and Member of Parliament Thomas Kemp, and his wife Anne, daughter of Henry Read of Brookland ...
laid the first stone, and Thomas Cooper designed it on behalf of the Brighton Town Commissioners (of which he was a member). Brighton Corporation spent £40,000 to extend it in 1897–99, to the design of Francis May. Its severe
Classical design, with huge
Ionic column
The Ionic order is one of the three canonic orders of classical architecture, the other two being the Doric and the Corinthian. There are two lesser orders: the Tuscan (a plainer Doric), and the rich variant of Corinthian called the composite ...
s and wide staircases, was criticised in the 19th century, and May's infilling of the
cruciform
Cruciform is a term for physical manifestations resembling a common cross or Christian cross. The label can be extended to architectural shapes, biology, art, and design.
Cruciform architectural plan
Christian churches are commonly describe ...
building's wings affected the composition's symmetry. Nevertheless,
English Heritage
English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses.
The charity states that i ...
has awarded it Grade II listed status.
Brunswick Town Hall, built on behalf of the Brunswick Square Commissioners, was the first town hall in the Hove area.
Its Classical-style stucco façade concealed stone and brickwork. It cost £3,000 and opened in 1856. The three-storey building served Brunswick Town and Hove jointly from 1873, when the Hove Commissioners moved in; but more space was needed, so leading Victorian Gothic Revival architect
Alfred Waterhouse was controversially commissioned to design a new building on a large site bought from the Stanford Estate's land.
The Brunswick building, at 64 Brunswick Street West, passed into commercial use, is now part of the
Brighton Institute of Modern Music
The British and Irish Modern Music Institute, now styled as the BIMM Institute, is a group of eight independent colleges which specialise in the provision of creative education in Brighton, Bristol, London, Dublin, Manchester, Berlin, Birmingh ...
,
and is Grade II-listed.
Waterhouse was thought by some Hove Commissioners to be too important an architect to design Hove's new town hall,
but work went ahead in 1880 and it opened in 1882. Local housebuilder J.T. Chappell executed Waterhouse's design, which was an elaborate
Renaissance Revival-style red-brick and
terracotta
Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; ; ), in its material sense as an earthenware substrate, is a clay-based unglazed or glazed ceramic where the fired body is porous.
In applied art, craft, construction, and architecture, terracotta ...
edifice with plentiful stonework and ornately
mullion
A mullion is a vertical element that forms a division between units of a window or screen, or is used decoratively. It is also often used as a division between double doors. When dividing adjacent window units its primary purpose is a rigid supp ...
ed and
transomed windows featuring
tracery
Tracery is an architectural device by which windows (or screens, panels, and vaults) are divided into sections of various proportions by stone ''bars'' or ''ribs'' of moulding. Most commonly, it refers to the stonework elements that support the ...
and coloured glass.
A prominent clock tower supplied by
Gillett & Johnston
Gillett & Johnston was a clockmaker and bell foundry based in Croydon, England from 1844 until 1957. Between 1844 and 1950, over 14,000 tower clocks were made at the works. The company's most successful and prominent period of activity as a be ...
's predecessor company Gillett & Bland rose from the roof.
The building was destroyed by fire on 9 January 1966, leaving only the west side standing. Restoration was considered, but by the 1960s Victorian architecture was considered old-fashioned and unworthy of preservation, and the remains were demolished by 1971 to make way for a replacement building.
The
Queen Anne-style
The Queen Anne style of British architecture refers to either the English Baroque architecture of the time of Queen Anne (who reigned from 1702 to 1714) or the British Queen Anne Revival form that became popular during the last quarter of the ...
Portslade Town Hall has not been used for that purpose since 1974, when Portslade Urban District became part of Hove; nevertheless part of the premises are still used by Brighton and Hove City Council.
The building was originally the Ronuk Hall and Welfare Institute—a social club and multi-purpose hall built for workers at the nearby Ronuk wax polish factory.
Gilbert Murray Simpson designed the red-brick building for the company in 1927; the first stone was laid in July of that year, and the hall opened in 1928. It was lavishly furnished and decorated with paintings by well-known artists.
Portslade Urban District Council bought the "impressive"
building for £36,500 in 1959. Its main hall has two
balustraded galleries.
Brighton's police did not have a central headquarters building until 1965: they were based in the old Town Hall, then in the basement of Thomas Cooper's new building when that was built in 1830.
Brighton Borough Engineer Percy Billington's "graceless" police headquarters
opened on 27 September 1965 on John Street in
Carlton Hill.
At 64 St James's Street in
Kemptown, an 1850s building with stone urns and a
balustrade housed an early district police station. In November 2008, a two-storey
sustainable building replaced an existing police facility in
Hollingbury
Hollingbury is an area of the city of Brighton and Hove, East Sussex. The area sits high on a hillside across the north of the city, east of Patcham which lies in a valley to the west, Coldean in a valley to the east, and the A27 bypass forming ...
.
Portslade had two police stations but neither remains in use: one at North Street existed by 1862 but was superseded by the St Andrew's Road station in 1905. This was built with stables and a hayloft at the rear for the constables' horses. The two-storey brick-built station is a "good quality, dignified"
Queen Anne Revival-style building with a gabled façade and a hipped roof of clay.
Until 1869, offenders facing court action were taken to various inns or to Brighton Town Hall. On 3 July of that year, Charles Sorby's two-storey
Tudor/
Gothic
Gothic or Gothics may refer to:
People and languages
*Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes
**Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths
**Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...
brick and
Bath stone hipped-roofed courthouse took over. It still had influences of the
Italianate style
The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style drew its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italian R ...
popular for courthouses 20 to 30 years previously.
Percy Billington designed a new law courts complex at a cost of £665,000 on a site next to the police station in Carlton Hill in 1967, and this replaced the original building on Church Street.
Billington's concrete structure, extended in 1986–89, faced the same criticism as the police station: in particular, the charge that the architecture "failed to provide civic monuments of quality".
In Hove, Holland Road has a modernist police station (1964)
and courthouse (1971–72). The latter cost £380,000 and has four courtrooms and office accommodation. Designed by
Fitzroy Robinson & Partners, the low-set, "strongly horizontal" building has a recessed lower storey and is built of brown-blue brick from Staffordshire.
The city's main fire station faces the five-road junction of Preston Circus,
near London Road viaduct. Established on the site of a brewery of 1901, the building was redesigned in 1938; Graeme Highet won the commission in competition. His plain brick exterior, curving gently round the road, combines "restrained
Modernism
Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...
" with more old-fashioned elements such as a canopied entrance and windows with prominent
architraves. Sculptor
Joseph Cribb provided carved
relief
Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term '' relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that th ...
s for the main doors.
Portslade's former fire station operated from 1909 until about 1941
and passed into commercial use in 1972.
District Surveyor A. Taylor Allen's design was built by Ernest Clevett. The "attractive-looking building" is of white brick and terracotta, and is surrounded by a wall with a multi-coloured brick
pier
Seaside pleasure pier in Brighton, England. The first seaside piers were built in England in the early 19th century.">England.html" ;"title="Brighton, England">Brighton, England. The first seaside piers were built in England in the early 19th ...
supporting a large gas lamp. There are decorative terracotta plaques and a
gable
A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesth ...
d
dormer window with terracotta
finials.
In 1914, Hove Council took responsibility for firefighting within its boundaries and immediately sought a replacement for the existing fire station of 1879 in George Street.
Clayton & Black
Clayton & Black were a firm of architects and surveyors from Brighton, part of the English city of Brighton and Hove. In a career spanning the Victorian, Edwardian and interwar eras, they were responsible for designing and constructing an eclec ...
's "elegant" new fire station on Hove Street, completed in 1929 at a cost of £11,098, was inspired by one at
Bromley
Bromley is a large town in Greater London, England, within the London Borough of Bromley. It is south-east of Charing Cross, and had an estimated population of 87,889 as of 2011.
Originally part of Kent, Bromley became a market town, c ...
—but the "charming
bellcote
A bellcote, bell-cote or bell-cot is a small framework and shelter for one or more bells. Bellcotes are most common in church architecture but are also seen on institutions such as schools. The bellcote may be carried on brackets projecting from ...
" on the roof was a reference to the nearby Hove Manor, demolished soon afterwards. The façade had a double archway. The building became redundant in 1976 and was converted into flats in 1981 by architect Denis Hawes.
Brighton's main hospitals are the
Royal Sussex County Hospital
The Royal Sussex County Hospital is an acute teaching hospital in Brighton, England. Together with the Princess Royal Hospital, it is administered by the University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust. The services provided at the hospital in ...
(RSCH) in Kemptown and the
Brighton General Hospital at the top of
Elm Grove on Race Hill. The former was built in several stages.
Charles Barry
Sir Charles Barry (23 May 1795 – 12 May 1860) was a British architect, best known for his role in the rebuilding of the Palace of Westminster (also known as the Houses of Parliament) in London during the mid-19th century, but also respons ...
's original buildings (1826–28) are
Classical and
pediment
Pediments are gables, usually of a triangular shape.
Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the lintel, or entablature, if supported by columns. Pediments can contain an overdoor and are usually topped by hood moulds.
A pedim ...
ed; William Hallett and Herbert Williams built three complementary extensions between them by 1853; Edmund Scott and F.T. Cawthorn added the similar Jubilee Building in 1887; Cawthorn built the prominently gabled Outpatients' Building in 1892;
John Leopold Denman
John Leopold Denman (15 November 1882 – 5 June 1975) was an architect from the English seaside resort of Brighton, now part of the city of Brighton and Hove. He had a prolific career in the area during the 20th century, both on his own and ...
's Eye Hospital in 1935 is in his characteristic Neo-Georgian style; and Robin Beynon's 2002–05 work on the Audrey Emerton Building reflects Regency-style themes of stuccoed bowed façades.
Brighton General was originally the town's
workhouse
In Britain, a workhouse () was an institution where those unable to support themselves financially were offered accommodation and employment. (In Scotland, they were usually known as poorhouses.) The earliest known use of the term ''workhouse' ...
