Buildings and architecture of Brighton and Hove
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Brighton and Hove Brighton and Hove ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority area, ceremonially in East Sussex, England. There are multiple villages alongside the seaside resorts of Brighton and Hove in the district. It is administe ...
, a
city A city is a human settlement of a substantial size. The term "city" has different meanings around the world and in some places the settlement can be very small. Even where the term is limited to larger settlements, there is no universally agree ...
on the
English Channel The English Channel, also known as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates Southern England from northern France. It links to the southern part of the North Sea by the Strait of Dover at its northeastern end. It is the busi ...
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 city, resort town, town, village, or hotel that serves as a Resort, vacation resort and is located on a coast. Sometimes the concept includes an aspect of an official accreditation based on the satisfaction of certain requi ...
s. The urban area, designated a city in 2000, is made up of the formerly separate towns of
Brighton Brighton ( ) is a seaside resort in the city status in the United Kingdom, city of Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, England, south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze Age Britain, Bronze Age, R ...
and
Hove Hove ( ) is a seaside resort in East Sussex, England. Alongside Brighton, it is one of the two main parts of the city of Brighton and Hove. Originally a fishing village surrounded by open farmland, it grew rapidly in the 19th century in respon ...
, nearby villages such as
Portslade Portslade is a western suburb of the city of Brighton and Hove in the ceremonial county of East Sussex, England. Portslade Village, the original settlement a mile inland to the north, was built up in the 16th century. The arrival of the railwa ...
,
Patcham Patcham () is a suburb in the city of Brighton and Hove, in the ceremonial county of East Sussex, England. It is about north of the city centre. It is bounded by the A27 (Brighton bypass) to the north, Hollingbury to the east and southeast, ...
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 and
Mile Oak Mile Oak is a locality forming the northern part of the former parish of Portslade in the northwest corner of the city of Brighton and Hove, England. Now mostly residential, but originally an area of good-quality agricultural land, it covers th ...
. The conurbation was first united in 1997 as a
unitary authority A unitary authority is a type of local government, local authority in New Zealand and the United Kingdom. Unitary authorities are responsible for all local government functions within its area or performing additional functions that elsewhere are ...
and has a population of about 253,000. About half of the geographical area is classed as built up. 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 c ...
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 is commonly understood as the years between and 1837, although the official regency for which it is named only spanned the years 1811 to 1820. King George III first suffered debilitating illness in the lat ...
. Old villages such as Portslade, Rottingdean,
Ovingdean Ovingdean is a small, formerly agricultural village and former civil parish on the eastern edge of the city of Brighton and Hove in the ceremonial county East Sussex, England. In 1921 the parish had a population of 476. On 1 April 1928 the pari ...
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 Victorian or Victorians may refer to: 19th century * Victorian era, British history during Queen Victoria's 19th-century reign ** Victorian architecture ** Victorian house ** Victorian decorative arts ** Victorian fashion ** Victorian literatur ...
and
Edwardian In the United Kingdom, the Edwardian era was a period in the early 20th century that spanned the reign of King Edward VII from 1901 to 1910. It is commonly extended to the start of the First World War in 1914, during the early reign of King Ge ...
eras. The Regency style, typical of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, is characterised by pale
stucco Stucco or render is a construction material made of aggregates, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as a decorative coating for walls and ceilings, exterior walls, and as a sculptural and ...
ed 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. A bow window is a form of bay with a curve rather than angular facets; an oriel window is a bay window that does not touch the g ...
s. Even the modest two-storey
terraced house A terrace, terraced house ( UK), or townhouse ( US) is a type of medium-density housing which first started in 16th century Europe with a row of joined houses sharing side walls. In the United States and Canada these are sometimes known as row ...
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 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 is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...
and
conservation area Protected areas or conservation areas are locations which receive protection because of their recognized natural or cultural values. Protected areas are those areas in which human presence or the exploitation of natural resources (e.g. firewoo ...
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 Maize (; ''Zea mays''), also known as corn in North American English, is a tall stout Poaceae, grass that produces cereal grain. It was domesticated by indigenous peoples of Mexico, indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 9,000 years ago ...
was grown. In the
Saxon The Saxons, sometimes called the Old Saxons or Continental Saxons, were a Germanic people of early medieval "Old" Saxony () which became a Carolingian " stem duchy" in 804, in what is now northern Germany. Many of their neighbours were, like th ...
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 central residential and shopping district of Brighton, East Sussex, on the English south coast, north of the Lanes. it is Brighton's bohemian and cultural quarter, with many pubs, cafés, restaurants, independent shops, plus ...
is cobble-fronted and retains a
timber-framed Timber framing () and "post-and-beam" construction are traditional methods of building with heavy Beam (structure), timbers, creating structures using squared-off and carefully fitted and Woodworking joints, joined timbers with joints secure ...
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 usually held the lord's manorial courts, communal mea ...
, 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 eac ...
) 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, 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 wit ...
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 () and "post-and-beam" construction are traditional methods of building with heavy Beam (structure), timbers, creating structures using squared-off and carefully fitted and Woodworking joints, joined timbers with joints secure ...
and plastered with load-bearing walls of bungaroosh 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, ...
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 St Wulfran's Church, dedicated to the 7th-century French archbishop Wulfram of Sens, is an Anglican church in Ovingdean, a rural village now within the English city of Brighton and Hove. Parts of the structure date from the early 12th centur ...
, 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 (architecture), choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may termi ...
replaced a
Saxon The Saxons, sometimes called the Old Saxons or Continental Saxons, were a Germanic people of early medieval "Old" Saxony () which became a Carolingian " stem duchy" in 804, in what is now northern Germany. Many of their neighbours were, like th ...
structure. St Helen's Church at Hangleton retains 11th-century herringbone masonry and other ancient fabric. The old parish churches of
Patcham Patcham () is a suburb in the city of Brighton and Hove, in the ceremonial county of East Sussex, England. It is about north of the city centre. It is bounded by the A27 (Brighton bypass) to the north, Hollingbury to the east and southeast, ...
,
Portslade Portslade is a western suburb of the city of Brighton and Hove in the ceremonial county of East Sussex, England. Portslade Village, the original settlement a mile inland to the north, was built up in the 16th century. The arrival of the railwa ...
, 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 Brighton ( ) is a seaside resort in the city status in the United Kingdom, city of Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, England, south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze Age Britain, Bronze Age, R ...
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 wikt:refurbish, refurbishment and rebuilding of Church of England church (building), churches and cathedrals that took place in England and Wales during the 19th-century Victorian era, re ...
. 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, Moulsecoomb Place and
Ovingdean Grange Ovingdean Grange is a Grade II listed manor house situated on the south coast of England in the village of Ovingdean, east of Brighton. One of the oldest and most historical residences in Brighton, it gave its name to the novel ''Ovingdean Gran ...
, 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 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 at home and there wer ...
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 ...
in 1776 in
Classical style Classical architecture typically refers to architecture consciously derived from the principles of Greek and Roman architecture of classical antiquity, or more specifically, from ''De architectura'' (c. 10 AD) by the Roman architect Vitruvius. Va ...
; in 1761 Robert Golden designed Palladian-style rooms for the Old Ship, later redecorated in a " obertAdamish" style after Crunden's work at the Castle. Robert Adam himself redesigned
Marlborough House Marlborough House, a Grade I listed mansion on The Mall in St James's, City of Westminster, London, is the headquarters of the Commonwealth of Nations and the seat of the Commonwealth Secretariat. It is adjacent to St James's Palace. The ...
in 1786–87: with its elegant
Neo-Palladian Palladian architecture is a European architectural style derived from the work of the Republic of Venice, Venetian architect Andrea Palladio (1508–1580). What is today recognised as Palladian architecture evolved from his concepts of symmetr ...
façade and "spatially arresting interior", it has been called the finest house of its era in the city.
Coaching inn The coaching inn (also coaching house or staging inn) was a vital part of Europe's inland transport infrastructure until the development of the railway, providing a resting point ( layover) for people and horses. The inn served the needs of t ...
s 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 (also known as the Brighton Pavilion) and surrounding gardens 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, Prince o ...
) 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 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, Corn Exchange and the Studio Theatre (Brighton), Studio Theatre (formerly the Pavilion Theatre). All three venues are linked to the rest o ...
complex) to the west in 1804–08, in an
Indian style Sitting is a basic action and resting position in which the body weight is supported primarily by the bony ischial tuberosities with the buttocks in contact with the ground or a horizontal surface such as a chair seat, instead of by the low ...
.
James Wyatt James Wyatt (3 August 1746 – 4 September 1813) was an English architect, a rival of Robert Adam in the Neoclassicism, neoclassical and neo-Gothic styles. He was elected to the Royal Academy of Arts in 1785 and was its president from 1805 to ...
