The Regency Town House | |
---|---|
Location in East Sussex, England | |
General information | |
Status | Completed |
Type | Townhouse |
Architectural style | Regency |
Location | Brunswick Square, Brunswick, an area of Hove in Brighton & Hove, East Sussex, England |
Country | United Kingdom |
Coordinates | 50°49′28″N0°09′30″W / 50.8245°N 0.1583°W |
Completed | 1820 |
Owner | Nick Tyson |
Designations | Grade I listed |
Renovating team | |
Other designers | Nick Tyson |
The Regency Town House is a Grade I listed historic town house, [2] now a museum, in Brunswick, an area of Hove in Brighton & Hove, East Sussex, England. The Regency Town House is located at 13 Brunswick Square near the beach in Hove. Brunswick Square forms part of Brunswick Town. The house was built in the 1820s. [2] It was designed in the Regency architectural style by Charles Augustin Busby. [2]
The house is being restored by a team headed by Nick Tyson, a curator. [3] Two full-time members of staff are performing the restoration with a team of volunteers. They hope to transform the building into a museum and heritage centre. [4]
The Regency Town House has a dining room and a parlour on the ground floor. On the half-landing, there is a waiting room and a water closet. On the first floor are the drawing rooms. These rooms could be used separately, by using folding doors, or as one large party space. The upper storeys had bedrooms, these rooms now house the offices of the project. The basement was where the servants worked, with access from the front area and also behind through the stables. [5]
A part of The Regency Town House project is located at 10 Brunswick Square. This is the last intact basement in the Square. It provides an insight into servant life. [1] Visitors can walk down the stairs from the street to a front basement area that has a stone-flagged floor. There is a coal cellar under the street which would have provided the fuel for the fireplaces upstairs. Next to the coal cellar is a beer cellar. The first right on the right is the housekeeper's room, next to this is the wine cellar. It has double doors, the second is iron-lined. This acts as an extra precaution again theft from servants. Next is a servant's hall. Large in this house as there would have been 8-12 servants. The room overlooks a small courtyard. On the other side of this courtyard is the kitchen. It has a large skylight and it's said that its layout was influenced by the Prince Regent's famous kitchen at the Brighton Pavilion. [1]
In 1984 Nick Tyson, the owner decided to reassemble a whole 1829 terraced house in Hove's Brunswick Square. He first bought the basement flat. Then he bought the remaining flats as the other tenants left. He plans to restore the building as authentically as possible. Every detail will be restored authentically. It will be opened to the public. The period craftsmanship will be showcased this way. [1]
Nick Tyson founded the Town House project in the 1980s. After he discovered Regency-style architecture in the United States, he observed that Brighton and Hove's historic buildings were being converted with little care and attention, which concerned him. Tyson and his partner at the time bought the lease of an uninhabitable basement flat at 13 Brunswick Square and decided to take a year out to restore it before returning to the United States. However, leases of the other flats began to become available and Tyson could see the possibility of putting the house back together again. [6] The building started as flats and is now a complete house again.
In 1992 the Brunswick Town Charitable trust appealed to Brighton and Hove residents to help find fireplaces for the drawing room and a ceiling rose for the dining room that it hoped artists could replicate. The Trust's spokeswoman at the time said that they were 'at a standstill and not sure where to turn'. The plan was to photograph original fire places and ceiling roses and then to copy them for the Town House. [7]
The restoration work uses traditional techniques and materials where it is possible to do so. The Town House is being returned to its former glory with the help of a team of volunteers. [8] It is being slowly restored. Every tour and event which raises money means funds for more restoration. [9]
Layers of peeling paint have been removed. The mouldings and plasterwork had been repaired by experts in plasterwork. Analysis was carried out on finishes that were original to the property by paint expert Patrick Baty. [10] This information will be used to recreate decoration in other parts of the project. The goal of the Town House project is to offer complete access to all rooms in the house. The project would like the rooms to appear to as guests as they would have when the house was first occupied. [9]
Regular fundraising activities including Dine Like a Servant are held to support restoration of the townhouses. [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] The townhouses are also an exhibition venue and in 2018 held an exhibition by the artist Suzanne O‘Haire. [18]
On the 17th December 2020 The Regency Town House was awarded an Art Fund Grant.