. Designed in 1853 but not built until 1865–67, it is in a "debased" Italianate style with a long frontage flanked by pavilions. George Maynard and J.C. & G. Lansdown were responsible. More buildings were added in 1887, 1891 and 1898 to the rear.
The
Royal Alexandra Children's Hospital
The Royal Alexandra Children's Hospital is a children's hospital located within the grounds of the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton on the south coast of England. It provides outpatient services, inpatient facilities, intensive care an ...
has occupied two buildings of markedly different architectural character.
Thomas Lainson's
Queen Anne Revival-style building of 1880–81 in the Montpelier district was distinguished by its
Dutch gable
A Dutch gable or Flemish gable is a gable whose sides have a shape made up of one or more curves and has a pediment at the top. The gable may be an entirely decorative projection above a flat section of roof line, or may be the termination of a ...
s and much use of terracotta and red brick.
Clayton & Black
Clayton & Black were a firm of architects and surveyors from Brighton, part of the English city of Brighton and Hove. In a career spanning the Victorian, Edwardian and interwar eras, they were responsible for designing and constructing an eclec ...
added a colonnade and other parts in 1906, and a major extension (again with prominent gables) was undertaken in 1927 by W.H. Overton.
It closed in 2007 after its replacement opened next to the RSCH,
and has been redeveloped for housing. Lainson's building has been retained but the other parts were demolished in 2012.
The new hospital was designed by
Building Design Partnership
Building Design Partnership Ltd, doing business as BDP, is a firm of architects and engineers employing over 900 staff in the United Kingdom and internationally.
History
BDP was founded in 1961 by George Grenfell-Baines with architects Bill White ...
(scheme architect Ben Zucchi) in 2004–07. Its "boat-like form
sevocative of Noah's Ark" as it rises dramatically above the other RSCH buildings. Features include low, child-height windows, a multicolour-panelled curved façade and an oversailing roof.
It cost £36 million, has three times the capacity of the old building and won a design award in 2008.
Hove's first hospital was a "classic Victorian building" on Sackville Road, built in 1885–88 by John T. Chappell. Architects Clarke & Micklethwaite designed the red-brick hospital, which had prominent chimneys on a slate roof,
crow-stepped gable
A stepped gable, crow-stepped gable, or corbie step is a stairstep type of design at the top of the triangular gable-end of a building. The top of the parapet wall projects above the roofline and the top of the brick or stone wall is stacked in ...
s and a large
terracotta
Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; ; ), in its material sense as an earthenware substrate, is a clay-based unglazed or glazed ceramic where the fired body is porous.
In applied art, craft, construction, and architecture, terracotta ...
panel with various inscriptions.
Closure was announced in 1994, and a local property development firm paid £550,000 for the building in 1998. Under the guidance of scheme architect Christopher Dodd, it was converted into 37
housing association
In Ireland and the United Kingdom, housing associations are private, Non-profit organization, non-profit making organisations that provide low-cost "Public housing in the United Kingdom, social housing" for people in need of a home. Any budge ...
flats called ''Tennyson Court'', retaining all original architectural features.
A£5 million replacement, the Hove Polyclinic, opened in West Blatchington in October 1998. Bryan Graham of architecture firm Nightingale Associates designed the facility, which is distinguished by a right-oriented round tower, several curved windows with decorative panels of opaque glass, and six-panelled doors.
Montefiore Hospital was founded in 2012 in the "magnificent red-brick" former Hanningtons furniture depository on Davigdor Road, Hove, built by
Clayton & Black
Clayton & Black were a firm of architects and surveyors from Brighton, part of the English city of Brighton and Hove. In a career spanning the Victorian, Edwardian and interwar eras, they were responsible for designing and constructing an eclec ...
in 1904.
Public halls,
gentlemen's clubs and similar institutions were often designed to stand out from their surroundings, especially when they were expensively funded as memorials to individuals. The former John Nixon Memorial Hall of 1912, by an unknown architect, contrasts with
Kemptown's small-scale
stuccoed terraces with its broad arched-windowed, red-brick façade and the
Neo-Jacobean
The Jacobethan or Jacobean Revival architectural style is the mixed national Renaissance revival style that was made popular in England from the late 1820s, which derived most of its inspiration and its repertory from the English Renaissance (15 ...
free-style treatment of its
gable
A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesth ...
d roofline.
It was used as a church hall, as was the Edward Riley Memorial Hall in Carlton Hill (now the Sussex Deaf Centre)—a brown-brick building with a steep clay-tiled roof and high flint walls around it.
The
Ralli Memorial Hall near
Hove railway station
Hove railway station serves Hove in the county of East Sussex, England. It is measured from . The station and the majority of trains serving it are operated by Southern.
Gatwick Express trains stable at Hove from time to time.
It is th ...
introduces a red-brick
Renaissance theme to the formal
gault-brick villa architecture of the area. A distinctive balconied porch and prominently
mullion
A mullion is a vertical element that forms a division between units of a window or screen, or is used decoratively. It is also often used as a division between double doors. When dividing adjacent window units its primary purpose is a rigid supp ...
ed and
transomed windows also contribute to the building's character.
On the West Brighton estate, Samuel Denman's Grade II-listed Hove Club (1897) is another Jacobean-style red-brick building with prominent gables, which also features
buttress
A buttress is an architectural structure built against or projecting from a wall which serves to support or reinforce the wall. Buttresses are fairly common on more ancient buildings, as a means of providing support to act against the lateral ( ...
es rising to form chimneys, a
loggia
In architecture, a loggia ( , usually , ) is a covered exterior gallery or corridor, usually on an upper level, but sometimes on the ground level of a building. The outer wall is open to the elements, usually supported by a series of columns ...
entrance, stone
mullion
A mullion is a vertical element that forms a division between units of a window or screen, or is used decoratively. It is also often used as a division between double doors. When dividing adjacent window units its primary purpose is a rigid supp ...
s and
transoms,
Art Nouveau-style windows and ornate interior timberwork.
Educational buildings
The ''
Buildings of England
The Pevsner Architectural Guides are a series of guide books to the architecture of Great Britain and Ireland. Begun in the 1940s by the art historian Sir Nikolaus Pevsner, the 46 volumes of the original Buildings of England series were publish ...
'' series called the "majestic and intimate"
University of Sussex
, mottoeng = Be Still and Know
, established =
, type = Public research university
, endowment = £14.4 million (2020)
, budget = £319.6 million (2019–20)
, chancellor = Sanjeev Bhaskar
, vice_chancellor = Sasha Roseneil
, ...
"the best architecture of the second half of the 20th century" in Brighton and Hove.
Although buildings are still being added on the site, the original development by
Basil Spence
Sir Basil Urwin Spence, (13 August 1907 – 19 November 1976) was a Scottish architect, most notably associated with Coventry Cathedral in England and the Beehive in New Zealand, but also responsible for numerous other buildings in the Moderni ...
(1960–65) retains its original character—especially in the relationship between the buildings and the undulating downland landscape on the semi-rural site (carved out of the
Stanmer
Stanmer is a small village on the eastern outskirts of Brighton, in East Sussex, England.
History
The etymological root of the name is "Stony Mere", Old English for "stone pond", referring to the sarsen stones around Stanmer village pond. The ...
estate). Spence's buildings are "post-1955
Modernist
Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...
", influenced by both
Le Corbusier and the "epic monumentality" of
Ancient Roman architecture
Ancient Roman architecture adopted the external language of classical Ancient Greek Architecture, Greek architecture for the purposes of the ancient Romans, but was different from Greek buildings, becoming a new architecture, architectural style ...
. They include a library, lecture rooms for arts and sciences, a non-denominational place of worship, an arts centre and Falmer House, the university's social centre. All are articulated in red brick and concrete, with hollow vaults, concrete beams, arches and fins. New buildings including numerous halls of residence have been added at various times by architects including Eric Parry, the RH Partnership, ADP Architecture, DEGW and H. Hubbard Ford.
The
University of Brighton
The University of Brighton is a public university based on four campuses in Brighton and Eastbourne on the south coast of England. Its roots can be traced back to 1858 when the Brighton School of Art was opened in the Royal Pavilion. It achiev ...
's Moulsecoomb site consists of Mithras House, a former industrial building, and "a collection of utilitarian modern buildings" flanking Lewes Road.
Mithras House dates from 1966 and was built for industrial use; more prominent is the , ten-storey slab of the Cockcroft Building. Built entirely of concrete—mostly
precast
Precast concrete is a construction product produced by casting concrete in a reusable mold or "form" which is then cured in a controlled environment, transported to the construction site and maneuvered into place; examples include precast bea ...
except for the lowest storeys—it has an east-facing entrance flanked by two-storey concrete piers and set below panels of flint. The main elevations are "busy" with a regular rhythm of windows. Long & Kentish's adjacent Aldrich Library (1994–96), curtain-walled with concrete and aluminium, is a "light and elegant" contrast to Cockcroft. The curvaceous Huxley Building (2010) also adjoins.
The University also has
a site at Grand Parade, which consists of the Phoenix Building and the former College of Technology. The former, designed by Fitzroy Robinson Miller Bourne and Partners in 1976, forms a "brutal intrusion" into the early-19th-century terrace of Waterloo Place: only two of its 14 houses remain.
Now known as the ''Grand Parade Annexe'', the former College of Technology—a Modernist building with sections of unequal height and windows set in prominent concrete frames—was designed by Percy Billington between 1962 and 1967.
Described as "one of Brighton's better postwar buildings" for its sensitive relationship to its prominent curved site, the layout of its windows recalls the 19th-century terraces it adjoins.
It replaced the former Municipal School of Art by J.G. Gibbins, built in 1876–77 of brick, terracotta and granite in the
14th-century Italianate style.