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. 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 (as it appears in the northern hemisphere) in the first quarter (the "sickle moon"), or by extension a symbol representing the Moon itself. In Hindu iconography, Hind ...
,
Royal Crescent The Royal Crescent is a row of 30 terraced houses laid out in a sweeping crescent in the city of Bath, England. Designed by the architect John Wood, the Younger, and built between 1767 and 1774, it is among the greatest examples of Georgian ...
(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 Mononym * Amon of Judah ( 664– 640 BC), king of Judah * Amon of Toul ( 375– 423 AD), second recorded Bishop of ...
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 resi ...
and their associate Charles Busby arrived in the town. They helped to develop the
Regency style 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 ...
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 the English coastal city of Brighton and Hove. Built in five parts as a set-piece residential development ...
, 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. It consists of Arundel Terrace, Lewes Crescent, Sussex Square, Chichester Terrace, and th ...
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 Agrarianism, agrarian faction seeking to reform Parliament, abolish "rotten boroughs", restr ...
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 principal station serving the city of Brighton in Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, England, operated by Govia Thameslink Railway. It is the southern terminus of the Brighton Main Line, the western terminus of the ...
. This was built in 1841 to David Mocatta's
Italianate The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style combined its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century It ...
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 , ) 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, sculpture, clothing, food ite ...
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 ( 33 & 34 Vict. c. 75), 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 wit ...
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 area, ...
, appointed Thomas Simpson 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 The West Pier is a ruined pier in Brighton, England. Designed by Eugenius Birch and opening in 1866, it was the first pier to be Grade I listed in England but has become increasingly derelict since its closure to the public in 1975. only ...
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 was 106,940. Bedford is the county town of Bedfordshire and seat of the Borough of Bedford local government district. Bedford was founded at a ford (crossin ...
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 Places * Grand, Oklahoma, USA * Grand, Vosges, village and commune in France with Gallo-Roman amphitheatre * Grand County (disambiguation), ...
, 1864) and Horatio Nelson Goulty (the
Norfolk Norfolk ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in England, located in East Anglia and officially part of the East of England region. It borders Lincolnshire and The Wash to the north-west, the North Sea to the north and eas ...
, 1865). Then in 1890 the vast Metropole Hotel by
Alfred Waterhouse Alfred Waterhouse (19 July 1830 – 22 August 1905) was an English architect, particularly associated with Gothic Revival architecture, although he designed using other architectural styles as well. He is perhaps best known for his designs ...
"broke the orthodoxy of stucco along the seafront" due to its prominent red-brick and
terracotta Terracotta, also known as terra cotta or terra-cotta (; ; ), is a clay-based non-vitreous ceramic OED, "Terracotta""Terracotta" MFA Boston, "Cameo" database fired at relatively low temperatures. It is therefore a term used for earthenware obj ...
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 A minaret is a type of tower typically built into or adjacent to mosques. Minarets are generally used to project the Muslim call to prayer (''adhan'') from a muezzin, but they also served as landmarks and symbols of Islam's presence. They can h ...
-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 stalled for more than 20 years and
Decimus Burton Decimus Burton (30 September 1800 – 14 December 1881) was one of the foremost English architects and landscapers of the 19th century. He was the foremost Victorian architect in the Roman revival, Greek revival, Georgian neoclassical and Reg ...
'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 Victorian or Victorians may refer to: 19th century * Victorian era, British history during Queen Victoria's 19th-century reign ** Victorian architecture ** Victorian house ** Victorian decorative arts ** Victorian fashion ** Victorian literatur ...
Italianate is clear, and there was some suburban development (called Cliftonville) around the new Hove railway station 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 St Marylebone Grammar School, Philological School. After some co ...
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 Fo ...
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 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 Hove Town Hall is the headquarters of Brighton and Hove City Council. The current building was constructed in 1970 in the Brutalist style by John Wells-Thorpe, to replace the original 1882 Hall which was damaged by fire in 1966. Original tow ...
(1882; demolished 1966), a public library (1907–08) and
Hove Museum and Art Gallery Hove Museum of Creativity 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 Brighton & Hove Museums, and admission is free. Opened in 1927 ...
(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 The Most Sacred Heart of Jesus () is one of the most widely practised and well-known Catholic devotions, wherein the heart of Jesus Christ is viewed as a symbol of "God's boundless and passionate love for mankind". This devotion to Christ is p ...
(1880–81 by John Crawley) and
Holy Trinity The Trinity (, from 'threefold') is the Christian doctrine concerning the nature of God, which defines one God existing in three, , consubstantial divine persons: God the Father, God the Son (Jesus Christ) and God the Holy Spirit, three ...
(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 Public housing in the United Kingdom, also known as council housing or social housing, provided the majority of rented accommodation until 2011, when the number of households in private rental housing surpassed the number in social housing. D ...
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 originall ...
,
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 house, council housing and privat ...
and Moulsecoomb, and in the redeveloped Carlton Hill inner suburb which had been subject to
urban renewal Urban renewal (sometimes called urban regeneration in the United Kingdom and urban redevelopment in the United States) is a program of land redevelopment often used to address real or perceived urban decay. Urban renewal involves the clearing ...
); middle-class residential housing developed to the north in the
Patcham Patcham () is a suburb in the city of Brighton and Hove, in the ceremonial county of East Sussex, England. It is about north of the city centre. It is bounded by the A27 (Brighton bypass) to the north, Hollingbury to the east and southeast, ...
and Preston areas; and suburbs such as
Westdene Westdene is an area of the city of Brighton and Hove, East Sussex. It is a northern suburb of the city, west of Patcham, the A23 road, A23 (London Road) and the Brighton Main Line, London to Brighton railway line, north of Withdean and northe ...
,
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 1920 ...
, Tongdean and West Blatchington 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 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 a suburb in the city of Brighton and Hove, in the ceremonial county of East Sussex, England. It is about north of the city centre. It is bounded by the A27 (Brighton bypass) to the north, Hollingbury to the east and southeast, ...
in 1920, were designed along " garden city" lines with
semi-detached A semi-detached house (often abbreviated to semi) is a single-family Duplex (building), duplex dwelling that shares one common party wall, wall with its neighbour. The name distinguishes this style of construction from detached houses, with no sh ...
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 was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...
lines.
Wells Coates Wells Wintemute Coates (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 block ...
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 a professional architecture magazine, published monthly in London by Metropolis International. Each issue includes in-depth features on relevant current affairs, alongside profiles of recently completed buildings. Ten t ...
'' 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 in East Sussex, England. Alongside Brighton, it is one of the two main parts of the city of Brighton and Hove. Originally a fishing village surrounded by open farmland, it grew rapidly in the 19th century in respon ...
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. It consists of Arundel Terrace, Lewes Crescent, Sussex Square, Chichester Terrace, and th ...
. 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 (), is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design that first Art Deco in Paris, appeared in Paris in the 1910s just before World War I and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920 ...
style: among them were the Savoy (later ABC), the Astoria, the
Regent In a monarchy, a regent () is a person appointed to govern a state because the actual monarch is a minor, absent, incapacitated or unable to discharge their powers and duties, or the throne is vacant and a new monarch has not yet been dete ...
, the Imperial Theatre and Sherry's Dance Hall—which was near another "much-loved venue", the
SS Brighton SS ''Brighton'' can refer to the following ships: * , constructed for London, Brighton and South Coast Railway, sold in 1850 to Italy * , constructed for London, Brighton and South Coast Railway, sold in 1893 * , Sydney Harbour ferry between 1883 ...
] complex. Also in the Art Deco style were the
Saltdean Lido Saltdean Lido at Saltdean Park Road, Saltdean, in the city of Brighton and Hove, 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 its ...
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, Corn Exchange and the Studio Theatre (Brighton), Studio Theatre (formerly the Pavilion Theatre). All three venues are linked to the rest o ...
(originally the Royal Pavilion's stables, built by William Porden) and the Brighton Aquarium. Local architect John Leopold Denman 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 was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...
" 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. It is also a non-metropolitan district, local government district with Borough status in the United Kingdom, bor ...
, 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 originall ...
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 jurisdiction. ...
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. By the time of the local authority elections in May 2023 the Ward boundary had been changed and ...
, 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 originall ...
, 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 and
Sussex Heights Sussex Heights is a residential tower block in the centre of Brighton, part of the English city of Brighton and Hove. Built between 1966 and 1968 on the site of a historic church, it rises to and has 116 flats (including the penthouse). , the ...
(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 (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 Postmodernism encompasses a variety of artistic, cultural, and philosophical movements that claim to mark a break from modernism. They have in common the conviction that it is no longer possible to rely upon previous ways of depicting the wo ...
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 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-d ...
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 Bioregional is a British entrepreneurial charity, which aims to invent and deliver practical solutions for sustainability. It was founded in 1992 on the belief that overconsumption of resources was the driving force behind environmental degradat ...
and the
World Wide Fund for Nature The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) is a Swiss-based 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 th ...
