Citibase Brighton[1] (previously known as The Brighton Forum by Topcentre)[2] is a complex of serviced offices on a prominent elevated position in the Round Hill area of Brighton, part of the English city of Brighton and Hove. The large Gothic Revival building, by two architect brothers from London, has had three greatly different uses since its construction at the edge of Brighton parish in 1854: for its first 85 years, it trained Anglican schoolmistresses; then it became a military base and records office; and in 1988 it opened as a multipurpose business centre and office complex. The elaborate flint exterior is finely detailed in the Gothic style, especially around the windows. English Heritage has listed it at Grade II for its architectural and historical importance.
The Diocese established an institute to train female schoolteachers for the Anglican schools in Brighton and the rest of Sussex in Black Lion Street in The Lanes (the ancient heart of the town) in April 1842.[7] This was done in association with the National Society for the Education of the Poor in the Principles of the Established Church.[8] More space was soon needed, so in 1854 it found a site on the west side of Ditchling Road on which to build a larger college. Ditchling Road, which ran across Ditchling Beacon to Ditchling village and then on to Cuckfield and eventually London, became a turnpike in 1770 and was thereafter one of the main north–south routes into and out of Brighton.[9] The chosen site was on the north side of Viaduct Road, which was built to link Ditchling and London Roads and which formed the northern edge of Brighton's ecclesiastical parish and municipal borough until 1873.[7]
The architects William and Edward Habershon were commissioned to design the new building. They were based in London but worked extensively in Sussex; buildings they designed separately or together in the county include St Leonards-on-Sea Congregational Church, St John the Baptist's Church in Hove,[10]St Helen's Church in Ore[11] and St Augustine's Church at Scaynes Hill.[12] They started work at the large corner site in 1854, and the building was ready later that year.[8] The local firm of Edmund Scott and F.T. Cawthorn extended the building to the rear (north side) in 1886.[2]
The west elevation, showing paired lancet windows rising beyond the roofline
Teachers continued to be trained at the college (officially called the Chichester Diocesan Training College for Schoolmistresses)[2][8] until 1939. As World War II approached, the institution closed and the building was auctioned; but before it could be sold, the Royal Engineersrequisitioned it for their use during wartime.[8] They used it as a base for their operations, then after the war it became their archives and records office. In 1987, they moved out, and the vacant building was threatened with demolition. A local campaign helped it receive listed status, offering a degree of protection, and the building's future was secured when it was bought and converted into a complex of serviced offices.[8] It opened in November 1988 as the Brighton Business Centre,[7] and was later renamed the Brighton Forum.[8]
The Brighton Forum was listed at Grade II by English Heritage on 22 March 1988.[13] This status is given to "nationally important buildings of special interest".[14] As of February 2001, it was one of 1,124 Grade II-listed buildings and structures, and 1,218 listed buildings of all grades, in the city of Brighton and Hove.[15]
Architecture
The east elevation; the carriage arch is hidden behind the tree
Brighton Forum is built on a high, prominent corner position, giving it good visibility from the west and south and long southward views.[2]Knapped flint is the main building material,[2] augmented by stone dressings and some yellow brickwork to the quoins. The roof is laid with tiles.[13]
The two-storey façade to Viaduct Road is E-shaped and regular, with a symmetrical seven-bay plan.[2][13] The first and seventh bays project further forward than the centre (fourth) bay, which is formed by an elevated entrance porch. This has lancet windows on the sides, grouped under single hood moulds and with a string course. The doorway is under a segmental arch which is topped by a gable.[13] The rest of the ground floor has larger lancets arranged in pairs and with a small trefoil above. The south-facing walls have two pairs together, while on the inward-facing walls of the first and seventh bays there are two sets of paired windows placed some distance apart. At first-floor level, similar paired lancets and trefoils rise as gabled dormers above the roofline.[13] The south walls of the first and seventh bays have prominent five-light oriel windows, canted to form a 1–3–1 pattern of trefoil-headed panes. These oriel windows are supported on ornate corbels.[2][13] Above these at first-floor level, and also above the entrance porch, there are three-light trefoil-headed windows set under a segmental arch-shaped hood mould.[13] Many of the windows on the south side have plate tracery.[2]
The eastern face (to Ditchling Road) has eight bays and a carriage arch at the north end. The first four bays have trefoil-headed lancet windows, while the next four have simpler straight-headed windows. The carriage arch is segmental-headed. The first floor has eight dormers. On the west side, the roof is cross-gabled: the gables are parallel to, rather than perpendicular to, the ridge.[13]
Antram, Nicholas; Morrice, Richard (2008). Brighton and Hove. Pevsner Architectural Guides. London: Yale University Press. ISBN978-0-300-12661-7.
Carder, Timothy (1990). The Encyclopaedia of Brighton. Lewes: East Sussex County Libraries. ISBN0-86147-315-9.