Brighton College
Brighton College is an independent, co-educational boarding and day school for boys and girls aged 3 to 18 in Brighton, England. The school has three sites: Brighton College (the senior school, ages 11 to 18); Brighton College Preparatory Sc ...
is the only surviving building in the city by
George Gilbert Scott: his Brill's Baths have been demolished. Many additions have been made to his 14th-century Gothic-style flint and
Caen stone
Caen stone (french: Pierre de Caen) is a light creamy-yellow Jurassic limestone quarried in north-western France near the city of Caen. The limestone is a fine grained oolitic limestone formed in shallow water lagoons in the Bathonian Age about ...
complex, on which work started in 1848. The design has been criticised by
Harry Stuart Goodhart-Rendel
Harry Stuart Goodhart-Rendel (1887 in Cambridge – 21 June 1959 in Westminster, London) was a British architect, writer and musician.
Life
Harry Stuart Goodhart was born on 29 May 1887 in Cambridge, England. He added the additional name Rende ...
and
Nikolaus Pevsner
Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner (30 January 1902 – 18 August 1983) was a German-British art historian and architectural historian best known for his monumental 46-volume series of county-by-county guides, ''The Buildings of England'' (1 ...
, who called the ensemble "joyless" and preferred
T.G. Jackson's "lavishly Gothic" additions of 1886–87, in which
terracotta
Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; ; ), in its material sense as an earthenware substrate, is a clay-based unglazed or glazed ceramic where the fired body is porous.
In applied art, craft, construction, and architecture, terracotta ...
was used extensively.
BHASVIC is a "splendid" former grammar school on Old Shoreham Road in
Prestonville. Designed by
Samuel Bridgman Russell in 1911–12, in a
Neo-Georgian/
Queen Anne style with extensive red brickwork and wings joined to a central section by a series of staircases lit by round windows), it occupies a prominent corner site and retains its original iron gates with the emblems of Hove and Brighton Boroughs and East and West Sussex.
The Municipal Technical College on Richmond Terrace, north of Grand Parade (now flats) was designed in 1895–96 by the Brighton Borough Surveyor Francis May. Extensions of 1909 and 1935 were in a complementary style with brick and dark terracotta, and the whole complex has been described as "Free
Jacobean" in style.
Roedean School
Roedean School is an independent day and boarding school founded in 1885 in Roedean Village on the outskirts of Brighton, East Sussex, England, and governed by Royal Charter. It is for girls aged 11 to 18. The campus is situated near the Sus ...
(1898–99), a girls' boarding school high on the cliffs towards Ovingdean, is a
Free Jacobean composition by
John William Simpson
Sir John William Simpson KBE FRIBA (9 August 1858 – 30 March 1933) was a British architect and President of the Royal Institute of British Architects from 1919 to 1921.
Background and early life
Simpson was the eldest son of the Bri ...
. From the centre of the symmetrical range rise two identical towers. Several wings then project forwards from this central block, each with a large gable end. Simpson also designed the chapel in 1906, a sanatorium in 1908 and a library in 1911.
Hubert Worthington
Sir John Hubert Worthington (4 July 1886 – 26 July 1963) was an English architect.
Early life
Worthington was born at Alderley Edge, near Stockport, the youngest son of architect Thomas Worthington. He was educated at Sedbergh School from ...
worked on a dining room extension in the 1960s.
St Mary's Hall, a private school affiliated to Roedean but closed since 2011, has a symmetrical façade with prominent gables and mullioned windows. The design resembles simplified
Tudor Revival
Tudor Revival architecture (also known as mock Tudor in the UK) first manifested itself in domestic architecture in the United Kingdom in the latter half of the 19th century. Based on revival of aspects that were perceived as Tudor architecture ...
, although it is early for that style (
George Basevi
Elias George Basevi FRS (1 April 1794 – 16 October 1845) was a British architect who worked in both Neoclassical and Gothic Revival styles. A pupil of Sir John Soane, his designs included Belgrave Square in London, and the Fitzwilliam Mus ...
designed it in 1836).
Most secondary schools in the city date from the 20th century and have been extended regularly: examples include
Patcham High School
Patcham High School is one of nine secondary schools in Brighton, located in the village of Patcham. It has around 1,000 pupils. The current head teacher is John McKee.
The school was founded on 7 July 1990, when Margaret Hardy school for girls ...
,
Longhill High School at Ovingdean,
Hove Park School and
Blatchington Mill School. The last two and Varndean School in Brighton were given £3 million between them in 1999–2000 to undertake major extensions because of the expanding school-age population in the city.
Cardinal Newman Catholic School
Cardinal Newman Catholic School is a Roman Catholic Academy that caters for pupils aged between 11 and 18, located in the Warden Hills area of Bedfordshire, England. Opened in September 1968, the current head is Andrew Bull, with the deputy head ...
in Hove dates from 1870–72 and was originally a
convent
A convent is a community of monks, nuns, religious brothers or, sisters or priests. Alternatively, ''convent'' means the building used by the community. The word is particularly used in the Catholic Church, Lutheran churches, and the Anglic ...
. Frederick Pownall designed the original
Gothic Revival buildings, which have been added to many times in the 20th century. There is also a Gothic Revival chapel of 1878. Exterior features include a large
oriel window above the entrance, with prominent mullions and transoms, and an array of
tile-hung gables.
Falmer High School
Falmer High School was a community mixed-sex non-denominational comprehensive school for pupils aged 11 to 16 in Brighton, East Sussex, England. It closed on 31 August 2010 and was replaced by Brighton Aldridge Community Academy on the same ...
was rebuilt in 2010–11 as the
Brighton Aldridge Community Academy
Brighton Aldridge Community Academy (BACA) is a coeducational academy school in Brighton. It opened on 1 September 2010.
The school replaced Falmer High School and is part of the Aldridge Education multi-academy trust. Dylan Davies became Bri ...
to the design of Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios. Plum-coloured and "chalky white" brick elevations join on the east side "like an elaborate scarf joint";
the north face is mostly glass, while the south side burrows into the hillside. Flint is also used, reflecting the downland location. The exterior walls are curved, and the timber-clad interior is open-plan and made up of many interconnecting spaces. The building won the
Royal Institute of British Architects
The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) is a professional body for architects primarily in the United Kingdom, but also internationally, founded for the advancement of architecture under its royal charter granted in 1837, three supp ...
' Regional Sustainability Award in 2012.
The Varndean campus of educational buildings, which includes primary, secondary and tertiary institutions, is centred on
Gilbert Murray Simpson's Neo-Georgian quadrangled Varndean College of 1929–31.
Gilbert Murray Simpson originally worked with his father in the firm Thomas Simpson & Son.
Thomas Simpson's
former board schools of the post-1870 period (most were designed between 1880 and 1903) can be found throughout the city.
Architecturally, his schools are "the best
uch
Uch ( pa, ;
ur, ), frequently referred to as Uch Sharīf ( pa, ;
ur, ; ''"Noble Uch"''), is a historic city in the southern part of Pakistan's Punjab province. Uch may have been founded as Alexandria on the Indus, a town founded by Alexan ...
works" in Sussex.
His style evolved from the
Queen Anne Revival typical of early board schools towards "an
Edwardian Free style" in which the standard red brickwork is supplemented by pebbledashing, terracotta and stonework. His rooflines became more elaborate over time as well.
The Finsbury Road School (1881; now flats) combines red and brown brickwork. Connaught Road School in Hove (1884) and Elm Grove School in Brighton (1893) are in the Queen Anne Revival style; the former, now an adult education centre, combines yellow and red brick and terracotta-coloured render to create an "elegant" and "distinctive" façade.
Clayton & Black
Clayton & Black were a firm of architects and surveyors from Brighton, part of the English city of Brighton and Hove. In a career spanning the Victorian, Edwardian and interwar eras, they were responsible for designing and constructing an eclec ...
extended the building in 1903.
York Place School has been dated to 1895 and has two frontages; it is now integrated into
City College Brighton & Hove
Brighton MET is a large general further education college located in Brighton and Hove, It is now part of the Chichester College Group after Greater Brighton Metropolitan College merged with CCG on 1 August 2021.
It has two campus: Central Bri ...
's buildings, which are scheduled for redevelopment.
In Preston parish, Simpson built the Preston Road School (1880, with "flamboyant pedimented gables" and a large roof), the Downs School (a simpler building of 1890) and the dome-topped Stanford Road School (1893), which also has a tower.
Simpson's last board school, St Luke's at Queen's Park, was also the most elaborate. Dated 1900–03, it has a separate swimming pool and caretaker's house, all in the same "characterful Edwardian Free style". The extravagant -shaped design features two wings with entrances set below timber-turreted towers, four gables to the rear, and an ornately decorated arched window in the third wing (the base of the ). Much use was made of stone.
Aside from the former board schools, the city has many other primary schools in a range of styles. St Christopher's School in Aldrington is housed in "one of the most intact of a series of large 1880s villas" that characterise the New Church Road area. Original features include iron fixtures and
stained glass. Portslade Infants School was designed by E.H.L. Barker and opened on 23 July 1903. The building has distinctive polychromatic walls with bands of red, black and blue bricks, and the steep roof continues this pattern by contrasting red tiles against black slates.
In contrast, the nearby St Nicolas' Church of England School, designed by the architect of St Bartholomew's Church Edmund Scott in 1867, is a simple Gothic Revival building of flint.
Anthony Carneys' design for the new Aldrington Church of England Primary School (1991) consisted of a "cluster of buildings with a Dutch barn feel to the roofline" and a rural ambience, despite the urban location. The red-tiled, steeply pitched gabled roofs have inbuilt windows including an
oculus, and the walls are of yellow and red brick.
Throughout East Sussex, few original libraries survive in use. In Brighton and Hove, only Hove's central library (1907–08, by
Leeds
Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by popula ...
architects Percy Robinson and W. Alban Jones) remains with little alteration.
The "highly inventive"
Edwardian Baroque
Edwardian architecture is a Neo-Baroque architectural style that was popular in the British Empire during the Edwardian era (1901–1910). Architecture up to the year 1914 may also be included in this style.
Description
Edwardian architecture is ...
design features a domed upper storey and a rotunda at the rear. The façade has
egg-and-dart
Egg-and-dart, also known as egg-and-tongue, egg-and-anchor, or egg-and-star, is an ornamental device adorning the fundamental quarter-round, convex ovolo profile of moulding, consisting of alternating details on the face of the ovolo—typicall ...
moulding.