's "One Planet Living" design principles were used to ensure the development was
sustainable Sustainability is a social goal for people to co-exist on Earth over a long period of time. Definitions of this term are disputed and have varied with literature, context, and time. Sustainability usually has three dimensions (or pillars): env ...
. 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 house, council housing and privat ...
have
chestnut The chestnuts are the deciduous trees and shrubs in the genus ''Castanea'', in the beech family Fagaceae. The name also refers to the edible nuts they produce. They are native to temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. Description ...
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 succule ...
; the Sea Saw Self-Build scheme in Whitehawk (1993) consists of 24
timber-framed Timber framing () and "post-and-beam" construction are traditional methods of building with heavy Beam (structure), timbers, creating structures using squared-off and carefully fitted and Woodworking joints, joined timbers with joints secure ...
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. By the time of the local authority elections in May 2023 the Ward boundary had been changed and ...
(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 framing, ...
s and bungaroosh 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, ...
, salt-glazed brickwork and knapped or plain flints were also common in early buildings.
Stucco Stucco or render is a construction material made of aggregates, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as a decorative coating for walls and ceilings, exterior walls, and as a sculptural and ...
—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. A bow window is a form of bay with a curve rather than angular facets; an oriel window is a bay window that does not touch the g ...
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 A terrace in agriculture is a flat surface that has been cut into hills or mountains to provide areas for the cultivation for crops, as a method of more effective farming. Terrace agriculture or cultivation is when these platforms are created s ...
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 or neo-Gothic) is an Architectural style, architectural movement that after a gradual build-up beginning in the second half of the 17th century became a widespread movement in the first half ...
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 Hydraulic lime (HL) is a general term for a variety of lime different from calcium oxide (quicklime), that sets by hydration and consists of calcium silicate and calcium aluminate, compounds that can harden in contact with water. This contras ...
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 The Royal Crescent is a row of 30 terraced houses laid out in a sweeping crescent in the city of Bath, England. Designed by the architect John Wood, the Younger, and built between 1767 and 1774, it is among the greatest examples of Georgian ...
,
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 Stucco or render is a construction material made of aggregates, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as a decorative coating for walls and ceilings, exterior walls, and as a sculptural and ...
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,
architrave In classical architecture, an architrave (; , also called an epistyle; ) is the lintel or beam, typically made of wood or stone, that rests on the capitals of columns. The term can also apply to all sides, including the vertical members, ...
s 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 Order, ORDER or Orders may refer to: * A socio-political or established or existing order, e.g. World order, Ancien Regime, Pax Britannica * Categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated, and understood * H ...
,
pilaster In architecture, a pilaster is both a load-bearing section of thickened wall or column integrated into a wall, and a purely decorative element in classical architecture which gives the appearance of a supporting column and articulates an ext ...
s,
parapet A parapet is a barrier that is an upward extension of a 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/brea ...
s,
cornice In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative Moulding (decorative), moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, ar ...
s 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 historian who specialised in the medieval period. Life and career He was born in Brighton in 1878, the son of Dr. F. W. Salzmann, and educated at Haileybury Colleg ...
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 Protected areas or conservation areas are locations which receive protection because of their recognized natural or cultural values. Protected areas are those areas in which human presence or the exploitation of natural resources (e.g. firewood ...
). 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, ...
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 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 Bath may refer to: * Bathing, immersion in a fluid ** Bathtub, a large open container for water, in which a person may wash their body ** Public bathing, a public place where people bathe * Thermae, ancient Roman public bathing facilities Plac ...
or
Portland Portland most commonly refers to: *Portland, Oregon, the most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon *Portland, Maine, the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maine *Isle of Portland, a tied island in the English Channel Portland may also r ...
stone, and
Kentish ragstone Kentish ragstone is a hard grey limestone in Kent, England, drawn from the geological sequence known as the Hythe Beds of the Lower Greensand. For millennia it has been quarried for use both locally and further afield. Geology Ragstone occurs ...
was used for St Joseph's Church on Elm Grove, but few ordinary residential or commercial buildings have any stonework.
Artificial stone Artificial stone is a name for various synthetic stone products produced from the 18th century onward. Uses include statuary, architectural details, fencing and rails, building construction, civil engineering work, and industrial applications su ...
was sometimes used for exterior features such as
cornice In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative Moulding (decorative), moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, ar ...
s 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. Historically, flint was widely used to make stone tools and start ...
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 and former civil parish on the eastern edge of the city of Brighton and Hove in the ceremonial county East Sussex, England. In 1921 the parish had a population of 476. On 1 April 1928 the pari ...
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 in the south-eastern coastal counties of England 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 ...
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 1920 ...
, Southdown House in Patcham and several houses in
Ovingdean Ovingdean is a small, formerly agricultural village and former civil parish on the eastern edge of the city of Brighton and Hove in the ceremonial county East Sussex, England. In 1921 the parish had a population of 476. On 1 April 1928 the pari ...
and
Stanmer Stanmer is a village on the northern edge of the city of Brighton and Hove, in the ceremonial county of East Sussex, England. It was formerly a civil parish until 1952 when it was split between Brighton and Falmer. In 1951 the parish had a pop ...
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 those terms, is wooden siding of a building in the form of horizontal boards, often overlapping. ''Clapboard'', in modern Am ...
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 () and "post-and-beam" construction are traditional methods of building with heavy Beam (structure), timbers, creating structures using squared-off and carefully fitted and Woodworking joints, joined timbers with joints secure ...
is also rare in the city, but modern
self-build Self-build is the process of creating an individual home or building through a variety of methods. The self-builder's input into this process varies from doing the actual construction, also known as Do it yourself, DIY, to contracting certain wor ...
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 originall ...
(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 house, council housing and privat ...
(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 Green building (also known as green construction, sustainable building, or eco-friendly building) refers to both a structure and the application of processes that are environmentally responsible and resource-efficient throughout a building's l ...
within the University of Brighton Faculty of Arts 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 Corporate headquarters is the part of a corporate structure that deals with tasks such as strategic planning, corporate communications, taxes, law, books of record, marketing, finance, human resources, and information technology. Corporate headqu ...
in the Carlton Hill area, was the first building in Britain to use
glass-reinforced plastic Fiberglass (American English) or fibreglass ( Commonwealth English) is a common type of fiber-reinforced plastic using glass fiber. The fibers may be randomly arranged, flattened into a sheet called a chopped strand mat, or woven into glass c ...
. The New England Quarter, an early 21st-century
mixed-use development Mixed use is a type of urban development, urban design, urban planning and/or a zoning classification that blends multiple uses, such as residential, commercial, cultural, institutional, or entertainment, into one space, where those functions ...
, 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 those terms, is wooden siding of a building in the form of horizontal boards, often overlapping. ''Clapboard'', in modern Am ...
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. A bow window is a form of bay with a curve rather than angular facets; an oriel window is a bay window that does not touch the g ...
s were the "chief architectural feature" of Brighton's early houses. Vertical sliding timber-framed
sash window A sash window or hung sash window is made of one or more movable panels, or "sashes". The individual sashes are traditionally paned windows, but can now contain an individual sheet (or sheets, in the case of double glazing) of glass. History ...
s 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 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, in rea ...
houses, as at Woodland Drive (a conservation area) in West Blatchington; 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
portico A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls. This idea was widely used in ancient Greece and has influenced many cu ...
s with Classical-style details are seen on many 19th-century houses, especially those built in the
Regency era The Regency era of British history is commonly understood as the years between and 1837, although the official regency for which it is named only spanned the years 1811 to 1820. King George III first suffered debilitating illness in the lat ...
. A typical form consisted of two columns with decorative mouldings, an
entablature An entablature (; nativization of Italian , from "in" and "table") is the superstructure of moldings and bands which lies horizontally above columns, resting on their capitals. Entablatures are major elements of classical architecture, and ...
and a straight roof, all stuccoed, supporting a
cast-iron Cast iron is a class of iron–carbon alloys with a carbon content of more than 2% and silicon content around 1–3%. Its usefulness derives from its relatively low melting temperature. The alloying elements determine the form in which its car ...
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 (also spelled verandah in Australian and New Zealand English) is a roofed, open-air hallway or porch, attached to the outside of a building. A veranda is often partly enclosed by a railing and frequently extends across the front an ...
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 Portland stone is a limestone geological formation (formally named the Portland Stone Formation) dating to the Tithonian age of the Late Jurassic that is quarried on the Isle of Portland in Dorset, England. The quarries are cut in beds of whi ...
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 c ...
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 architecture, a pilaster is both a load-bearing section of thickened wall or column integrated into a wall, and a purely decorative element in classical architecture which gives the appearance of a supporting column and articulates an ext ...
s,
entablature An entablature (; nativization of Italian , from "in" and "table") is the superstructure of moldings and bands which lies horizontally above columns, resting on their capitals. Entablatures are major elements of classical architecture, and ...
s,
pediment Pediments are a form of gable in classical architecture, usually of a triangular shape. Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the cornice (an elaborated lintel), or entablature if supported by columns.Summerson, 130 In an ...
