Regency Square is a large early 19th-century residential development on the seafront in Brighton, part of the British city of Brighton and Hove. Conceived by speculative developer Joshua Hanson as Brighton underwent its rapid transformation from fishing village to fashionable resort, the three-sided "set piece" of around 70 houses and associated structures was designed and built over a ten-year period by Brighton's most important Regency-era architects: the partnership of Charles Busby, Amon Wilds and his son Amon Henry Wilds. The site was originally Belle Vue Fieldâ€"used at various times as a military camp (mentioned in Pride and Prejudice), a showground and the location of a windmill.
The square was a prestigious, high-class development, attracting the social elite. The square gradually lost its prestige status after the First World War as hotels started to move in. The square's central garden, originally private, has been council-owned since 1884 and is publicly accessible, and an underground car park was built beneath it in 1969.
Most of the buildings in and around the square have been designated Listed buildings: six blocks of houses are each listed at Grade II*, the second-highest designation, while five other residential buildings, a war memorial, a nearby inn and a set of bollards outside it have each been given the lower Grade II status. The house at the southwest corner is now numbered as part of King's Road but was built as part of Regency Square, and is also Grade II*-listed.
History
Belle Vue Field
Regency Square was built on one of the fields surrounding the fishing village of Brighthelmstone, the predecessor of modern-day Brighton. The field was named Belle Vue Fieldâ€"probably in connection with the long vanished Belle Vue House, and lay to the west of the village. The field ran down to the seafront, and was a popular site for travelling shows, fairs, military parades and other gatherings. The field contained a windmill known as West Mill. A windmill was owned by Matthew Bourne in 1744, but was not marked on Ogilby's 1762 map. A windmill is shown on Lambert's View of Brighthelmstone which is dated 1765. The windmill stood in the field until 28 March 1797, when 86 oxen dragged it 2 miles (3.2 km) uphill on a sled to the nearby village of Preston. It was re-erected there and renamed Preston Mill. After several more renamings, it was demolished in 1881. Its machinery was cannibalised by the owners of nearby Waterhall Mill. A watercolour painting, now displayed at Preston Manor, shows crowds of people watching the mill's removal to Preston.
By the late 18th century, Brighton (as it was now known) had begun to develop into a popular and fashionable seaside resort. Belle Vue Field became more important to the growing town in 1793, when in response to the increased military threat from France, a 10,000-man military encampment (Brighton's first) was established there. The camp quickly gained a reputation as a place for women to find partners, and Jane Austen used it as a setting in her novel Pride and Prejudice (written in 1796 and published in 1813). The heroine Elizabeth Bennet's sister is invited to Brighton and elopes with, and later marries, army officer George Wickham. The camp moved to another site in 1794; after returning to its former use as a fairground and showground, Belle Vue Field gradually lost popularity and was abandoned in 1807, when such entertainments moved to The Level, a large expanse of grass inland north of Old Steine.
Hanson builds the square
A few years later, the field (which had no common ownership) was acquired by Joshua Flesher Hanson, a businessman. By this time, Brighton's popularity was such that speculators were commissioning architects and builders to design and lay out large-scale sea-facing residential developments to attract wealthy long-term visitors or permanent residents. Royal Crescent was already thriving; Clarence Square, Russell Square, Marine Parade and New Steine were being developed, and work had started on Bedford Square. Hanson decided to follow the trend but take it in a new direction: he divided Belle Vue Field into 70 plots, leased them individually and put strict covenants in place, demanding that each house be built in a specific style in order to ensure architectural harmony. In return, the leaseholders (mostly private builders) would have the right to buy, and would end up with houses much larger than average for the town, with excellent sea views and with exclusive access to the large central garden. Most leaseholders bought the houses as soon as they could, which was to Hanson's advantage as he made money and had no ongoing responsibility for the buildings. Restrictions in the covenants included the requirement to erect a façade with an iron balcony, to clad the area below the balcony in stucco, to paint the façade at least every three years, to repair any damage, and to pay towards maintenance of the central garden. No stucco was to be applied above the balcony line.