Brighton's central library used to be in the early-19th-century complex of buildings designed by
William Porden
William Porden (c. 1755 – 1822) was a versatile English architect who worked for the 1st Earl Grosvenor and the Prince Regent.
Life
Born in Kingston upon Hull, (Subscription required) he trained under James Wyatt and Samuel Pepys Cock ...
, which later became
Brighton Museum & Art Gallery
Brighton Museum & Art Gallery is a municipally-owned public museum and art gallery in the city of Brighton and Hove in the South East of England. It is part of the "Royal Pavilion & Museums, Brighton and Hove". It is free for local residents ...
. Distinguished by excellent interior tiling,
it had long been too small but was not replaced until
Jubilee Library opened in February 2005.
Bennetts Associates
Bennetts is a specialist insurance broker for motorcycles headquartered in Peterborough, with a contact centre in Coventry, England, owned by Saga plc.
On 17 February 2020 it was announced that The Ardonagh Group had agreed to purchase Benne ...
and Lomax, Cassidy & Edwards designed the "carefully wrought but nonetheless striking"
building—a highly glazed "box" with a prominent
brise soleil and side elevations laid with dark blue tiles resembling
mathematical tile
Mathematical tiles are tiles which were used extensively as a building material in the southeastern counties of England—especially East Sussex and Kent—in the 18th and early 19th centuries. They were laid on the exterior of timber-framed ...
s.
As the main element in the regeneration of
North Laine
North Laine is a shopping and residential district of Brighton, on the English south coast. Once a slum area, it is now seen as Brighton's bohemian and cultural quarter, with many pubs, cafés, theatres and museums.
History
"Laine" is a ...
, it has been called "the most important public building constructed in Brighton since the
Royal Pavilion
The Royal Pavilion, and surrounding gardens, also known as the Brighton Pavilion, is a Grade I listed former royal residence located in Brighton, England. Beginning in 1787, it was built in three stages as a seaside retreat for George, Princ ...
".
Portslade Library, built in 1964, was "a typical Sixties creation" with little regard for disabled access: it was built on a sloping site, and steps lead down from the road to the entrance. Its
Modernist
Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...
design drew comparison locally with
Sputnik.
Hangleton's library (opened in 1962, although Hove Borough Surveyor T.R. Humble's plans date from 1958) is integrated into a residential building,
and the same applies at
Coldean
Coldean is a suburb of the English city of Brighton and Hove. Located in the northeast corner of the urban area, it was developed by Brighton Corporation in the 1950s as one of several postwar council estates necessitated by the acute housin ...
. The Archadia firm of architects designed a ground-floor library of with six housing association flats above, in which the windows are emphasised by panels of pale brick.
The complex opened in June 2008, replacing the original library of 1975.
Moulsecoomb library was designed by Percy Billington in 1964; its large roof seems to "float" as it overhangs the small single-storey structure.
Other modern libraries include Patcham (1933; extended in 2003), Westdene (1964) and Woodingdean (1959),
for which planning permission to demolish and rebuild on a larger scale to include a doctor's surgery was sought in 2012.
Rottingdean's library is housed in the former vicarage, Saltdean's is part of
Saltdean Lido
Saltdean Lido at Saltdean Park Road, Saltdean, in the Brighton and Hove district, in the ceremonial county of East Sussex, England, is an Art Deco lido designed by architect R.W.H. Jones. Originally listed at Grade II by English Heritage for it ...
, and Hollingbury library occupies the former County Oak pub (1950) which was made up of two prefabricated buildings.
Leisure and entertainment buildings
The
Duke of York's Picture House is the oldest cinema still operating in England, and was one of the world's first when it opened in September 1910. It is next to the fire station at Preston Circus and occupies the site of a 19th-century brewery. The architects were
Clayton & Black
Clayton & Black were a firm of architects and surveyors from Brighton, part of the English city of Brighton and Hove. In a career spanning the Victorian, Edwardian and interwar eras, they were responsible for designing and constructing an eclec ...
.
There are some Classical and Palladian touches on the elaborately decorated façade, notably in the four-arch colonnade, but the overall style is
Baroque. The symmetrical front elevation has full-height
rusticated pilaster
In classical architecture, a pilaster is an architectural element used to give the appearance of a supporting column and to articulate an extent of wall, with only an ornamental function. It consists of a flat surface raised from the main wal ...
s on the two end bays, giving them the appearance of towers.
The "monumental" Savoy Cinema (1930, by William Glen) just behind the seafront was later converted into a casino. The 3,000-capacity building has a tall and prominent entrance in a free Art Deco style with some Classical touches.
Its Sussex bricks were given a white glaze, and the building was nicknamed "the white whale".
"The most impressive of Brighton's interwar cinemas", though, was the
Regent
A regent (from Latin : ruling, governing) is a person appointed to govern a state '' pro tempore'' (Latin: 'for the time being') because the monarch is a minor, absent, incapacitated or unable to discharge the powers and duties of the monarchy ...
—designed in 1921 by
Robert Atkinson and replaced in 1974 by a commercial development.
It was Classical-style inside and out (the interior was the work of Walpole Champneys) and had a winter garden just below the roof.
Its replacement was the Odeon Kingswest, converted in 1973 from the Russell Diplock Associates-designed Brighton Top Rank Centre of 1965. The "intrusively aggressive"
Brutalist structure has no windows and a low, "emphatically horizontal" appearance, but its jagged roofline of bronze-coated aluminium shapes give it prominence on its corner site.
"Hove's most opulent cinema" (and its only purpose-built one) was the Granada (1933) at Portland Road in the
Aldrington
Aldrington is an area of the city of Brighton and Hove, previously part of the old borough of Hove. For centuries it was meadow land along the English Channel stretching west from the old village of Hove to the old mouth of the River Adur, and i ...
area. F.E. Bromige designed the Art Deco building, whose "striking angular tower" and corner site made it a landmark. The Art Deco theme continued inside. Closure came in 1974 and the building became a bingo hall.
It was demolished in 2012 in favour of a mixed-use development.
Another 1930s cinema that became a bingo hall in the 1970s and later closed is the
Astoria Theatre
The London Astoria was a music venue at 157 Charing Cross Road, in London, England.
Originally a warehouse during the 1920s, the building became a cinema and ballroom. It was converted for use as a theatre in the 1970s. After further developme ...
on Gloucester Place in Brighton. Demolition was authorised in 2012, although as it was a Grade II-listed building the final decision lay with national government.
Demolition, again for a mixed-use development, began in April 2018.
Edward A. Stone designed the building in a French Art Deco style with a steel-framed interior clad in pale stone blocks decorated with
faience
Faience or faïence (; ) is the general English language term for fine tin-glazed pottery. The invention of a white pottery glaze suitable for painted decoration, by the addition of an oxide of tin to the slip of a lead glaze, was a major a ...
.
The Brighton Dome complex incorporates the
Studio Theatre
A black box theater is a simple performance space, typically a square room with black walls and a flat floor. The simplicity of the space allows it to be used to create a variety of configurations of stage and audience interaction. The black ...
, Corn Exchange and a concert hall. It has occupied its large corner site at the junction of Church Street and New Road in
North Laine
North Laine is a shopping and residential district of Brighton, on the English south coast. Once a slum area, it is now seen as Brighton's bohemian and cultural quarter, with many pubs, cafés, theatres and museums.
History
"Laine" is a ...
since William Porden built it for the Prince Regent in 1804–08. Borough Surveyor Philip Lockwood converted the buildings into an entertainment complex in 1867–73, then the next Surveyor Francis May and theatre architect
Robert Atkinson did more work in 1901–02 and 1934 respectively. Atkinson's additions included the theatre, which faces New Road. All of these schemes retained the Indian/
Islamic architectural influences of Porden's work. Atkinson gave the concert hall an
Art Deco
Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...
interior, while May's interior work was "of an eclectic
Neo-Jacobean
The Jacobethan or Jacobean Revival architectural style is the mixed national Renaissance revival style that was made popular in England from the late 1820s, which derived most of its inspiration and its repertory from the English Renaissance (15 ...
kind".
Also on New Road is the
Theatre Royal, another early-19th-century building remodelled several times subsequently.
Charles J. Phipps extended the theatre in 1866, and
Clayton & Black
Clayton & Black were a firm of architects and surveyors from Brighton, part of the English city of Brighton and Hove. In a career spanning the Victorian, Edwardian and interwar eras, they were responsible for designing and constructing an eclec ...
gave the building its present appearance in 1894. Their work includes a colonnade of cast iron columns of the
Corinthian order, an exterior of "vivid red brick" and a series of dome-topped turrets on the roofline.
The former
Brighton Hippodrome
Brighton Hippodrome is an entertainment venue in the ancient centre of Brighton, part of the English city of Brighton and Hove. It has been empty and out of use since 2007, when its use as a Bingo (Commonwealth), bingo hall ceased.
From its const ...
in The Lanes was designed as an ice rink in 1897, but
Frank Matcham
Francis Matcham (22 November 1854 – 17 May 1920)Mackintosh, Iain"Matcham, Frank" ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, accessed 7 July 2019 was an English architect who specialised in the design o ...
converted it into a theatre and indoor circus in 1901–02. Elaborate
Rococo
Rococo (, also ), less commonly Roccoco or Late Baroque, is an exceptionally ornamental and theatrical style of architecture, art and decoration which combines asymmetry, scrolling curves, gilding, white and pastel colours, sculpted moulding, ...
-style interior decoration and Royal Pavilion-style onion domes above the stage contrast with a low-key exterior with short towers at each end and a coloured glazed awning.
Elsewhere, the Brighton Little Theatre occupies a Classical-style
stuccoed former
Baptist
Baptists form a major branch of Protestantism distinguished by baptizing professing Christian believers only ( believer's baptism), and doing so by complete immersion. Baptist churches also generally subscribe to the doctrines of soul compe ...
chapel of 1833,
and the Emporium Theatre uses the former London Road Methodist Church-a
Free Renaissance-style building designed in 1894 by James Weir and extended and refaced in 1938.