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. They come in four main pairs of shapes, as given in the box to the right, which also gives their n ...
and courses—while other mouldings would be merely decorative. Typical designs included shells, foliage (especially on
capitals Capital and its variations may refer to: Common uses * Capital city, a municipality of primary status ** Capital region, a metropolitan region containing the capital ** List of national capitals * Capital letter, an upper-case letter Econom ...
) and
vermiculation Vermiculation is a surface pattern of dense but irregular lines, so called from the Latin 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 contexts for ...
. The Ammonite Order is a
Classical order An order in architecture is a certain assemblage of parts subject to uniform established proportions, regulated by the office that each part has to perform. Coming down to the present from Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek and Ancient Roman civiliz ...
found almost exclusively in Brighton and Hove, consisting of fluted 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 ...
s are shaped like
ammonite Ammonoids are extinct, (typically) coiled-shelled cephalopods comprising the subclass Ammonoidea. They are more closely related to living octopuses, squid, and cuttlefish (which comprise the clade Coleoidea) than they are to nautiluses (family N ...
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 resi ...
used them extensively. Pilasters and columns of the
Corinthian order The Corinthian order (, ''Korinthiakós rythmós''; ) is the last developed and most ornate of the three principal classical orders of Ancient Greek architecture and Ancient Roman architecture, Roman architecture. The other two are the Doric or ...
are also common. Victorian and Edwardian buildings made use of intricately moulded courses and bracketed
eaves The eaves are the edges of the roof which overhang the face of a wall and, normally, project beyond the side of a building. The eaves form an overhang to throw water clear of the walls and may be highly decorated as part of an architectural sty ...
. Elaborate carved
relief Relief is a sculpture, sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces remain attached to a solid background of the same material. The term ''wikt:relief, relief'' is from the Latin verb , to raise (). To create a sculpture in relief is to give ...
s are found on some of John Leopold Denman'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 Portland stone is a limestone geological formation (formally named the Portland Stone Formation) dating to the Tithonian age of the Late Jurassic that is quarried on the Isle of Portland in Dorset, England. The quarries are cut in beds of whi ...
capitals with scallops and
seahorse A seahorse (also written ''sea-horse'' and ''sea horse'') is any of 46 species of small marine Osteichthyes, bony fish in the genus ''Hippocampus''. The genus name comes from the Ancient Greek (), itself from () meaning "horse" and () meanin ...
s.
Terracotta Terracotta, also known as terra cotta or terra-cotta (; ; ), is a clay-based non-vitreous ceramic OED, "Terracotta""Terracotta" MFA Boston, "Cameo" database fired at relatively low temperatures. It is therefore a term used for earthenware obj ...
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 Ceramic glaze, pottery glaze suitable for painted decoration, by the addition of an stannous oxide, oxide of tin to the Slip (c ...
earthenware. They were commonly used to top off a structure such as a wall or roof, in the form of
finial A finial () or hip-knob is an element marking the top or end of some object, often formed to be a decorative feature. In architecture, it is a small decorative device, employed to emphasize the Apex (geometry), apex of a dome, spire, tower, roo ...
s, 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, corporation house or council flat is a form of British Public housing in the United Kingdom, public housing built by Local government in the United Kingdom, local authorities. A council estate is a building complex containing ...
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. When looking at artworks and a ...
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 Diamond jubilee, 60th anniversary of Queen Victoria's accession on 20 June 1837. Queen Victoria was the first British monarch ever to cel ...
. 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 those terms, is wooden siding of a building in the form of horizontal boards, often overlapping. ''Clapboard'', in modern Am ...
-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 building permit refers to the approval needed for construction or expansion (including significant renovation), and sometimes for demolition, in some jurisdictions. House building permits, for example, are subject to buil ...
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 wer ...
had occupied Ainsworth House, which was in a dangerous condition because it contained
asbestos Asbestos ( ) is a group of naturally occurring, Toxicity, toxic, carcinogenic and fibrous silicate minerals. There are six types, all of which are composed of long and thin fibrous Crystal habit, crystals, each fibre (particulate with length su ...
. 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 which began in Paris. It revolutionized painting and the visual arts, and sparked artistic innovations in music, ballet, literature, and architecture. Cubist subjects are analyzed, broke ...
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), Lewes district. Saltdean is approximately east of central Brighton, west of Newhaven, and south ...
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 In a monarchy, a regent () is a person appointed to govern a state because the actual monarch is a minor, absent, incapacitated or unable to discharge their powers and duties, or the throne is vacant and a new monarch has not yet been dete ...
/ 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
stucco Stucco or render is a construction material made of aggregates, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as a decorative coating for walls and ceilings, exterior walls, and as a sculptural and ...
ed 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 combined its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Ita ...
, 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. A bow window is a form of bay with a curve rather than angular facets; an oriel window is a bay window that does not touch the g ...
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 The Jacobethan ( ) architectural style, also known as Jacobean Revival, 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 Engli ...
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 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 St Marylebone Grammar School, Philological School. After some co ...
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 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'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 (), is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design that first Art Deco in Paris, appeared in Paris in the 1910s just before World War I and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920 ...
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 St Marylebone Grammar School, Philological School. After some co ...
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 palace, 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 re ...
-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 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 and former civil parish on the eastern edge of the city of Brighton and Hove in the ceremonial county East Sussex, England. In 1921 the parish had a population of 476. On 1 April 1928 the pari ...
, 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 Philosophy ...
steel-frame and pale brick home has a
cruciform A cruciform is a physical manifestation resembling a common cross or Christian cross. These include architectural shapes, biology, art, and design. Cruciform architectural plan Christian churches are commonly described as having a cruciform ...
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 Henry Holden (12 May 1875 – 1 May 1960) was an English architect best known for designing many London Underground stations during the 1920s and 1930s, the Underground Electric Railways Company of London's headquarters at 55 Broadwa ...
's
London Underground The London Underground (also known simply as the Underground or as the Tube) is a rapid transit system serving Greater London and some parts of the adjacent home counties of Buckinghamshire, Essex and Hertfordshire in England. The Undergro ...
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 (), is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design that first Art Deco in Paris, appeared in Paris in the 1910s just before World War I and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920 ...
corner building by Garrett & Son (1934) incorporating Clayton & Black'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 Limited (; trading as Penneys in Ireland) is an Irish multinational fashion retailer with headquarters in Dublin, Ireland, with outlets across Europe and in the United States. The original ''Penneys'' brand is not used outside of Irel ...
) and the Stafford's hardware shop (1930; now Poundland) in American-influenced and
Continental European Continental Europe or mainland Europe is the contiguous mainland of Europe, excluding its surrounding islands. It can also be referred to ambiguously as the European continent, – which can conversely mean the whole of Europe – and, by so ...
-influenced versions of the
Classical style Classical architecture typically refers to architecture consciously derived from the principles of Greek and Roman architecture of classical antiquity, or more specifically, from ''De architectura'' (c. 10 AD) by the Roman architect Vitruvius. Va ...
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 WH Smith plc, trading as WHSmith (also written WH Smith and formerly as W. H. Smith & Son), is a British retailer, with headquarters in Swindon, England, which operates a chain of railway station, airport, port, hospital and motorway service st ...
below its five storeys of flats. It replaced the 19th-century premises of
Le Bon Marché 240px, Interior ( "the good market", or "the good deal" in French; ) is a department store in the 7th arrondissement of Paris, France. Founded in 1838 and revamped almost completely by Aristide Boucicaut in 1852, it was one of the first ...
, 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 Thomas Bostock Whinney (1860 – 7 May 1926) FRIBA was an English architect based in London who became the chief architect of the Midland Bank. History He was born in 1860, the son of Frederick Whinney of Regent's Park Road, London. He was ...
's Doric-columned Classical-style
Bath stone Bath Stone is an oolitic limestone comprising granular fragments of calcium carbonate originally obtained from the Middle Jurassic aged Great Oolite Group of the Combe Down and Bathampton Down Mines under Combe Down, Somerset, England. Its h ...
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 was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...
/
Brutalist Brutalist architecture is an architectural style that emerged during the 1950s in the United Kingdom, among the reconstruction projects of the post-war era. Brutalist buildings are characterised by minimalist constructions that showcase the b ...
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 Thomas Bostock Whinney (1860 – 7 May 1926) FRIBA was an English architect based in London who became the chief architect of the Midland Bank. History He was born in 1860, the son of Frederick Whinney of Regent's Park Road, London. He was ...