Collis, Rose (2010). The New Encyclopaedia of Brighton. (based on the original by Tim Carder) (1sted.). Brighton: Brighton & Hove Libraries. ISBN978-0-9564664-0-2.
Fines, Ken (2002). A History of Brighton & Hove. Chichester: Phillimore & Co. ISBN1-86077-231-5.
St John the Evangelist's Church is an Anglican church in the Preston Village area of Brighton, in the English city of Brighton and Hove. The Grade II listed building, designed by Sir Arthur Blomfield, was started in 1901 but did not take its present form for another quarter of a century. In the meantime, the nearby parish church of Preston was severely damaged by fire, and the new church was granted the parish church status which it still retains.
There are 72 Grade II* listed buildings in the city of Brighton and Hove, England. The city, on the English Channel coast approximately 52 miles (84 km) south of London, was formed as a unitary authority in 1997 by the merger of the neighbouring towns of Brighton and Hove. Queen Elizabeth II granted city status in 2000.
Wykeham Terrace is a row of 12 early 19th-century houses in central Brighton, part of the English city of Brighton and Hove. The Tudor-Gothic building, attributed to prominent local architect Amon Henry Wilds, is built into the hillside below the churchyard of Brighton's ancient parish church. Uses since its completion in 1830 have included a home for former prostitutes and a base for the Territorial Army, but the terrace is now exclusively residential again. Its "charming" architecture is unusual in Brighton, whose 19th-century buildings are predominantly in the Regency style. English Heritage has listed the terrace at Grade II for its architectural and historical importance.
The former French Convalescent Home was a seafront sanatorium and rest home built in Brighton, part of the English seaside city of Brighton and Hove, on behalf of the French government. It received patients from the French Hospital in London and served as a home for elderly French nationals. It was sold for redevelopment in 1999 and was briefly threatened with demolition; but English Heritage listed the building at Grade II for its architectural and historical importance, and it was converted into flats. The unusual château-style French Renaissance Revival building has been criticised as "dreary" and "gauche", but is believed to be unique in England and demonstrated innovation in its use of double glazing.
The Western Pavilion is an exotically designed early 19th-century house in the centre of Brighton, part of the English city of Brighton and Hove. Local architect Amon Henry Wilds, one of the most important figures in Brighton's development from modest fishing village to fashionable seaside resort, built the distinctive two-storey house between 1827 and 1828 as his own residence, and incorporated many inventive details while paying homage to the Royal Pavilion, Brighton's most famous and distinctive building. Although the house has been altered and a shopfront inserted, it is still in residential use, and has been listed at Grade II* by English Heritage for its architectural and historical importance.
As of February 2001, there were 1,124 listed buildings with Grade II status in the English city of Brighton and Hove. The total at 2009 was similar. The city, on the English Channel coast approximately 52 miles (84 km) south of London, was formed as a unitary authority in 1997 by the merger of the neighbouring towns of Brighton and Hove. Queen Elizabeth II granted city status in 2000.
The building at 11 Dyke Road in Brighton, part of the English city of Brighton and Hove, is now the Rialto Theatre, but it originally housed the Swan Downer School for poor girls, for whom it was designed and built in 1867 by prolific architect George Somers Leigh Clarke. The highly ornate brick structure, in a "freely inventive" European Gothic style, has also served as a chapel and an office since it was vacated by the school, whose pupils were recognisable around Brighton in their blue and white uniform. English Heritage has listed the building at Grade II for its architectural and historical importance.
As of February 2001, there were 1,124 listed buildings with Grade II status in the English city of Brighton and Hove. The total at 2009 was similar. The city, on the English Channel coast approximately 52 miles (84 km) south of London, was formed as a unitary authority in 1997 by the merger of the neighbouring towns of Brighton and Hove. Queen Elizabeth II granted city status in 2000.
Brighton and Hove, a city on the English Channel coast in southeast England, has a large and diverse stock of buildings "unrivalled architecturally" among the country's seaside resorts. The urban area, designated a city in 2000, is made up of the formerly separate towns of Brighton and Hove, nearby villages such as Portslade, Patcham and Rottingdean, and 20th-century estates such as Moulsecoomb and Mile Oak. The conurbation was first united in 1997 as a unitary authority and has a population of about 253,000. About half of the 20,430-acre (8,270 ha) geographical area is classed as built up.
As of February 2001, there were 1,124 listed buildings with Grade II status in the English city of Brighton and Hove. The total at 2009 was similar. The city, on the English Channel coast approximately 52 miles (84 km) south of London, was formed as a unitary authority in 1997 by the merger of the neighbouring towns of Brighton and Hove. Queen Elizabeth II granted city status in 2000.