Good examples of interwar pub architecture include the
Neo-English Renaissance Good Companions (1939) on Dyke Road at
Seven Dials, designed by the Tamplins Brewery's in-house architect Arthur Packham and featuring characteristic 1930s patterned brickwork,
the Ladies Mile Hotel (1935) on
Patcham
Patcham () is an area of the city of Brighton & Hove, about north of the city centre. It is bounded by the A27 (Brighton bypass) to the north, Hollingbury to the east and southeast, Withdean to the south and the Brighton Main Line to the west. ...
's Ladies Mile estate,
and
Clayton & Black
Clayton & Black were a firm of architects and surveyors from Brighton, part of the English city of Brighton and Hove. In a career spanning the Victorian, Edwardian and interwar eras, they were responsible for designing and constructing an eclec ...
's ostentatious rebuild of the
King and Queen on Marlborough Place. Their 1931 design borrowed freely from
Tudor vernacular elements, both standard and decorative: it features
jettying, massive timber
lintels
A lintel or lintol is a type of beam (a horizontal structural element) that spans openings such as portals, doors, windows and fireplaces. It can be a decorative architectural element, or a combined ornamented structural item. In the case of ...
,
corbels in the form of
gargoyle
In architecture, and specifically Gothic architecture, a gargoyle () is a carved or formed grotesque with a spout designed to convey water from a roof and away from the side of a building, thereby preventing it from running down masonry walls ...
s, elaborate carvings and a
portcullis.
Also in central Brighton, the
J D Wetherspoon
J D Wetherspoon plc (branded variously as Wetherspoon or Wetherspoons, and colloquially known as Spoons) is a pub company operating in the United Kingdom and Ireland. The company was founded in 1979 by Tim Martin and is based in Watford. It o ...
-owned Bright Helm pub occupies a former office building on a corner site in West Street. H.E. Mendelssohn's "bold design" of 1938 is often attributed incorrectly to his better known contemporary
Erich Mendelsohn, as the curved stone and glass exterior evokes that architect's favoured
Expressionist idioms.
John Leopold Denman
John Leopold Denman (15 November 1882 – 5 June 1975) was an architect from the English seaside resort of Brighton, now part of the city of Brighton and Hove. He had a prolific career in the area during the 20th century, both on his own and ...
transformed the
Freemasons Tavern in
Brunswick Town from a Classical-style mid 19th-century pub, similar to its neighbours, into a spectacularly elaborate restaurant with an ornately moulded
Art Deco
Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...
interior and a blue and gold mosaic exterior with
Masonic
Freemasonry or Masonry refers to fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of stonemasons that, from the end of the 13th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their interaction with authorities ...
imagery and bronze fittings.
Many older pubs in the city retain decorative reminders of the breweries to which they were
tied. Examples of Tamplins Brewery pubs include the Jolly Brewer on Ditchling Road (mosaic panelling and etched windows), the Dyke Tavern in
Prestonville (several etched windows, some with gold inlay), the Victory in
The Lanes
The Lanes are a collection of narrow lanes in Brighton, in the city of Brighton and Hove famous for their small shops (including several antique shops) and narrow alleyways.
The Lanes are commonly taken to be bounded by North Street to the no ...
(a green tiled façade with tiled lettering and etched windows), the Seafield in Hove (lettered ironwork) and the former Free Butt on Phoenix Place (an inscribed stone panel), which was the
brewery tap
A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and was ...
. The Connaught in Hove (1880) has a large panel advertising the Longhurst Brewery. Many Portsmouth & Brighton United Breweries pubs have green tiled façades and
leadlight
Leadlights, leaded lights or leaded windows are decorative windows made of small sections of glass supported in lead cames. The technique of creating windows using glass and lead came to be known as came glasswork. The term 'leadlight' could be ...
s, including the Horse and Groom (Hanover), the Long Man of Wilmington (Patcham), the Montreal Arms (Carlton Hill) and the Heart and Hand (
North Laine
North Laine is a shopping and residential district of Brighton, on the English south coast. Once a slum area, it is now seen as Brighton's bohemian and cultural quarter, with many pubs, cafés, theatres and museums.
History
"Laine" is a ...
).
Among nightclubs and similar venues, the building at
11 Dyke Road (latterly the ''New Hero'' club) stands out because of its elaborate
French/Flemish
Gothic Revival architecture. It was built as a school in 1867 to the design of local architect
George Somers Leigh Clarke. The "freely inventive" building has red and brown brickwork, a steep roof and a prominent
crow-stepped gable
A stepped gable, crow-stepped gable, or corbie step is a stairstep type of design at the top of the triangular gable-end of a building. The top of the parapet wall projects above the roofline and the top of the brick or stone wall is stacked in ...
.
Hove's main leisure venue is the
King Alfred Centre on the seafront; facilities include swimming pools, gymnasia, a solarium and indoor sports.
Hove Borough Surveyor T.H. Humble designed the first section (Hove Marina) in 1937, then the firm of Scott Brownrigg & Turner built a large extension in 1980–82. This faced particular criticism for its "dreadful" architecture and lack of harmony with its seafront location.
Controversial plans for wholesale development to the design of
Frank Gehry, featuring two skyscrapers, came to nothing.
In Brighton, next to
St Paul's Church and (latterly) the Top Rank Centre stood a well-loved leisure attraction called SS Brighton. Built in 1934 and demolished in 1965, it was successively a swimming pool, ice rink, general sports venue, variety theatre and conference venue. The exterior was Art Deco with a cream-coloured tiled façade, and the interior mimicked the design of an ocean liner. Only in 1990 was the site developed, with a "big and worthless hotel".
SS Brighton was also known as the Brighton Sports Stadium; genuine football stadiums used by
Brighton & Hove Albion F.C. were the
Goldstone Ground
The Goldstone Ground (or The Goldstone) was a football stadium in Hove, East Sussex that was the home ground of Brighton & Hove Albion between 1902 and 1997.
History
The Goldstone Ground stood on Old Shoreham Road, Hove, opposite Hove Park ...
in Hove, the
Withdean Stadium
Withdean Stadium is an athletics stadium in Withdean, a suburb of Brighton. It was constructed in 1930. It was the home track of Olympic athlete Steve Ovett. Between 1999 and 2011 it was the home ground of football team Brighton & Hove Albion ...
at
Withdean
Withdean is a former village, now part of Brighton and Hove, East Sussex.
Overview
The area was originally named in the 12th century, when it was called Wictedene. The area was historically farm land but has been developed, mainly in the 1920s ...
and since 2011 the
Falmer Stadium
The Falmer Stadium, known for sponsorship purposes as the American Express Community Stadium and also referred to as the Amex, is a football stadium in the village of Falmer, in the City of Brighton and Hove, East Sussex. With a capacity of 31, ...
. The Goldstone Ground was laid out on the Stanford family's land in Hove in 1901 for Hove F.C. but was taken on by Albion in 1902. A.E. Lewer designed a pavilion and dressing rooms, and the West Stand was extended to the design of A. & W. Elliott in 1920. The South Stand was reused from an event at Preston Park. The stands were later replaced and refurbished several times, and floodlights were installed in 1961. The site was controversially sold in 1995
and is now occupied by the Goldstone Retail Park. Four vast warehouse-style units dominate the site.
The
Withdean Stadium
Withdean Stadium is an athletics stadium in Withdean, a suburb of Brighton. It was constructed in 1930. It was the home track of Olympic athlete Steve Ovett. Between 1999 and 2011 it was the home ground of football team Brighton & Hove Albion ...
, originally a tennis venue and later used for athletics, was used from 1999 until 2011: temporary stands were added for its new purpose.
In 2011, the long-planned
Falmer Stadium
The Falmer Stadium, known for sponsorship purposes as the American Express Community Stadium and also referred to as the Amex, is a football stadium in the village of Falmer, in the City of Brighton and Hove, East Sussex. With a capacity of 31, ...
, on the edge of the city near the University of Sussex, was opened. It was designed and built in 2009–11 by KSS Design Group. Two "breathtaking" tubular arches support the steel and glass structure: they have no columnar support and a substantial breadth. The stadium is set low into the landscape and can be seen clearly from the surrounding downland.
The
Brighton & Hove Greyhound Stadium
Brighton & Hove Greyhound Stadium is a greyhound racing track located in the Hove Park area of the city of Brighton and Hove, East Sussex. The stadium also has a restaurant and a number of bars and is owned by the Gala Coral Group and race meet ...
opened in 1928 on
market garden
A market garden is the relatively small-scale production of fruits, vegetables and flowers as cash crops, frequently sold directly to consumers and restaurants. The diversity of crops grown on a small area of land, typically from under to ...
land in
West Blatchington
West Blatchington is an area in Hove, East Sussex, England.
The area grew rapidly in the inter-war period, but unlike nearby Hangleton it had more infrastructure, with St Peter's Church, a working farm, a windmill and an industrial area gro ...
, despite considerable opposition from Hove residents. In 1939 the grandstands were lengthened and the former kennels removed. New owners the
Coral Leisure Group added a sports centre building in 1976–78 and a restaurant in the 1980s. One stand was taken down in 1991, the former
tote building was converted into offices in 1993 and a major refurbishment took place in 2000.
Seafront architecture
The seafront was originally dominated by defensive structures and
batteries, including some designed by
James Wyatt
James Wyatt (3 August 1746 – 4 September 1813) was an English architect, a rival of Robert Adam in the neoclassical and neo-Gothic styles. He was elected to the Royal Academy in 1785 and was its president from 1805 to 1806.
Early life
W ...
.
As the threat of foreign invasion lessened in the 19th century, Brighton and Hove's seafront was redeveloped with pleasure and recreation as its focus, and from the 1860s it represented "the
idée fixe of how
seafrontshould look".
Bandstands, elaborately roofed kiosks, shelters with decorative awnings, pale green railings and tall, ornate lamp-posts are found regularly along the whole seafront; most structures date from the late 19th century
and many are Grade II-listed.