-designed Midland Bank branch, built in 1902 with a colonnade of Tuscan columns and a balustrade at the top, typical of the
Edwardian era In the United Kingdom, the Edwardian era was a period in the early 20th century that spanned the reign of King Edward VII from 1901 to 1910. It is commonly extended to the start of the First World War in 1914, during the early reign of King Ge ...
; 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, an ebullient essay in
Edwardian Baroque Edwardian architecture usually refers to a Neo-Baroque architectural style that was popular for public buildings in the British Empire during the Edwardian era (1901–1910). Architecture up to 1914 is commonly included in this style. It can al ...
", 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 Booksellers Limited, trading as Waterstones (formerly Waterstone's), is a British bookselling, book retailer based in London, England, owned by the American investment group Elliott Investment Management. It operates 311 shops, ma ...
bookshop opposite, designed for Burtons in 1928 by their in-house architect Harry Wilson, has a Classical theme with full-height
pilaster In architecture, a pilaster is both a load-bearing section of thickened wall or column integrated into a wall, and a purely decorative element in classical architecture which gives the appearance of a supporting column and articulates an ext ...
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 Demutualisation, demutualised in the middle of 1997, when ...
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 in Brighton 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 achieved university status in 1992. T ...
. 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 Brise, Brisé or Briše may refer to: * Brisé (dance), a type of jump in ballet * "Brisé" (song), Maître Gims 2015 *Brisé (music), Style brisé (French: "broken style"), Baroque music Places * Briše, Kamnik, Slovenia * Briše pri Polhovem G ...
. 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 Piers may refer to: * Pier, a raised structure over a body of water * Pier (architecture), an architectural support * Piers (name), a given name and surname (including lists of people with the name) * Piers baronets, two titles, in the baronetages ...
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 often ...
factory, which made 30,000 three-wheeled
Isetta The Isetta is an Italian-designed microcar initially manufactured in 1953 by the Italian firm Iso (automobile), Iso SpA, and subsequently built under license in a number of different countries, including Argentina, Spain, Belgium, France, Brazil ...
s in the next seven years. The whole site was cleared between 1962 and 1969, and the mixed-use New England Quarter 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 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. Prom ...
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 in the ceremonial county of East Sussex, England. Portslade Village, the original settlement a mile inland to the north, was built up in the 16th century. The arrival of the railwa ...
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 ( ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the States of Germany, German state of Lower Saxony. Its population of 535,932 (2021) makes it the List of cities in Germany by population, 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-l ...
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 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 and became Mithras House.


Ecclesiastical architecture

Brighton's
parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the Church (building), 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 com ...
, 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 and former civil parish on the eastern edge of the city of Brighton and Hove in the ceremonial county East Sussex, England. In 1921 the parish had a population of 476. On 1 April 1928 the pari ...
,
Hangleton Hangleton is a suburb of Brighton and Hove, in the ceremonial county of East Sussex, England. The area was developed in the 1930s after it was incorporated into the Borough of Hove, but has ancient origins: St Helen's Church, Hangleton, its par ...
,
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 and
Portslade Portslade is a western suburb of the city of Brighton and Hove in the ceremonial county of East Sussex, England. Portslade Village, the original settlement a mile inland to the north, was built up in the 16th century. The arrival of the railwa ...
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 Victorian or Victorians may refer to: 19th century * Victorian era, British history during Queen Victoria's 19th-century reign ** Victorian architecture ** Victorian house ** Victorian decorative arts ** Victorian fashion ** Victorian literatur ...
churches—particularly those built for the
Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...
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 Benjamin Ferrey List of Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries of London, FSA Royal Institute of British Architects, FRIBA (1 April 1810 – 22 August 1880) was an English architect who worked mostly in the Gothic revival architecture, Gothic Re ...
, Richard Cromwell Carpenter 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 with C. E. Kempe. He was in partnership with Thomas Garner for much of his career and was ...
. An early preference for the
Classical style Classical architecture typically refers to architecture consciously derived from the principles of Greek and Roman architecture of classical antiquity, or more specifically, from ''De architectura'' (c. 10 AD) by the Roman architect Vitruvius. Va ...
, as at Christ Church (now demolished) and St John the Evangelist's at Carlton Hill, gave way to various forms of
Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic or neo-Gothic) is an Architectural style, architectural movement that after a gradual build-up beginning in the second half of the 17th century became a widespread movement in the first half ...
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 an English 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 responsi ...
'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 proficie ...
. 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 era, Victorian art-architects, he sought in his work to escape from both nineteenth-century Industrial Revolution, ...
(1893–95), was established by Rev. Charles Beanlands, a
curate A curate () is a person who is invested with the ''care'' or ''cure'' () of souls of a parish. In this sense, ''curate'' means a parish priest; but in English-speaking countries the term ''curate'' is commonly used to describe clergy who are as ...
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 or neo-Gothic) is an architectural movement that after a gradual build-up beginning in the second half of the 17th century became a widespread movement in the first half of the 19th century ...
, 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 resi ...
'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 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. ...
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 Muse ...
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 (London), National Portrait Gallery. He was Arch ...
"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 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. ...
in 1888–91 and comprehensively extended in 1960 in a complementary style by John Leopold Denman. The partly Saxon
St Wulfran's Church, Ovingdean St Wulfran's Church, dedicated to the 7th-century French archbishop Wulfram of Sens, is an Anglican church in Ovingdean, a rural village now within the English city of Brighton and Hove. Parts of the structure date from the early 12th centur ...
(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 suburb of Brighton and Hove, in the ceremonial county of East Sussex, England. The area was developed in the 1930s after it was incorporated into the Borough of Hove, but has ancient origins: St Helen's Church, Hangleton, its par ...
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 place ...
's Bishop Hannington Memorial Church (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 e ...
'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 Epistemology, epistemological view that "regards reason as the chief source and test of knowledge" or "the position that reason has precedence over other ways of acquiring knowledge", often in contrast to ot ...
, used two-tone brick and reinforced concrete and had an unusual interior layout designed to make the altar highly visible.
John Betjeman Sir John Betjeman, (; 28 August 190619 May 1984) was an English poet, writer, and broadcaster. He was Poet Laureate from 1972 until his death. He was a founding member of The Victorian Society and a passionate defender of Victorian architect ...
said it was "about the best 1930s church there is". Postwar churches are mostly
Modernist Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...
in style: the Church of the Good Shepherd in
Mile Oak Mile Oak is a locality forming the northern part of the former parish of Portslade in the northwest corner of the city of Brighton and Hove, England. Now mostly residential, but originally an area of good-quality agricultural land, it covers th ...
(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 house, council housing and privat ...
's brick and knapped flint 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 estate, converted from an 18th-century barn in 1955 by John Leopold Denman and still wholly
Vernacular Vernacular is the ordinary, informal, spoken language, spoken form of language, particularly when perceptual dialectology, perceived as having lower social status or less Prestige (sociolinguistics), prestige than standard language, which is mor ...
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 columns and
pilaster In architecture, a pilaster is both a load-bearing section of thickened wall or column integrated into a wall, and a purely decorative element in classical architecture which gives the appearance of a supporting column and articulates an ext ...
s—to the varied Gothic Revival designs of
St Joseph According to the Gospel, canonical Gospels, Joseph (; ) was a 1st-century Jews, Jewish man of Nazareth who was Espousals of the Blessed Virgin Mary, married to Mary, mother of Jesus, Mary, the mother of Jesus, and was the legal father of Jesus ...
, St Mary Magdalen, the Church of the Sacred Heart and St Mary's at Preston Park (which has some
Arts and Crafts The Arts and Crafts movement was an international trend in the Decorative arts, decorative and fine arts that developed earliest and most fully in the British Isles and subsequently spread across the British Empire and to the rest of Europe and ...
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 t ...
St Peter's Church at
Aldrington Aldrington is an area in the city of Brighton and Hove in the ceremonial county of East Sussex, England. It was formerly a civil parish. For centuries it was meadow land along the English Channel stretching west from the old village of Hove to ...
(1915) has a landmark
campanile A bell tower is a tower that contains one or more bells, or that is designed to hold bells even if it has none. Such a tower commonly serves as part of a Christian church, and will contain church bells, but there are also many secular bell to ...
, 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 Vernacular is the ordinary, informal, spoken language, spoken form of language, particularly when perceptual dialectology, perceived as having lower social status or less Prestige (sociolinguistics), prestige than standard language, which is mor ...
or
Modernist Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...
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 rigid triangular elements of the dome distribute stress throughout the structure, making geodesic domes able to withstand very heavy ...
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 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 b ...
s.
Strict Baptists Reformed Baptists, also called Particular Baptists, or Calvinist Baptists, are Baptists that hold to a Calvinist soteriology (salvation belief teached by John Calvin). The name "Reformed Baptist" dates from the latter part of the 20th century ...
meet at the starkly plain Neoclassical Galeed Strict Baptist Chapel (1868).
Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a Protestant Christianity, Christian Christian tradition, tradition whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's brother ...