Although there is no documentary evidence confirming the architects, all sources attribute most of Regency Square's buildings to the father-and-son partnership of Amon and Amon Henry Wilds, who moved to Brighton from nearby Lewes in 1815 and became two of Brighton's most important architects; they were extremely prolific, and were responsible for defining and developing the town's distinctive Regency style. Although they worked extensively with fellow architect Charles Busby during the 1820s, historians agree that he was not involved in the overall design of Regency Square, at least not in its early stages: the buildings "appear to lack his distinctive flair" and are not as impressive as those at the Kemp Town estate to the east of Brighton, which all three men were involved with. Some of the later houses may have been the work of Wilds senior and Busby, however.
Building work started in 1818 and continued until 1830, although most of the square (except numbers 1 and 47â€"49) were complete by 1828. The long construction period affected the uniformity of design hoped for by Hanson, as did the fact that building plots were sold individually and at different times: even a strict covenant could not force the owners into designing identical houses. A passageway (Regency Colonnade) was built at the northeast corner to connect the square to the neighbouring development of Russell Square, which was built at the same time; the contemporary Regency Inn (now known as the Regency Tavern) faced both the passageway and Regency Square. St Margaret's Church, an Anglican chapel of ease designed in the Greek Revival/Neoclassical style in 1824 by Busby, was the local place of worship.
Bands often played in the square's central garden or on King's Road at the southern end of the square. Meanwhile, residents were upset in 1866 when the West Pier, designed by Eugenius Birch, was built opposite the square's central garden: its entrance booths affected their sea views. Otherwise, there was little for residents to worry about until the 1880s, by which time Hanson's covenants were about to expire. Unusually, he had set a 71-year time limit on the covenants rather than granting them in perpetuity, and on 25 December 1889 they would expire. Residents would then lose their rights to use the gardens, among other things. Five residents, led by solicitor Somers Clarke (unrelated to the Brighton-born architect of that name), attempted unsuccessfully to purchase the gardens and extend the covenants by an Act of Parliament; two years later, though, the passing of the Brighton Improvement Act 1884 achieved the same aims. Brighton Corporation took ownership of the gardens, and householders signed new deeds confirming they wished for the covenants relating to their houses to be extended indefinitely.
20th century
From the beginning, Regency Square was a prestigious, high-class development, and it is still considered to be "one of Brighton's best sea-facing squares". By the mid-20th century, most of the houses had become hotels, and in early 1969 a surface-level car park was planned for the Brighton Corporation owned central garden; this was changed to a 520-space underground car park which was created using the cut and cover method in which the garden was dug up, the car park with roof constructed, and the lawns and flowerbeds restored. Richard Seifert's 334-foot (102Â m), Modernist 24-storey residential block, Sussex Heights, was built in 1968 on land immediately to the east of the square, and was criticised for affecting the character of the square because of its contrasting style and height. During the early 1970s the hotels sought permission from Brighton Corporation to erect neon signs advertising themselves; after negotiation with the Regency Society, a Brighton-wide conservation group formed in 1945, the Corporation made the square and the surrounding area into a conservation area in 1973. Conservation area status gives the council firmer control over planning permission and changes to buildings or street furniture, especially in respect of their effect on "the character and appearance of the area". The original conservation area has since been enlarged twice to its present size of 80 acres (32Â ha).
Architecture
Almost all buildings in and around the square have been designated Listed building: six blocks of houses are each listed at Grade II*, while the other buildings, including a set of bollards, have each been given the lower Grade II status. The house at the south west corner is now numbered as part of King's Road but was built as part of Regency Square, and is also Grade II*-listed.
The six Grade II* parts of the square, plus the former St Albans House, were listed on 13 October 1952. The west side was listed in two parts: the three houses at numbers 2â€"4, and the sixteen houses from number 5 to number 20. The northern side's central section, numbers 26â€"37, forms another listing. On the east side, numbers 51â€"56, 57â€"59 and 60â€"66 are each listed at Grade II*. Apart from St Albans House, all of these listings include iron railings attached to the exterior. Numbers 38â€"46 Regency Square were listed at Grade II on 20 August 1971, while the rest of the square's houses were listed at the same grade on 26 August 1999 in four separate listings: numbers 22â€"25, 46a, 46b and 47â€"49. All listings except numbers 46a and 46b include attached railings, and the listing for numbers 38â€"46 also includes a carriage arch.
A small block of flats, Abbotts, stands at the southeast corner of the square. Built by architecture firm Fitzroy Robinson & Partners in 1961â€"62 to replace a hotel of the same name, it was considered "quite good" by architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner.