The
West Pier (1863–66 by
Eugenius Birch
Eugenius Birch (20 June 1818 – 8 January 1884) was a 19th-century English seaside architect, civil engineer and noted builder of promenade-piers.
Biography
Both Eugenius and his elder brother, John Brannis (born 1813), were born in Gloucester ...
), dedicated entirely to leisure and promenading, was "one of the most important piers ever built"—but after its closure in 1975 it decayed, caught fire twice and is now a rusting hulk stranded in the sea. Many of its features were innovative, from the
screw pile foundations developed by
Alexander Mitchell to the Royal Pavilion-inspired Orientalist kiosks and other buildings which defined how seaside architecture should be. Further dome-topped entertainment venues were added in 1893 and 1916; the first of these was built because a new rival had appeared closer to the centre of Brighton.
Between 1891 and 1901, £137,000 was spent on the
Palace Pier. It was built by Arthur Mayoh to a design by R. St George Moore, and many additions were subsequently made—starting with an elaborate Winter Garden (now the Palace of Fun) by
Clayton & Black
Clayton & Black were a firm of architects and surveyors from Brighton, part of the English city of Brighton and Hove. In a career spanning the Victorian, Edwardian and interwar eras, they were responsible for designing and constructing an eclec ...
in 1910–11. A funfair was built at the seaward end, from land, in 1938. Domes, elaborate kiosks and ornate columns characterise the pier.
Birch was also responsible for Brighton Aquarium (now the Sea Life Centre) in 1872. The 21-bay double-aisled interior remains as built, but of his
High Victorian Gothic
High Victorian Gothic was an eclectic architectural style and movement during the mid-late 19th century. It is seen by architectural historians as either a sub-style of the broader Gothic Revival style, or a separate style in its own right.
Promo ...
-style work on the exterior only an "attention-seeking clock tower" survives, because the building was revamped in 1927–29 by the Borough Surveyor David Edwards. He rebuilt it in pale
artificial stone in the
Louis XVI Neoclassical style.
Also in 1872, the long, straight Madeira Drive—which runs at sea level below the East Cliff—was greatly extended. Borough Surveyor Philip Lockwood designed a "superb" two-storey arcaded promenade alongside the cliff; it includes a pagoda-roofed lift to Marine Parade. Work took place in 1889–97, and Madeira Drive was extended further to
Black Rock in 1905.
Brighton Marina
Brighton Marina is an artificial marina situated in Brighton, England. It features a working harbour and residential housing alongside a variety of leisure, retail and commercial activities. The construction of the marina itself took place bet ...
at
Black Rock dates from 1971–76 and has little architectural interest:
an "insipid neo-Regency" pastiche style was used for many of the residential buildings, and the wide range of commercial premises are dominated by a vast supermarket. Module 2 Architects drew up a masterplan for these buildings in 1985. Additional commercial development called ''The Waterfront'' (1999–2000 by Design Collective) pays no homage to existing architectural styles but has a "distinctive arched roofline". The Marina faced opposition when it was proposed,
and a proposed development consisting of a 28-storey tower block and hundreds of other homes—first agreed in 2007 and signed off again in 2013—continues to cause controversy.
The esplanade at Hove is well known for its brightly coloured timber
beach hut
A beach hut (also known as a beach cabin, beach box or bathing box) is a small, usually wooden and often brightly coloured, box above the high tide mark on popular bathing beaches. They are generally used as a shelter from the sun or wind, chan ...
s. The first were installed in around 1930, 290 were in place by 1936 and there are now several hundred.
Transport and other architecture
Brighton railway station
Brighton railway station is the southern terminus of the Brighton Main Line in England, and the principal station serving the city of Brighton, East Sussex. It is from via .
The station is managed by Govia Thameslink Railway, which operat ...
, a Grade II*-listed structure, was built in two parts. Most of
David Mocatta
David Alfred Mocatta (1806–1882) was a British architect and a member of the Anglo-Jewish Mocatta family.
Early career
David Alfred Mocatta was born to a Sephardic Jewish family in 1806, the son of the licensed bullion broker Moses Mocat ...
's
stuccoed
Italianate
The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style drew its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italian ...
building of 1841 survives—albeit hidden by H.E. Wallis's extensions of 1882–83. He added an elaborate iron
porte-cochère
A porte-cochère (; , late 17th century, literally 'coach gateway'; plural: porte-cochères, portes-cochères) is a doorway to a building or courtyard, "often very grand," through which vehicles can enter from the street or a covered porch-like ...
over the forecourt and an impressive curved
train shed
A train shed is a building adjacent to a station building where the tracks and platforms of a railway station are covered by a roof. It is also known as an overall roof. Its primary purpose is to store and protect from the elements train car ...
, 21
bays and long, at the rear. Its glazed three-span roof is supported on octagonal
fluted
Fluting may refer to:
*Fluting (architecture)
* Fluting (firearms)
* Fluting (geology)
* Fluting (glacial)
*Fluting (paper)
Arts, entertainment, and media
*Fluting on the Hump
''Fluting on the Hump'' is the first album by avant-garde band Kin ...
columns. F.D. Bannister, the chief architect of the
London, Brighton and South Coast Railway
The London, Brighton and South Coast Railway (LB&SCR; known also as the Brighton line, the Brighton Railway or the Brighton) was a railway company in the United Kingdom from 1846 to 1922. Its territory formed a rough triangle, with London at its ...
(LBSCR), made other alterations at the same time, such as removing an entrance colonnade designed by Mocatta.
The modern entrance has round-arched windows and doorways which recall its design.
The roof was comprehensively restored in 1999–2000.
Elsewhere in the city, the stations at
Hove
Hove is a seaside resort and one of the two main parts of the city of Brighton and Hove, along with Brighton in East Sussex, England. Originally a "small but ancient fishing village" surrounded by open farmland, it grew rapidly in the 19th c ...
(original building),
Kemp Town
Kemp Town Estate, also known as Kemp Town, is a 19th-century Regency architecture residential estate in the east of Brighton in East Sussex, England, UK. It consists of Arundel Terrace, Lewes Crescent, Sussex Square, Chichester Terrace, and ...
(demolished),
London Road and
Portslade
Portslade is a western suburb of the city of Brighton and Hove, England. Portslade Village, the original settlement a mile inland to the north, was built up in the 16th century. The arrival of the railway from Brighton in 1840 encouraged rapid de ...
were built to a common design in the 1850s–1870s.
The "stately" two-storey buildings
are Italianate,
reminiscent of a
Tuscan villa
A villa is a type of house that was originally an ancient Roman upper class country house. Since its origins in the Roman villa, the idea and function of a villa have evolved considerably. After the fall of the Roman Republic, villas became s ...
,
and have symmetrical layouts. London Road station, by W. Sawyer in 1877, also has a wide staircase leading up to its entrance.
Moulsecoomb
Moulsecoomb () is a suburb of Brighton, Sussex, England, on the northeast side around Lewes Road, between Coldean and Bevendean, north of the seafront. The eastern edge adjoins Falmer Hill on the South Downs. It is often divided into smalle ...
, newly built in 1980, was designed by the Chief Architect's Department of the Southern Region of British Railways. Intended to be difficult to vandalise,
it has two "well-detailed" Swiss chalet-style wooden and tiled buildings linked by a footbridge.
Preston Park's platform-level buildings were replaced in 1974
by flat-roofed timber and glass structures,
although the yellow-brick street-level entrance survives.
Aldrington
Aldrington is an area of the city of Brighton and Hove, previously part of the old borough of Hove. For centuries it was meadow land along the English Channel stretching west from the old village of Hove to the old mouth of the River Adur, and i ...
has basic shelters emphasising "utility rather than elegance".
The Grade II*-listed
London Road viaduct (1846) by
John Urpeth Rastrick
John Urpeth Rastrick (26 January 1780 – 1 November 1856) was one of the first English steam locomotive builders. In partnership with James Foster, he formed Foster, Rastrick and Company, the locomotive construction company that built the '' ...
used 10 million yellow and red bricks, spectacularly spanned the undeveloped valley until terraced houses crowded round it, and made it possible for the LBSCR to reach
Lewes and
Newhaven. ''The Builder'' of 1847 proclaimed Brighton to be "immensely improved" by the "exceedingly striking" structure. A
cornice and
balustrade runs along its length.
Similar but smaller viaducts crossed Lewes Road ( and 28 arches; demolished in stages in 1976 and 1983) and Hartington Road (three arches; demolished in 1973) as part of the
Kemp Town branch line
Kemp Town branch line was a railway line running from Brighton to Kemptown in the UK that operated between 1869 and 1971. It ran from a junction off the Brighton to Lewes line between London Road and Moulsecoomb stations, to Kemp Town railway ...
.
Further up Lewes Road, near Moulsecoomb, another Rastrick-designed viaduct of 1846 spans the dual carriageway at an acute angle. It is built of blue brick and has three segmental-arched openings. A concrete brace was inserted in one after wartime bomb damage.
Two more viaducts, both Grade II-listed and designed by Rastrick, cross New England Road. The earlier, western viaduct (1839–41) carries the
main line and was designed as a
triumphal arch
A triumphal arch is a free-standing monumental structure in the shape of an archway with one or more arched passageways, often designed to span a road. In its simplest form a triumphal arch consists of two massive piers connected by an arch, cro ...
in stone and yellow brick.
It was given full
Masonic honours when built.
A
cast-iron
Cast iron is a class of iron–carbon alloys with a carbon content more than 2%. Its usefulness derives from its relatively low melting temperature. The alloy constituents affect its color when fractured: white cast iron has carbide impuriti ...
arched bridge of 1851–54, cast at the nearby Regent Foundry, carried the now removed line to the
goods yard and locomotive works. It consists of four parallel ribs forming an arch with open
spandrel
A spandrel is a roughly triangular space, usually found in pairs, between the top of an arch and a rectangular frame; between the tops of two adjacent arches or one of the four spaces between a circle within a square. They are frequently fill ...
s. There is a latticework
parapet
A parapet is a barrier that is an extension of the wall at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony, walkway or other structure. The word comes ultimately from the Italian ''parapetto'' (''parare'' 'to cover/defend' and ''petto'' 'chest/breast'). ...
of iron and stone
corbels.