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 t ...
(the Grade II-listed Hove Methodist Church, by John Wills in 1895 and featuring a prominent
rose window Rose window is often used as a generic term applied to a circular window, but is especially used for those found in Gothic cathedrals and churches. The windows are divided into segments by stone mullions and tracery. The term ''rose window'' wa ...
), Early English
Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic or neo-Gothic) is an Architectural style, architectural movement that after a gradual build-up beginning in the second half of the 17th century became a widespread movement in the first half ...
(E.J. Hamilton's 1897–98 building at Stanford Avenue in Preston Park, with stone-faced brickwork) and
Modernist Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...
at
Patcham Patcham () is a suburb in the city of Brighton and Hove, in the ceremonial county of East Sussex, England. It is about north of the city centre. It is bounded by the A27 (Brighton bypass) to the north, Hollingbury to the east and southeast, ...
(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
stucco Stucco or render is a construction material made of aggregates, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as a decorative coating for walls and ceilings, exterior walls, and as a sculptural and ...
ed and
pinnacle A pinnacle is an architectural element originally forming the cap or crown of a buttress or small turret, but afterwards used on parapets at the corners of towers and in many other situations. The pinnacle looks like a small spire. It was main ...
d 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 Brutalist architecture is an architectural style that emerged during the 1950s in the United Kingdom, among the reconstruction projects of the post-war era. Brutalist buildings are characterised by minimalist constructions that showcase the b ...
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 cathe ...
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 Crawley () is a town and Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in West Sussex, England. It is south of London, north of Brighton and Hove, and north-east of the county town of Chichester. Crawley covers an area of and had a populat ...
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 In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or municipal hall (in the Philippines) is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses the city o ...
, but only those at Hove and
Brighton Brighton ( ) is a seaside resort in the city status in the United Kingdom, city of Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, England, south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze Age Britain, Bronze Age, R ...
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 and Ireland, a workhouse (, lit. "poor-house") was a total institution where those unable to support themselves financially were offered accommodation and employment. In Scotland, they were usually known as Scottish poorhouse, poorh ...
. 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 Brookla ...
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 o ...
s and wide staircases, was criticised in the 19th century, and May's infilling of the
cruciform A cruciform is a physical manifestation resembling a common cross or Christian cross. These include architectural shapes, biology, art, and design. Cruciform architectural plan Christian churches are commonly described as having a cruciform ...
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, a battlefield, medieval castles, Roman forts, historic industrial sites, Lis ...
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 Alfred Waterhouse (19 July 1830 – 22 August 1905) was an English architect, particularly associated with Gothic Revival architecture, although he designed using other architectural styles as well. He is perhaps best known for his designs ...
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 BIMM University (BIMM) is a private university specialising in music, film, performing arts and creative technology. The university is principally based in the United Kingdom with other centres in Ireland and Germany. It is organised into five ...
, 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, also known as terra cotta or terra-cotta (; ; ), is a clay-based non-vitreous ceramic OED, "Terracotta""Terracotta" MFA Boston, "Cameo" database fired at relatively low temperatures. It is therefore a term used for earthenware obj ...
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 sup ...
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 th ...
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 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
balustrade 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 ...
d 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 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 ...
housed an early district police station. In November 2008, a two-storey
sustainable building Green building (also known as green construction, sustainable building, or eco-friendly building) refers to both a structure and the application of processes that are environmentally responsible and resource-efficient throughout a building's l ...
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 form ...
. 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 brick and
Bath stone Bath Stone is an oolitic limestone comprising granular fragments of calcium carbonate originally obtained from the Middle Jurassic aged Great Oolite Group of the Combe Down and Bathampton Down Mines under Combe Down, Somerset, England. Its h ...
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 combined its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Ita ...
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, known as Hove Trial Centre, (1971–72). The latter cost £380,000 and has four courtrooms and office accommodation. Designed by
Fitzroy Robinson & Partners Fitzroy Robinson & Partners was one of the UK's largest firms of architects. It was based at Devonshire Street in London and founded by Herbert Fitzroy Robinson. History The firm was established by Herbert Fitzroy Robinson in 1956. Public buildin ...
, 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 was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...
" with more old-fashioned elements such as a canopied entrance and windows with prominent
architrave In classical architecture, an architrave (; , also called an epistyle; ) is the lintel or beam, typically made of wood or stone, that rests on the capitals of columns. The term can also apply to all sides, including the vertical members, ...
s. Sculptor Joseph Cribb provided carved
relief Relief is a sculpture, sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces remain attached to a solid background of the same material. The term ''wikt:relief, relief'' is from the Latin verb , to raise (). To create a sculpture in relief is to give ...
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 A pier is a raised structure that rises above a body of water and usually juts out from its shore, typically supported by piling, piles or column, pillars, and provides above-water access to offshore areas. Frequent pier uses include fishing, b ...
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 A dormer is a roofed structure, often containing a window, that projects vertically beyond the plane of a Roof pitch, pitched roof. A dormer window (also called ''dormer'') is a form of roof window. Dormers are commonly used to increase the ...
window with terracotta
finial A finial () or hip-knob is an element marking the top or end of some object, often formed to be a decorative feature. In architecture, it is a small decorative device, employed to emphasize the Apex (geometry), apex of a dome, spire, tower, roo ...
s. 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'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 southeast of Charing Cross, and had an estimated population of 88,000 as of 2023. Originally part of Kent, Bromley became a market town, charte ...
—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 inc ...
(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 an English 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 responsi ...
's original buildings (1826–28) are Classical and
pediment Pediments are a form of gable in classical architecture, usually of a triangular shape. Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the cornice (an elaborated lintel), or entablature if supported by columns.Summerson, 130 In an ...
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'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 and Ireland, a workhouse (, lit. "poor-house") was a total institution where those unable to support themselves financially were offered accommodation and employment. In Scotland, they were usually known as Scottish poorhouse, poorh ...
. 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 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 which 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 terminat ...
s and much use of terracotta and red brick. Clayton & Black 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 Whit ...
(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, also known as terra cotta or terra-cotta (; ; ), is a clay-based non-vitreous ceramic OED, "Terracotta""Terracotta" MFA Boston, "Cameo" database fired at relatively low temperatures. It is therefore a term used for earthenware obj ...
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 organisations that provide low-cost "Public housing in the United Kingdom, social housing" for people in need of a home. Any budget surpl ...
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 in 1904. Public halls,
gentlemen's club A gentlemen's club is a private social club of a type originally established by males from Britain's upper classes starting in the 17th century. Many countries outside Britain have prominent gentlemen's clubs, mostly those associated with the ...
s 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
stucco Stucco or render is a construction material made of aggregates, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as a decorative coating for walls and ceilings, exterior walls, and as a sculptural and ...
ed terraces with its broad arched-windowed, red-brick façade and the
Neo-Jacobean The Jacobethan ( ) architectural style, also known as Jacobean Revival, 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 Engli ...
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 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 sup ...
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 (typically Gothic) buildings, as a means of providing support to act ...
es rising to form chimneys, a
loggia In architecture, a loggia ( , usually , ) is a covered exterior Long gallery, gallery or corridor, often on an upper level, sometimes on the ground level of a building. The corridor is open to the elements because its outer wall is only parti ...
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 sup ...
s and transoms,
Art Nouveau Art Nouveau ( ; ; ), Jugendstil and Sezessionstil in German, is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. It was often inspired by natural forms such as the sinuous curves of plants and ...
-style windows and ornate interior timberwork.


Educational buildings

The ''
Buildings of England The ''Pevsner Architectural Guides'' are four series of guide books to the architecture of the British Isles. ''The Buildings of England'' series was begun in 1945 by the art historian Sir Nikolaus Pevsner, with its forty-six original volumes pub ...
'' series called the "majestic and intimate"
University of Sussex The University of Sussex is a public university, public research university, research university located in Falmer, East Sussex, England. It lies mostly within the city boundaries of Brighton and Hove. Its large campus site is surrounded by the ...
"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 village on the northern edge of the city of Brighton and Hove, in the ceremonial county of East Sussex, England. It was formerly a civil parish until 1952 when it was split between Brighton and Falmer. In 1951 the parish had a pop ...
estate). Spence's buildings are "post-1955
Modernist Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...
", influenced by both
Le Corbusier Charles-Édouard Jeanneret (6 October 188727 August 1965), known as Le Corbusier ( , ; ), was a Swiss-French architectural designer, painter, urban planner and writer, who was one of the pioneers of what is now regarded as modern architecture ...
and the "epic monumentality" of
Ancient Roman architecture Ancient Roman architecture adopted the external language of classical ancient Greek architecture for the purposes of the ancient Romans, but was different from Greek buildings, becoming a new architectural style. The two styles are often consi ...
. They include a library, lecture rooms for arts and sciences, a non-denominational place of worship, an arts centre (the Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts) 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 in Brighton 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 achieved university status in 1992. T ...