Thomas Lainson, FRIBA was a British architect. He is best known for his work in the East Sussex coastal towns of Brighton and Hove, where several of his eclectic range of residential, commercial and religious buildings have been awarded listed status by English Heritage. Working alone or in partnership with two sons as Lainson & Sons, he designed buildings in a wide range of styles, from Neo-Byzantine to High Victorian Gothic; his work is described as having a "solid style, typical of the time".
The Pelham Institute is a former working men's club and multipurpose social venue in the Kemptown area of Brighton, part of the English coastal city of Brighton and Hove. Built in 1877 by prolific local architect Thomas Lainson on behalf of the Vicar of Brighton, the multicoloured brick and tile High Victorian Gothic building catered for the social, educational and spiritual needs of the large working-class population in the east of Brighton. After its closure it hosted a judo club, but is now in residential use as flats owned by a housing association. English Heritage has listed the building at Grade II for its architectural and historical importance.
Round Hill is an inner suburban area of Brighton, part of the coastal city of Brighton and Hove in England. The area contains a mix of privately owned and privately rented terraced housing, much of which has been converted for multiple occupancies, and small-scale commercial development. It was developed mostly in the late 19th century on an area of high land overlooking central Brighton and with good views in all directions, the area became a desirable middle-class suburb—particularly the large terraced houses of Roundhill Crescent and Richmond Road, and the exclusive Park Crescent—and within a few decades the whole of the hill had been built up with smaller terraces and some large villas.
Roundhill Crescent is a late-19th-century housing development in Round Hill, an inner suburb of the English coastal city of Brighton and Hove. Partly developed in the 1860s with large terraced houses on a steeply sloping open hillside, the crescent—which "curves and changes height dramatically along its length"—was finished two decades later and now forms the centrepiece of the Round Hill conservation area. Smaller houses completed the composition in the 1880s, and England's first hospital for the treatment of mental illness was founded in the crescent in 1905. The five original sets of houses from the 1860s have been listed at Grade II by English Heritage for their architectural and historical importance, and the crescent occupies a prominent place on Brighton's skyline.
John Leopold DenmanFRIBA was an architect from the English seaside resort of Brighton, now part of the city of Brighton and Hove. He had a prolific career in the area during the 20th century, both on his own and as part of the Denman & Son firm in partnership with his son John Bluet Denman. Described as "the master of ... mid-century Neo-Georgian", Denman was responsible for a range of commercial, civic and religious buildings in Brighton, and pubs and hotels there and elsewhere on the south coast of England on behalf of Brighton's Kemp Town Brewery. He used other architectural styles as well, and was responsible for at least one mansion, several smaller houses, various buildings in cemeteries and crematoria, and alterations to many churches. His work on church restorations has been praised, and he has been called "the leading church architect of his time in Sussex"; he also wrote a book on the ecclesiastical architecture of the county.
Montpelier Crescent is a mid 19th-century crescent of 38 houses in the Montpelier suburb of the English coastal city of Brighton and Hove. Built in five parts as a set-piece residential development in the rapidly growing seaside resort, the main part of the crescent was designed between 1843 and 1847 by prominent local architect Amon Henry Wilds and is one of his most distinctive compositions. Extra houses were added at both ends of the crescent in the mid-1850s. Unlike most other squares, terraces and crescents in Brighton, it does not face the sea—and the view it originally had towards the South Downs was blocked within a few years by a tall terrace of houses opposite. Montpelier was an exclusive and "salubrious" area of Brighton, and Montpelier Crescent has been called its "great showpiece". Wilds's central section has been protected as Grade II* listed, with the later additions listed separately at the lower Grade II. The crescent is in one of the city's 34 conservation areas, and forms one of several "outstanding examples of late Regency architecture" within it.
Clayton & Black were a firm of architects and surveyors from Brighton, part of the English city of Brighton and Hove. In a career spanning the Victorian, Edwardian and interwar eras, they were responsible for designing and constructing an eclectic range of buildings in the growing town of Brighton and its neighbour Hove. Their work encompassed new residential, commercial, industrial and civic buildings, shopping arcades, churches, schools, cinemas and pubs, and alterations to hotels and other buildings. Later reconstituted as Clayton, Black & Daviel, the company designed some churches in the postwar period.
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 seafront; large terraced houses occupy its west and east sides, separated by a public garden; and at the north end is one of Hove's main road junctions. This is also called Palmeira Square, and its north side is lined with late 19th-century terraced mansions. Commercial buildings and a church also stand on the main road, which is served by many buses.
Thomas Simpson (1825–1908) was a British architect associated with the seaside town of Brighton. As architect to the Brighton and Preston School Board and the equivalent institution in neighbouring Hove, he designed "a distinguished group of board schools" during the late 19th century, when the provision of mass education was greatly extended. Many of these schools survive and some have listed status. He also worked on five Nonconformist chapels for various Christian denominations, using a wide variety of materials and architectural styles. He was the father of Sir John William Simpson and Gilbert Murray Simpson, who both became architects.
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