Trams (from 1901) and trolleybuses used to run in Brighton. The Lewes Road Bus Garage was originally the Brighton Corporation Tramways depot; it retains windows etched with this name. Wooden tram shelters survive on Dyke Road, Ditchling Road and Queen's Park Road. They have been turned into bus shelters,
and the same has happened in
Old Steine
The Old Steine () is a thoroughfare in central Brighton, East Sussex, and is the southern terminus of the A23. The southern end leads to Marine Parade, the Brighton seafront and the Palace Pier. The Old Steine is also the site of a number of Cit ...
with a series of trolleybus shelters designed in 1939 by Borough Surveyor David Edwards. The cream-coloured structures have curved windows and flat roofs with similarly curved ends which oversail the shelter itself. Their style is
Streamline Moderne.
The city has an array of free-standing
clock towers in various styles. The landmark
Jubilee Clock Tower in the city centre has been called Brighton's "second best known symbol" after the Royal Pavilion;
Preston Park,
Queen's Park and Blakers Park each have one; and a fifth was erected in the 1930s in
Patcham
Patcham () is an area of the city of Brighton & Hove, about north of the city centre. It is bounded by the A27 (Brighton bypass) to the north, Hollingbury to the east and southeast, Withdean to the south and the Brighton Main Line to the west. ...
to publicise the suburb's Ladies Mile Estate.
All except the Blakers Park and Patcham clock towers are Grade II-listed.
John Johnson's design for the Jubilee Clock Tower of 1888 combined the
Classical style
Classical architecture usually denotes architecture which is more or less consciously derived from the principles of Greek and Roman architecture of classical antiquity, or sometimes even more specifically, from the works of the Roman architect V ...
with
Baroque motifs and some
High Gothic
High Gothic is a particularly refined and imposing style of Gothic architecture that appeared in northern France from about 1195 until 1250. Notable examples include Chartres Cathedral, Reims Cathedral, Amiens Cathedral, Beauvais Cathedral, and ...
elements.
Pink granite, a copper fishscale dome,
Corinthian columns
The Corinthian order (Greek: Κορινθιακός ρυθμός, Latin: ''Ordo Corinthius'') is the last developed of the three principal classical orders of Ancient Greek architecture and Roman architecture. The other two are the Doric order ...
and mosaic portraits of Royal Family members combine to give a "supremely confident and showy" design. The tower has withstood fierce criticism and calls for its demolition, and is now a widely appreciated landmark.
Francis May's "pompous"
clock tower, built in the newly laid out Preston Park in 1891–92, also combined some Classical and Gothic elements—this time using
terracotta
Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; ; ), in its material sense as an earthenware substrate, is a clay-based unglazed or glazed ceramic where the fired body is porous.
In applied art, craft, construction, and architecture, terracotta ...
, pale brick and stone—but its style is closest in spirit to
Neo-Flemish Renaissance.
A copper dome with a weather-vane tops the four-stage tower.
A London architect, Llewellyn Williams, won the commission for the Queen's Park clock tower in 1915; his three-stage design, on high ground, incorporates
Portland stone (partly
rusticated) and red brick, and also has a copper roof.
Blakers Park, northeast of Preston Park, was laid out in 1893 when Sir John Blaker (later
1st Baron of Brighton) donated land. He also paid £1,000 towards the construction in 1896 of a red-brick and iron clock tower with a pale green exterior. It is topped by a
cupola
In architecture, a cupola () is a relatively small, most often dome-like, tall structure on top of a building. Often used to provide a lookout or to admit light and air, it usually crowns a larger roof or dome.
The word derives, via Italian, fro ...
with a dolphin-shaped weather-vane, and bears Blaker's
monogram.
Patcham's clock tower, built of pale stone in an
International
International is an adjective (also used as a noun) meaning "between nations".
International may also refer to:
Music Albums
* ''International'' (Kevin Michael album), 2011
* ''International'' (New Order album), 2002
* ''International'' (The T ...
/
Modernist style, stands on a green amidst 1930s housing and forms an important landmark.
Heritage and conservation
Buildings have been lost to fire, damage or demolition since the urban area's earliest days, and the frequent replacement of buildings (even those with architectural merit) by Victorian-era speculators was particularly common along the seafront.
After World War II, Brighton's seaside resort function declined, demand for housing rose and it became an important regional commercial centre.
Pressure for redevelopment and the prevailing attitudes towards pre-20th-century architecture resulted in widespread demolition; many of the new buildings were architecturally unsuccessful because their scale, build quality and relationship with their surroundings were poor.
In other cases, large sites stayed vacant for decades pending redevelopment.
The city faces unusually severe geographical constraints—it lies between the
English Channel
The English Channel, "The Sleeve"; nrf, la Maunche, "The Sleeve" (Cotentinais) or ( Jèrriais), (Guernésiais), "The Channel"; br, Mor Breizh, "Sea of Brittany"; cy, Môr Udd, "Lord's Sea"; kw, Mor Bretannek, "British Sea"; nl, Het Kana ...
and the
South Downs
The South Downs are a range of chalk hills that extends for about across the south-eastern coastal counties of England from the Itchen valley of Hampshire in the west to Beachy Head, in the Eastbourne Downland Estate, East Sussex, in the eas ...
(an
Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty
An Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB; , AHNE) is an area of countryside in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, that has been designated for conservation due to its significant landscape value. Areas are designated in recognition of ...
), and has continuous urban development to the east and west—and intense pressure for redevelopment continues.
Nevertheless, many buildings have also been saved—not least the Royal Pavilion, which was bought by the local authorities when
Queen Victoria
Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 216 days was longer than that of any previo ...
moved out and which faced another threat in the 1930s.
National conservation groups such as
The Victorian Society
The Victorian Society is a UK amenity society and membership organisation that campaigns to preserve and promote interest in Victorian and Edwardian architecture and heritage built between 1837 and 1914 in England and Wales. It is a registere ...
and
The Georgian Group
The Georgian Group is a British charity, and the national authority on Georgian architecture built between 1700 and 1837 in England and Wales. As one of the National Amenity Societies, The Georgian Group is a statutory consultee on alterati ...
are active in the city, and the Regency Society was founded in 1945 to conserve Brighton's architectural heritage in a direct response to Herbert Carden's proposals for wholesale reconstruction.
Residents' groups such as the
Regency Square Area Society undertake similar work at a local level. The Victorian Society and The Georgian Group wrote a joint report in 1990 examining postwar developments in central Brighton in the context of the older surroundings. It observed that the growth of Brighton as a commercial centre since World War II had damaged its character: "grossly inappropriate commercial development" was starting to dominate the traditional seaside resort architecture characterised by the Regency terraces and squares, the piers and the Royal Pavilion.
Demolished buildings
The Royal Suspension Chain Pier
The Royal Suspension Chain Pier was the first major pier built in Brighton, England. Opened on 25 November 1823, it was destroyed during a storm on 4 December 1896.
History
Generally known as the ''Chain Pier'', it was designed by Captain Sa ...
(1822–23, by
Captain Samuel Brown ) became Brighton's first "effective focal point" after it became a fashionable seaside resort,
but demolition was already under consideration by the time it was destroyed by a storm in 1896. Only some oak foundations remain, and these are only visible at low tides. Brown's iron structure had
Egyptian Revival
Egyptian Revival is an architectural style that uses the motifs and imagery of ancient Egypt. It is attributed generally to the public awareness of ancient Egyptian monuments generated by Napoleon's conquest of Egypt and Admiral Nelson's defeat ...
towers at the landward end, and the landing stage was of
Purbeck stone
Purbeck stone refers to building stone taken from a series of limestone beds found in the Upper Jurassic to Lower Cretaceous Purbeck Group, found on the Isle of Purbeck, Dorset in southern England. The best known variety of this stone is Purbeck ...
.
Hove's original
manor house
A manor house was historically the main residence of the lord of the manor. The house formed the administrative centre of a manor in the European feudal system; within its great hall were held the lord's manorial courts, communal meals w ...
was pulled down in 1936, despite its last owner offering it to the local council for less than its market value. John Vallance built the
Georgian-style
Georgian architecture is the name given in most English-speaking countries to the set of architectural styles current between 1714 and 1830. It is named after the first four British monarchs of the House of Hanover—George I, George II, Geor ...
L-plan house in the late 18th century. Features included a curved porch on the inside of the "L", a
cupola
In architecture, a cupola () is a relatively small, most often dome-like, tall structure on top of a building. Often used to provide a lookout or to admit light and air, it usually crowns a larger roof or dome.
The word derives, via Italian, fro ...
-style
bellcote
A bellcote, bell-cote or bell-cot is a small framework and shelter for one or more bells. Bellcotes are most common in church architecture but are also seen on institutions such as schools. The bellcote may be carried on brackets projecting from ...
and a
Chinese Chippendale staircase inside, and some of its flint and stonework may have come from an ancient chapel nearby.
Other historic Hove buildings lost in the 1930s include the Classical-style Well House at the
chalybeate spring in
St Ann's Well Gardens—the
Ionic-columned,
colonnade
In classical architecture, a colonnade is a long sequence of columns joined by their entablature, often free-standing, or part of a building. Paired or multiple pairs of columns are normally employed in a colonnade which can be straight or cur ...
-fronted structure decayed as the spring ran dry, and was demolished in 1935
—and the mid 18th-century Wick House. This was owned by several important figures in local history, such as landowner Thomas Scutt, Rev. Edward Everard (associated with Brunswick Town and
St Andrew's Church at Waterloo Street) and
Sir Isaac Goldsmid, 1st Baronet.
Along with the neighbouring Wick Hall, designed and built between 1833 and 1840 by
Decimus Burton, it was demolished in 1935 to make way for the Furze Hill mansion flats.