'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 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 a fee-charging, co-educational, boarding and day public school for boys and girls aged 3 to 18 in Brighton and Hove, England. The school has three sites: Brighton College (the senior school, ages 11 to 18), Brighton Co ...
is the only surviving building in the city by
George Gilbert Scott Sir George Gilbert Scott (13 July 1811 – 27 March 1878), largely known as Sir Gilbert Scott, was a prolific English Gothic Revival architect, chiefly associated with the design, building and renovation of churches and cathedrals, although he ...
: his Brill's Baths have been demolished. Many additions have been made to his 14th-century Gothic-style flint and
Caen stone Caen stone () 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 167 million years ...
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'' (195 ...
, who called the ensemble "joyless" and preferred T.G. Jackson's "lavishly Gothic" additions of 1886–87, in which
terracotta Terracotta, also known as terra cotta or terra-cotta (; ; ), is a clay-based non-vitreous ceramic OED, "Terracotta""Terracotta" MFA Boston, "Cameo" database fired at relatively low temperatures. It is therefore a term used for earthenware obj ...
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 () is a private boarding school governed by royal charter on the outskirts of Brighton, United Kingdom. It was founded in 1885 by three sisters to educate wealthy daughters and heiresses of aristocracy and industrial elites of the 19t ...
(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 Brig ...
. 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 fr ...
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 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, in rea ...
, 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 Muse ...
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, 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 in Hove dates from 1870–72 and was originally a
convent A convent is an enclosed community of monks, nuns, friars or religious sisters. Alternatively, ''convent'' means the building used by the community. The term is particularly used in the Catholic Church, Lutheran churches, and the Anglican ...
. Frederick Pownall designed the original
Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic or neo-Gothic) is an Architectural style, architectural movement that after a gradual build-up beginning in the second half of the 17th century became a widespread movement in the first half ...
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 An oriel window is a form of bay window which protrudes from the main wall of a building but does not reach to the ground. Supported by corbels, bracket (architecture), brackets, or similar cantilevers, an oriel window generally projects from an ...
above the entrance, with prominent mullions and transoms, and an array of tile-hung gables. Falmer High School was rebuilt in 2010–11 as the Brighton Aldridge Community Academy 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 suppl ...
' 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 (; ), frequently referred to as Uch Sharīf (; ; ''"Noble Uch"''), is a historic city in the Pakistan's Punjab province. Uch may have been founded as Alexandria on the Indus, a town founded by Alexander the Great during his invasion of t ...
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 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'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 Stained glass refers to coloured glass as a material or art and architectural works created from it. Although it is traditionally made in flat panels and used as windows, the creations of modern stained glass artists also include three-dimensio ...
. 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 in West Yorkshire, England. It is the largest settlement in Yorkshire and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds Metropolitan Borough, which is the second most populous district in the United Kingdom. It is built aro ...
architects Percy Robinson and W. Alban Jones) remains with little alteration. The "highly inventive"
Edwardian Baroque Edwardian architecture usually refers to a Neo-Baroque architectural style that was popular for public buildings in the British Empire during the Edwardian era (1901–1910). Architecture up to 1914 is commonly included in this style. It can al ...
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 Ornament (architecture), ornamental device adorning the fundamental quarter-round, convex ovolo profile of molding (decorative), moulding, consisting of alternating ...
moulding. Brighton's central library used to be in the early-19th-century complex of buildings designed by William Porden, 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 Brighton & Hove Museums. It costs £9.50 for a yearly pass, discounted to £7 for ...
. 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 Associates is a British firm of architects. It was founded in 1987 by Denise Bennetts and her partner Rab Bennetts, who had previously worked for Ove Arup & Partners. The total shareholding of Bennetts Associates was transferred to an E ...
and Lomax, Cassidy & Edwards designed the "carefully wrought but nonetheless striking" building—a highly glazed "box" with a prominent
brise soleil Brise, Brisé or Briše may refer to: * Brisé (dance), a type of jump in ballet * "Brisé" (song), Maître Gims 2015 *Brisé (music), Style brisé (French: "broken style"), Baroque music Places * Briše, Kamnik, Slovenia * Briše pri Polhovem G ...
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 framing, ...
s. As the main element in the regeneration of
North Laine North Laine is a central residential and shopping district of Brighton, East Sussex, on the English south coast, north of the Lanes. it is Brighton's bohemian and cultural quarter, with many pubs, cafés, restaurants, independent shops, plus ...
, it has been called "the most important public building constructed in Brighton since the
Royal Pavilion The Royal Pavilion (also known as the Brighton Pavilion) and surrounding gardens 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, Prince o ...
". 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 was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...
design drew comparison locally with
Sputnik Sputnik 1 (, , ''Satellite 1''), sometimes referred to as simply Sputnik, was the first artificial Earth satellite. It was launched into an elliptical low Earth orbit by the Soviet Union on 4 October 1957 as part of the Soviet space progra ...
. 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. 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 city of Brighton and Hove, 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 its ...
, 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. 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 Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...
. The symmetrical front elevation has full-height rusticated
pilaster In architecture, a pilaster is both a load-bearing section of thickened wall or column integrated into a wall, and a purely decorative element in classical architecture which gives the appearance of a supporting column and articulates an ext ...
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 In a monarchy, a regent () is a person appointed to govern a state because the actual monarch is a minor, absent, incapacitated or unable to discharge their powers and duties, or the throne is vacant and a new monarch has not yet been dete ...
—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 Brutalist architecture is an architectural style that emerged during the 1950s in the United Kingdom, among the reconstruction projects of the post-war era. Brutalist buildings are characterised by minimalist constructions that showcase the b ...
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 in the city of Brighton and Hove in the ceremonial county of East Sussex, England. It was formerly a civil parish. For centuries it was meadow land along the English Channel stretching west from the old village of Hove to ...
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 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 Ceramic glaze, pottery glaze suitable for painted decoration, by the addition of an stannous oxide, oxide of tin to the Slip (c ...
. The Brighton Dome complex incorporates the
Studio Theatre A black box theater is a performance space, typically a square or rectangular room, with black walls and a black, flat floor. The simplicity of the space allows it to be used to create a variety of configurations of stage and audience interact ...
, 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 central residential and shopping district of Brighton, East Sussex, on the English south coast, north of the Lanes. it is Brighton's bohemian and cultural quarter, with many pubs, cafés, restaurants, independent shops, plus ...
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 Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...
architectural influences of Porden's work. Atkinson gave the concert hall an
Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French (), is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design that first Art Deco in Paris, appeared in Paris in the 1910s just before World War I and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920 ...
interior, while May's interior work was "of an eclectic
Neo-Jacobean The Jacobethan ( ) architectural style, also known as Jacobean Revival, 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 Engli ...
kind". Also on New Road is the Theatre Royal, Brighton, Theatre Royal, another early-19th-century building remodelled several times subsequently. Charles J. Phipps extended the theatre in 1866, and Clayton & Black gave the building its present appearance in 1894. Their work includes a colonnade of cast iron columns of the
Corinthian order The Corinthian order (, ''Korinthiakós rythmós''; ) is the last developed and most ornate of the three principal classical orders of Ancient Greek architecture and Ancient Roman architecture, Roman architecture. The other two are the Doric or ...
, an exterior of "vivid red brick" and a series of dome-topped turrets on the roofline. The former Brighton Hippodrome in The Lanes was designed as an ice rink in 1897, but Frank Matcham converted it into a theatre and indoor circus in 1901–02. Elaborate Rococo-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
stucco Stucco or render is a construction material made of aggregates, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as a decorative coating for walls and ceilings, exterior walls, and as a sculptural and ...
ed former Baptists, Baptist chapel of 1833, and the Emporium Theatre uses the former London Road Methodist Church-a Renaissance architecture, Free Renaissance-style building designed in 1894 by James Weir and extended and refaced in 1938. Brighton in particular has Pubs in Brighton, a wide range of pubs. Good examples of interwar pub architecture include the Renaissance Revival architecture, Neo-English Renaissance Good Companions (1939) on Dyke Road at Seven Dials, Brighton, 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 a suburb in the city of Brighton and Hove, in the ceremonial county of East Sussex, England. It is about north of the city centre. It is bounded by the A27 (Brighton bypass) to the north, Hollingbury to the east and southeast, ...