Grade II* listings
- 2â€"4 Regency Square
These three four-storey houses (now the Beach Hotel) have double bow fronts, and were considered by Nikolaus Pevsner to be more austere in their detailing than most Brighton houses of their era. Number 2, a former home of social reformer William King (whose two-year stay is commemorated by a blue plaque), is built of brick which has been painted over; the others are stuccoed. Each house also has a basement and a dormer window. The ground floors are rusticated and have arched doorways set into Classical-style porches with both Ionic and Doric columnsâ€"the latter in the form of antae. The tripartite bay windows are neither full-height nor continuous: only the first three storeys have them, and they are offset to the right on the first and second floors. The first-floor windows sit between a curved cast-iron balcony and a verandah-style canopy supported on decorative brackets. On each house, the third floor has three small flat-arched sash windows; the centre window sits below a small cornice supported on corbels.
- 5â€"20 Regency Square
These sixteen houses form the greater part of the square's west side. Although there are differences in height and detail between individual houses, they were designed at the same time and maintain "the longstanding tradition of the terraced townhouse" which had been developed "by Henry Holland [...] in his own speculative enterprises at Hans Town and Sloane Street, London". Numbers 7, 8, 11 and 15 are entirely stuccoed; number 18 retains its original unpainted yellow-brick upper façade; and all other houses have painted brick to their upper storeys and stuccoed ground floors with rustication. The roofs are mansard-style and laid with slate. Each house has dormer windows; numbers 5â€"13 inclusive rise to four storeys, while the other seven houses are one storey shorter. All houses except number 12 have a single bay window, mostly in tripartite form. Number 12 has three windows to each floor. The entrance porches, reached via staircases, are either Doric or Ionic in form, with columns and entablatures. They have arch-headed doorways set into them. Small cast-iron balconies run across the terrace at first-floor level (although number 5's has been lost), and some houses have canopy-style verandahs as well. A nearly continuous cornice (absent on numbers 13 and 19) spans the terrace; some houses also have a second cornice above this. Several houses have fanlights with coloured glass, and other non-standard details include decorative stucco panelling at number 5; paterae (circular motifs), triglyph-decorated friezes and other Classical-style ornamentation in some of the porch entablatures; original window-guards of iron; a blocked doorway flanked by pilasters at number 20; and many original sash windows.
- 26â€"37 Regency Square
These 12 houses, arranged along the sea-facing north side in the form of two wings flanking a four-house centrepiece, are the focal point of the square, forming "a kind of palace front" topped with a pediment displaying Regency Square in prominent black lettering. Pevsner described this feature as "not [being] enough of an accent to pull the square together". The terrace is a five-part composition: the end "wings" (formed by numbers 26â€"27 and 36â€"37) are of four storeys, stuccoed and with tall parapets pinched upwards to form small pediments; the central section (numbers 30â€"33), also of four storeys and built in yellow brick, and topped with the inscribed pediment; and numbers 28â€"29 and 34â€"35, rising to three storeys and forming a link between the central and outer sections. Numbers 30â€"33 have a two-window range, rather than the single window on each of the other houses, and have four pilasters running the full height of the façade and terminating at the parapet in circular antefixae. The entrance porches are of the Ionic order. Each house has a canopied cast-iron balcony at first-floor level. There is rusticated decoration at ground-floor level.
- 51â€"56 Regency Square
The east side of Regency Square is architecturally less consistent than the west side. Numbers 51â€"56 were designed as a symmetrical composition: the two houses at the centre stand forward slightly and have a more prominent pediment. Each house has four storeys and a single bay window on the ground and first floors; other common features include rustication on the ground floor and Ionic-style porches with recessed flat-arched doorways and arched fanlights. There are cast-iron balconies at first-floor level; number 52's has a canopy above it. Some windows are sashes, and numbers 52, 53, 54 and 56 have dormer windows in their slate roofs.
- 57â€"59 Regency Square
These three houses may also have been designed as a single composition, but this effect has been lost. Numbers 58 and 59 are of five storeys; number 57 has four storeys and dormer windows. The parapet rises into an intricately decorated pediment above number 58, with palmette scrollwork and semicircular antefixae. Each house has an Ionic-columned porch with a straight-headed door and semicircular fanlight. Numbers 57 and 59 have canopies and first-floor balconies; number 58 has only a balcony. The three houses are the only ones on the east side to have full-height bows, and number 57 is unique on that side in retaining its original unpainted yellow-brick façade.