Burton's three-storey Wick Hall was Classical in style, with a prominent
cornice, a
parapet
A parapet is a barrier that is an extension of the wall at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony, walkway or other structure. The word comes ultimately from the Italian ''parapetto'' (''parare'' 'to cover/defend' and ''petto'' 'chest/breast'). ...
with ornate stone urns, and on the garden-facing elevation a curved
bay faced with a series of
Ionic columns
The Ionic order is one of the three canonic orders of classical architecture, the other two being the Doric and the Corinthian. There are two lesser orders: the Tuscan (a plainer Doric), and the rich variant of Corinthian called the composite ...
.
Collectively, these four buildings were "Hove's oldest and most important houses".
Postwar demolition and redevelopment has been extensive in places. An especially infamous incident occurred in 1971, when Stroud and Mew's "Regency Gothic" Central National School in North Laine was knocked down
hours before its listed status was granted: the letter was apparently delayed by a postal strike. The building dated from 1830 and was founded by Vicar of Brighton
Henry Michell Wagner.
Another school, the Brighton Asylum for the Blind on Eastern Road (designed by George Somers Clarke, architect of the similarly flamboyant
Swan Downer School on Dyke Road) was "tragically demolished" thirteen years earlier. Built in 1860–61, it was a precise and richly decorated interpretation of the Venetian Gothic style.
The
Bedford Hotel, Thomas Cooper's "distinguished"
Classical-style seafront hotel of 1829, was dominated by a series of
Ionic columns
The Ionic order is one of the three canonic orders of classical architecture, the other two being the Doric and the Corinthian. There are two lesser orders: the Tuscan (a plainer Doric), and the rich variant of Corinthian called the composite ...
. Once Brighton's highest-class hotel, its future was undecided and redevelopment was under consideration when it burnt down in 1964. The remains were quickly demolished and replaced by a 17-storey,
Brutalist structure by
Richard Seifert
Richard Seifert (born Reubin Seifert; 25 November 1910 – 26 October 2001) was a Swiss-British architect, best known for designing the Centre Point tower and Tower 42 (previously the NatWest Tower), once the tallest building in the City of ...
.
A different approach has been used more recently in some cases: historic and architecturally interesting façades have been retained while the rest of the site has been demolished and redeveloped. Examples of this are the former Lewes Road United Reformed Church,
whose façade now hides flats, and the Brighton Co-operative store on London Road. Architects Bethell and Swannell designed the four-storey building, whose wide frontage is dominated by
fluted
Fluting may refer to:
*Fluting (architecture)
* Fluting (firearms)
* Fluting (geology)
* Fluting (glacial)
*Fluting (paper)
Arts, entertainment, and media
*Fluting on the Hump
''Fluting on the Hump'' is the first album by avant-garde band Kin ...
columns of the
Doric order
The Doric order was one of the three orders of ancient Greek and later Roman architecture; the other two canonical orders were the Ionic and the Corinthian. The Doric is most easily recognized by the simple circular capitals at the top of c ...
.
In 2013 all but the façade was demolished in favour of student housing.
Road schemes have long been a source of demolition and redevelopment: as early as 1902, part of the historic Brighton Brewery was removed to remove a notorious bottleneck (known locally as "The Bunion") on Church Road in Hove.
Large-scale projects then threatened several parts of central Brighton between the 1960s and 1990s, but all were abandoned. A 1973 report by town planners Hugh Wilson and Lewis Womersley, which recommended large-scale demolition in
North Laine
North Laine is a shopping and residential district of Brighton, on the English south coast. Once a slum area, it is now seen as Brighton's bohemian and cultural quarter, with many pubs, cafés, theatres and museums.
History
"Laine" is a ...
in favour of a flyover and car park, was rejected.
The idea re-emerged in the late 1980s as the "Breeze into Brighton" Preston Circus Relief Road scheme, one of many ideas for the vacant Brighton Locomotive Works site now occupied by the
New England Quarter
The New England Quarter is a mixed-use development in the city of Brighton and Hove, England. It was built between 2004 and 2008 on the largest brownfield site in the city, adjacent to Brighton railway station. Most parts of the scheme have b ...
; this would have replaced several buildings of historic interest on York Place and Cheapside,
driven a trunk road through hundreds of houses and commercial buildings and sliced a corner off the listed Bedford Square on the seafront.
Listed buildings
In England, a building or structure is defined as "listed" when it is placed on a statutory register of buildings of "special architectural or historic interest" by the
Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
The secretary of state for digital, culture, media and sport, also referred to as the culture secretary, is a Secretary of State (United Kingdom), secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom, with overall responsibility for strateg ...
, a Government department, in accordance with the
Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990
The Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 is an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom that altered the laws on granting of planning permission for building works, notably including those of the listed building system in En ...
.
English Heritage
English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses.
The charity states that i ...
, a
non-departmental public body
In the United Kingdom, non-departmental public body (NDPB) is a classification applied by the Cabinet Office, Treasury, the Scottish Government and the Northern Ireland Executive to public sector organisations that have a role in the process of ...
, acts as an agency of this department to administer the process and advise the department on relevant issues.
As of February 2001, Brighton and Hove had 24 Grade I-listed buildings, 70 with a status of Grade II* and 1,124 Grade II-listed buildings.
Brighton and Hove City Council issues periodic summarised updates of the city's listed building stock; the latest document was published in October 2013.
Grade I, the highest status, indicates that a building is of "exceptional interest" and greater than national importance. Grade II* is used for "particularly important buildings of more than special interest"; and Grade II, the lowest designation, is used for "nationally important buildings of special interest".
All three grades of
listed status offer some protection against changes which would affect the structure's character, from interior restoration to demolition. Proposed alterations require consent from the council,
which set out its position in a document published in 1981:
Buildings listed at Grade I include the
Royal Pavilion
The Royal Pavilion, and surrounding gardens, also known as the Brighton Pavilion, is a Grade I listed former royal residence located in Brighton, England. Beginning in 1787, it was built in three stages as a seaside retreat for George, Princ ...
,
Stanmer House
Stanmer House is a Grade I listed mansion set in Stanmer Park west of the village of Falmer and north-east of the city of Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, England.
The house stands close to Stanmer village and Church, within Stanmer Park. Cons ...
, several churches, the wrecked
West Pier, the main building at the
University of Sussex
, mottoeng = Be Still and Know
, established =
, type = Public research university
, endowment = £14.4 million (2020)
, budget = £319.6 million (2019–20)
, chancellor = Sanjeev Bhaskar
, vice_chancellor = Sasha Roseneil
, ...
and the principal parts of the Kemp Town and Brunswick estates. Several other 19th-century residential developments have Grade II* status: among them are
Royal
Royal may refer to:
People
* Royal (name), a list of people with either the surname or given name
* A member of a royal family
Places United States
* Royal, Arkansas, an unincorporated community
* Royal, Illinois, a village
* Royal, Iowa, a ...
,
Park and Adelaide Crescents,
Regency Square and Oriental Place. Many more churches also have this grading. Grade II-listed buildings and structures are varied: items of street furniture (such as parish boundary markers and lamp-posts) have been listed, as have dovecots, gazebos and chimneys; hundreds of houses and cottages, either individually or as part of terraces, are included; and churches, schools and other public buildings (such as Brighton Town Hall,
Portslade railway station and many pubs) have also been given Grade II status.
Listed buildings have occasionally been lost to fire or demolition, and are not always delisted (officially removed from the schedule of listed buildings). The West Pier retains Grade I listed status despite its ruined, inaccessible condition; and permission to demolish a Grade II-listed house at 128 King's Road near Regency Square was granted in 2002 after it was damaged by fire.
Holy Trinity Church in Hove, declared redundant in 2010, has been threatened with demolition since 2008.
Elsewhere, in July 2010 the council announced they would move a Grade II-listed shelter on the seafront by to reduce the danger to cyclists on an adjacent cycle lane.
Since around 1990, the various councils (and later subsequently the city council) have surveyed the structural condition of all listed buildings and have provided funding "to encourage the preservation of the city's historic building stock", covering repairs to listed and other historic buildings, replacement of missing or damaged architectural or decorative features, and assistance to return at-risk buildings to suitable use. As early as 2003, though, the city council reported that a change in the way grants were structured meant that financial help for specific buildings may decline in favour of spending money on enhancements to wider areas.
Conservation areas
The city of Brighton and Hove has
34 conservation areas,
which are defined by Sections 69 and 70 of the
Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990
The Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 is an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom that altered the laws on granting of planning permission for building works, notably including those of the listed building system in En ...
as "principally urban areas of special architectural or historic interest, the character or appearance of which it is desirable to preserve or enhance".
About 18% of the urban area is covered by this designation.
Conservation areas vary in size from the around
Stanmer
Stanmer is a small village on the eastern outskirts of Brighton, in East Sussex, England.
History
The etymological root of the name is "Stony Mere", Old English for "stone pond", referring to the sarsen stones around Stanmer village pond. The ...
to the Benfield Barn area.
See also
*
Grade I listed buildings in Brighton and Hove
*
Grade II* listed buildings in Brighton and Hove
There are 72 Listed building, Grade II* listed buildings in the city of Brighton and Hove, England. The city, on the English Channel coast approximately south of London, was formed as a unitary authority in 1997 by the merger of the neighbou ...
*
List of former board schools in Brighton and Hove
Between 1870 and the early 20th century, "a distinguished group of board schools" were built in the area covered by the present city of Brighton and Hove on the south coast of England. All were designed and built by the local firm of Thomas Si ...
*
List of places of worship in Brighton and Hove
The city of Brighton and Hove, on the south coast of England, has more than 100 extant churches and other places of worship, which serve a variety of Christian denominations and other religions. More than 50 former religious buildings, althou ...
*
Notes
Locally listed buildings
Other notes
References
Bibliography
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Buildings And Architecture Of Brighton And Hove
Brighton and Hove
Brighton and Hove () is a city and unitary authority in East Sussex, England. It consists primarily of the settlements of Brighton and Hove, alongside neighbouring villages.
Often referred to synonymously as Brighton, the City of Brighton and H ...
*
Architecture in England
History of Brighton and Hove