's Ladies Mile estate, and Clayton & Black's ostentatious rebuild of the King and Queen, Brighton, King and Queen on Marlborough Place. Their 1931 design borrowed freely from Tudor vernacular elements, both standard and decorative: it features jettying, massive timber Lintel (architecture), lintels, corbels in the form of gargoyles, elaborate carvings and a portcullis. Also in central Brighton, the J D Wetherspoon-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 architecture, Expressionist idioms. John Leopold Denman transformed the Freemasons Tavern, Hove, 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 (), is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design that first Art Deco in Paris, appeared in Paris in the 1910s just before World War I and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920 ...
interior and a blue and gold mosaic exterior with Freemasonry, Masonic imagery and bronze fittings. Many older pubs in the city retain decorative reminders of the breweries to which they were Tied house, 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 (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 Pub#Brewery tap, brewery tap. The Connaught in Hove (1880) has a large panel advertising the Longhurst Brewery. Many Portsmouth & Brighton United Breweries pubs have green tiled façades and leadlights, 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 central residential and shopping district of Brighton, East Sussex, on the English south coast, north of the Lanes. it is Brighton's bohemian and cultural quarter, with many pubs, cafés, restaurants, independent shops, plus ...
). Among nightclubs and similar venues, the building at 11 Dyke Road, Brighton, 11 Dyke Road (latterly the ''New Hero'' club) stands out because of its elaborate French Gothic architecture, French/Flemish
Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic or neo-Gothic) is an Architectural style, architectural movement that after a gradual build-up beginning in the second half of the 17th century became a widespread movement in the first half ...
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 leisure centre, 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 in Hove, the Withdean Stadium 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 1920 ...
and since 2011 the Falmer Stadium. 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, 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, 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 opened in 1928 on market garden land in West Blatchington, despite considerable opposition from Hove residents. In 1939 the grandstands were lengthened and the former kennels removed. New owners the Gala Coral Group, 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 board, 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 Artillery battery#Fixed battery, 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 Neoclassicism, neoclassical and neo-Gothic styles. He was elected to the Royal Academy of Arts in 1785 and was its president from 1805 to ...
. 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 (psychology), idée fixe of how [a seafront] should 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 The West Pier is a ruined pier in Brighton, England. Designed by Eugenius Birch and opening in 1866, it was the first pier to be Grade I listed in England but has become increasingly derelict since its closure to the public in 1975. only ...
(1863–66 by Eugenius Birch), 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 Screwpiles, screw pile foundations developed by Alexander Mitchell (engineer), 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 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-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 Neoclassical architecture, 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 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 huts. 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 principal station serving the city of Brighton in Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, England, operated by Govia Thameslink Railway. It is the southern terminus of the Brighton Main Line, the western terminus of the ...
, a Grade II*-listed structure, was built in two parts. Most of David Mocatta's
stucco Stucco or render is a construction material made of aggregates, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as a decorative coating for walls and ceilings, exterior walls, and as a sculptural and ...
ed
Italianate The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style combined its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century It ...
building of 1841 survives—albeit hidden by H.E. Wallis's extensions of 1882–83. He added an elaborate iron porte-cochère 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 Bay (architecture), bays and long, at the rear. Its glazed three-span roof is supported on octagonal fluted columns. F.D. Bannister, the chief architect of the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway (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 railway station, Hove (original building), Kemp Town railway station, Kemp Town (demolished), London Road (Brighton) railway station, London Road and Portslade railway station, Portslade were built to a common design in the 1850s–1870s. The "stately" two-storey buildings are Italianate, reminiscent of a Tuscany, Tuscan villa, and have symmetrical layouts. London Road station, by W. Sawyer in 1877, also has a wide staircase leading up to its entrance. Moulsecoomb railway station, Moulsecoomb, 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 railway station, 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 railway station, Aldrington 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, East Sussex, Newhaven. ''The Builder'' of 1847 proclaimed Brighton to be "immensely improved" by the "exceedingly striking" structure. A
cornice In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative Moulding (decorative), moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, ar ...
and
balustrade 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 ...
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. 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 Brighton Main Line, main line and was designed as a triumphal arch in stone and yellow brick. It was given full Freemasonry, Masonic honours when built. A
cast-iron Cast iron is a class of iron–carbon alloys with a carbon content of more than 2% and silicon content around 1–3%. Its usefulness derives from its relatively low melting temperature. The alloying elements determine the form in which its car ...
arched bridge of 1851–54, cast at the nearby Regent Foundry, carried the now removed line to the Brighton railway works, goods yard and locomotive works. It consists of four parallel ribs forming an arch with open spandrels. There is a latticework
parapet A parapet is a barrier that is an upward extension of a 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/brea ...
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 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 Clock Tower, Brighton, 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 a suburb in the city of Brighton and Hove, in the ceremonial county of East Sussex, England. It is about north of the city centre. It is bounded by the A27 (Brighton bypass) to the north, Hollingbury to the east and southeast, ...
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 typically refers to architecture consciously derived from the principles of Greek and Roman architecture of classical antiquity, or more specifically, from ''De architectura'' (c. 10 AD) by the Roman architect Vitruvius. Va ...
with
Baroque The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...
motifs and some Gothic Revival architecture, High Gothic elements. Pink granite, a copper fishscale dome, Corinthian order, Corinthian columns 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, also known as terra cotta or terra-cotta (; ; ), is a clay-based non-vitreous ceramic OED, "Terracotta""Terracotta" MFA Boston, "Cameo" database fired at relatively low temperatures. It is therefore a term used for earthenware obj ...
, pale brick and stone—but its style is closest in spirit to Renaissance Revival architecture, 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 Portland stone is a limestone geological formation (formally named the Portland Stone Formation) dating to the Tithonian age of the Late Jurassic that is quarried on the Isle of Portland in Dorset, England. The quarries are cut in beds of whi ...
(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 Blaker baronets, 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 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 ...
/Modern architecture, 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, also known as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates Southern England from northern France. It links to the southern part of the North Sea by the Strait of Dover at its northeastern end. It is the busi ...
and the
South Downs The South Downs are a range of chalk hills in the south-eastern coastal counties of England 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 ...
(an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty), 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 moved out and which faced another threat in the 1930s. National conservation groups such as The Victorian Society and Georgian Group, The Georgian Group 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, Brighton, 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 (1822–23, by Samuel Brown (Royal Navy officer), 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 architecture, Egyptian Revival towers at the landward end, and the landing stage was of Purbeck stone. 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 usually held the lord's manorial courts, communal mea ...
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 architecture, Georgian-style L-plan house in the late 18th century. Features included a curved porch on the inside of the "L", a cupola-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 (architecture), 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, Hove, St Ann's Well Gardens—the Ionic order, Ionic-columned, colonnade-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, Waterloo Street, Hove, 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 Decimus Burton (30 September 1800 – 14 December 1881) was one of the foremost English architects and landscapers of the 19th century. He was the foremost Victorian architect in the Roman revival, Greek revival, Georgian neoclassical and Reg ...
, 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 In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative Moulding (decorative), moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, ar ...
, a
parapet A parapet is a barrier that is an upward extension of a 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/brea ...
with ornate stone urns, and on the garden-facing elevation a curved Bay (architecture), 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 11 Dyke Road, Brighton, 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 (Brighton), 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 Brutalist architecture is an architectural style that emerged during the 1950s in the United Kingdom, among the reconstruction projects of the post-war era. Brutalist buildings are characterised by minimalist constructions that showcase the b ...
structure by Richard Seifert. 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 columns of the Doric order. 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 central residential and shopping district of Brighton, East Sussex, on the English south coast, north of the Lanes. it is Brighton's bohemian and cultural quarter, with many pubs, cafés, restaurants, independent shops, plus ...
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; 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". 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 building (United Kingdom), 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 (also known as the Brighton Pavilion) and surrounding gardens 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, Prince o ...
, Stanmer House, several churches, the wrecked
West Pier The West Pier is a ruined pier in Brighton, England. Designed by Eugenius Birch and opening in 1866, it was the first pier to be Grade I listed in England but has become increasingly derelict since its closure to the public in 1975. only ...
, the main building at the
University of Sussex The University of Sussex is a public university, public research university, research university located in Falmer, East Sussex, England. It lies mostly within the city boundaries of Brighton and Hove. Its large campus site is surrounded by the ...
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 Crescent, Brighton, Royal, Park Crescent, Brighton, Park and Adelaide Crescents, Regency Square, Brighton, 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, Hove, 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 List of conservation areas in Brighton and Hove, 34 conservation areas, which are defined by Sections 69 and 70 of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 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 village on the northern edge of the city of Brighton and Hove, in the ceremonial county of East Sussex, England. It was formerly a civil parish until 1952 when it was split between Brighton and Falmer. In 1951 the parish had a pop ...
to the Benfield Barn area.


See also

*Grade I listed buildings in Brighton and Hove *Grade II* listed buildings in Brighton and Hove *List of former board schools in Brighton and Hove *List of places of worship in Brighton and Hove *Pubs in Brighton *


Notes


Locally listed buildings


Other notes


References


Bibliography

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Buildings And Architecture Of Brighton And Hove Architecture in the United Kingdom by city, Brighton and Hove Buildings and structures in Brighton and Hove, * Architecture in England History of Brighton and Hove