- 60â€"66 Regency Square
These seven houses are also a symmetrical composition: the three in the middle are set forward and have a tall parapet topped by a very shallow pediment. Like the rest of the east side, the houses have Ionic porches with flat-arched doors and round-headed fanlights. The ground and first floors have three-part bay windows topped with cornices. Except on number 63, a narrow canopy sits between the first-floor window and the cornice. Another cornice spans the full width of the terrace above third-floor level. The slightly recessed houses on each end (numbers 60â€"61 and 65â€"66) have pairs of dormer windows.
- 131 King's Road
The former St Albans House was designed in 1828 by Amon Henry Wilds alone and was fitted out by William Izard. A shopfront was fitted in the early 20th century, and the ground floor has housed a restaurant since 1930. Contemporary with the shopfront was the round-headed entrance on the King's Road elevation, with an archway supported on fluted columns, a dentil-patterned cornice and ornamentation including scrollwork and a panel inscribed St Albans. The building has five storeys, three windows facing King's Road and the sea, and a five-window range to Regency Square. It is stuccoed and slate-roofed. The shopfront is topped by a thin cast-iron balcony. The right-hand (east) side of the King's Road façade has a full-height tripartite segmental bay window with architraves to each window. The Regency Square elevation also has a three-light full-height bay window; all other windows are blocked.
Grade II listings
- 22â€"25 Regency Square
Numbers 22â€"25 Regency Squareâ€"at the northwest corner of the square on a short road leading to Preston Streetâ€"include the building (number 67) on the corner of that street, which absorbed the house built as number 21 Regency Square. Attributed to Amon and Amon Henry Wilds, these bow-fronted terraced houses were built in about 1818. Number 67 Preston Street is of three storeys and has a shopfront facing west into that street; alongside that is a porch with rusticated decoration and an arched doorway. The Regency Square (south) façade has blocked windows at first- and second-floor level. The four houses facing Regency Square are of three storeys, except number 25 which also has an attic storey. They are of brick faced with painted stucco. Each house has a chimney on its slate roof. Each has an entrance staircase with iron railings, a rusticated ground floor, a single bay window to each storey, an iron balcony at first-floor level, a cornice and a parapet in front of the roof. At numbers 22 to 24, dormer windows cut through the parapet.
- 38â€"46 Regency Square
Numbers 38â€"46 Regency Square run alongside the northeast side, and are contemporary with the houses at the northwest corner. The Wildses are believed to have designed them. A carriage arch runs between numbers 42 and 43. Together with numbers 22â€"25 and the Grade II*-listed centrepiece of numbers 26â€"37, the houses form an approximately symmetrical three-part arrangement when viewed from the south. Each house is of stucco-clad brick, and all but number 40 have slate-covered roofs. All houses rise to three storeys and have dormer windows; number 43 has two bay windows on each floor (except the ground floor, where the space is taken up by the carriage arch), but the other houses have only one. Each house also has a balcony, a cornice and a parapet (topped with a balustrade in some cases).
- 46a Regency Square
Number 46a Regency Square stands partly in the square and partly in the passageway opposite the Regency Tavern. It is a two-storey stucco-faced cottage with three windows on the first floor and a fourth in a recessed wing on the east side. The flat roof sits behind a parapet. The ground floor has a broad single window flanked by decorative panels. A cornice runs between the two storeys, and projects forward over the right-aligned entrance.
- 46b Regency Square
Number 46b Regency Square is squeezed into a narrow corner between numbers 47â€"49 and the Regency Tavern. It has three storeys, a single-window range and much ornamentation. The ground floor, with its wide arched window and prominent cornice, may be a 20th-century alteration. Above it, pilasters with banded rustication rise to the level of the parapet. They are broken at second-floor level by a small balcony with balustrades. The window above this has a round arch, a moulded archivolt, a keystone with acanthus decoration and thin pilasters topped with capitals in the form of leaves.
- 47â€"49 Regency Square
Numbers 47â€"49 Regency Square are believed to be the last buildings completed; Charles Busby was probably involved in their design, as they are noticeably different from the rest of the square. All three have a single canted bay window to each of three storeys, topped with an architrave supported on pilasters with capitals. Each house also has a cornice and parapet. Number 47's doorway is straight-headed, but the other two houses have round-arched entrances.
- War memorial
A memorial commemorating 152 members of the Royal Sussex Regiment who died in the Second Boer War stands at the south end of Regency Square's garden, facing King's Road and the sea. It was erected in 1904, and takes the form of a square pedestal topped by an entablature and pediment. Originally of Portland stone with some bronze and stucco, the bronze parts have now been obscured. A bronze trumpeter stands on top of the entablature. Local architect Sir John Simpson designed the memorial and Charles Hartwell sculpted it. The memorial's unveiling ceremony, conducted by William Nevill, 1st Marquess of Abergavenny, was on 29 October 1904.
- Regency Tavern
The Regency Tavern's main façade faces north into the passageway leading to Russell Square, and has a six-window range. The side wall, facing into Regency Square, has two windows to each of the three storeys. The frontage is mostly original but has been augmented by modern iron columns. All but one of the windows are original sashes; those on the first floor of the Regency Square elevation have architraves which join the sill of the second-floor window directly above. There are stuccoed panels between these windows as well, and some of the north-facing windows also have panelling in their spandrels. A tall parapet rises above the cornice.
- Bollards
Two cast-iron bollards in the passageway outside the Regency Tavern are also listed at Grade II. They were erected in the mid-19th century, and are fluted along their length. One has the name of its local founder at the bottom. On 31 December 2012, one was broken and was replaced with a smaller plain bollard instead of a facsimile, causing controversy locally.
Social aspects
Regency Square was a prestigious, high-class development, attracting the social elite. The square gradually lost its prestige status after World War I as hotels started to move in, and by the mid-20th century, most of the houses had become hotels. During World War II air-raid shelters were built on the square, and an underground car park was built beneath it in 1969.
Number 1 Regency Square, later known as St Albans House and now numbered 131 King's Road, is "historically the most interesting house in the square". Amon Henry Wilds designed it for the Duke and Duchess of St Albans, and William Izard laid out the interior in 1829. The house was one of the most important social venues in Brighton between 1830 and the Duchess's death in 1837. She was born Harriet Mellon in 1777, became an actress, married banker Thomas Coutts in 1815, and inherited his fortune when he died in 1822â€"thereby becoming England's richest woman. After being courted by many men, she met and married William Beauclerk, the 9th Duke of St Albans, and they became regular visitors to Brighton. In 1830, they moved permanently to 1 Regency Square and renamed it St Albans House. For the next seven years, it was the venue for lavish balls with hundreds of upper-class guests, extensive feasts and falconry displays by the Duke, who was the Grand Falconer of England. St Albans House had an adjacent riding school which supposedly had the second largest unsupported interior space and the second largest dome in England, behind Westminster Abbey and St Paul's Cathedral respectively. (Part of the Bedford Hotel now occupies the site.) Two other famous characters paid an unintentional visit to Regency Square at the end of the 19th century: Oscar Wilde and his lover Lord Alfred Douglas crashed their horse and carriage into the railings of the gardens. Local newspapers reported the story with interest, but Wilde dismissed it as "an accident of no importance"â€"possibly a punning allusion to one of his best-known plays.
Since the 1930s, many of Regency Square's dwellings have been converted into hotels and guest houses, either individually or across more than one house. The Beach Hotel occupies numbers 2â€"4, the three dwellings north of St Albans House. Hotel Pelirocco occupies numbers 9 and 10; the Royal Pavilion Townhouse Hotel is at number 12; and the West Pier Hotel (at numbers 14â€"15) and Topps Hotel (numbers 16â€"18) also occupy the west side of the square. There are four hotels on the north side: the Regency at number 28, the Prince Regent at number 29, Artist Residence at number 33 and the George IV Guest House at number 34. The east side has Adelaide House (number 51), Brighton House (number 52), Hotel Una (numbers 55â€"56), and the Queensbury Hotel (number 58). Since c. 2000 the former Keehan's Hotel at number 57 has been the West Pier Project homeless hostel, operated by Brighton and Hove City Council and accommodating about 40 people; it will close in late 2015 and will become a hostel for former servicemen.
References
- Bibliography