Councillor Mac Cafferty, representing Brunswick and Adelaide Ward at the time, commented:
"It’s a fitting tribute to the team of enthusiastic and dedicated volunteers, headed up by the tireless Nick Tyson, who have worked so hard to bring this project to life. The funding will provide a lifeline for the house which, like museums and art galleries across the country, has been severely affected by the current Covid crisis. The Regency Town House plays a crucial role in understanding the history of our city, as well as providing a unique and much-loved arts venue.” [19]
The house was used as a filming location for the 2022 romantic film My Policeman . [20]
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 the Kemp Town Enclosures. The estate was conceived and financed by Thomas Read Kemp, designed by Charles Busby and Amon Henry Wilds, and constructed by Thomas Cubitt. Work began in 1823 and it was completed in 1855. It has given its name to the larger Kemptown region of Brighton.
Marlborough House is a mansion at 54, Old Steine, Brighton on the south coast of England. It is a Grade I listed building. Initially it was built for Samuel Shergold in the 1760s. It was sold to its second owner, 4th Duke of Marlborough, in 1786 it was bought by William G. Hamilton and altered to a neoclassical house by Robert Adam. After being owned by the Brighton School Board and Brighton and Hove City Council, it was sold to a local businessman in 1999. Since then, the building has stood empty and original features have been destroyed, leading to several courtcases. Marlborough House in Brighton is the second most important historic property after the Royal Pavilion.
Charles Augustin Busby was an English architect.
Brunswick Town is an area in Hove, in the city of Brighton and Hove, England. It is best known for the Regency architecture of the Brunswick estate.
Embassy Court is an 11-storey block of flats on the seafront in Brighton, part of the English city of Brighton and Hove. It has been listed at Grade II* by English Heritage. Wells Coates' "extremely controversial" piece of Modernist architecture has "divided opinion across the city" since its completion in 1935, and continues to generate strong feelings among residents, architectural historians and conservationists.
The Brunswick Terrace Synagogue, also sometimes called the Roof-top synagogue, was a private Orthodox Jewish synagogue that was built on the roof-top of 26 Brunswick Terrace, a terraced-row of houses on the Brunswick Estate in Hove, now a constituent part of the city of Brighton and Hove, in East Sussex, England, in the United Kingdom.
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 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.
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.
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 into a fashionable resort, the three-sided "set piece" of 69 houses and associated structures was built between 1818 and 1832. Most of the houses overlooking the central garden were complete by 1824. The site was previously known, briefly and unofficially, as Belle Vue Field.
Preston Manor is the former manor house of the ancient Sussex village of Preston, now part of the coastal city of Brighton and Hove, England. The present building dates mostly from 1738, when Lord of the manor Thomas Western rebuilt the original 13th-century structure, and 1905 when Charles Stanley Peach's renovation and enlargement gave the house its current appearance. The manor house passed through several owners, including the Stanfords—reputedly the richest family in Sussex—after several centuries of ownership by the Diocese of Chichester and a period in which it was Crown property.
The Georgian House is an 18th-century townhouse situated at No. 7 Charlotte Square in the heart of the historic New Town of the city of Edinburgh, Scotland. It has been restored and furnished by the National Trust for Scotland, and is operated as a popular tourist attraction, with over 40,000 visitors annually.
Gwydyr Mansions is a block of mansion flats in the centre of Hove, part of the English coastal city of Brighton and Hove. Built on the initiative of a Baptist pastor and designed by the prolific architecture firm of Clayton & Black, the "elegant" Flemish Renaissance-style building dates from 1890 and overlooks a central square. As originally built, the block had a restaurant and barber shop for residents; the latter is still operational.
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 Brighton & Hove bus routes 1, 1A, N1, 2, 5, 5A, 5B, N5, 6, 25, 46, 49, 60, 71, 71A and 96.
Adelaide Crescent is a mid-19th-century residential development in Hove, part of the English city and seaside resort of Brighton and Hove. Conceived as an ambitious attempt to rival the large, high-class Kemp Town estate east of Brighton, the crescent was not built to its original plan because time and money were insufficient. Nevertheless, together with its northerly neighbour Palmeira Square, it forms one of Hove's most important architectural set-pieces. Building work started in 1830 to the design of Decimus Burton. The adjacent land was originally occupied by "the world's largest conservatory", the Anthaeum; its collapse stopped construction of the crescent, which did not resume until the 1850s. The original design was modified and the crescent was eventually finished in the mid-1860s. Together with the Kemp Town and Brunswick Town estates, the crescent is one of the foremost pre-Victorian residential developments in the Brighton area: it has been claimed that "outside Bath, [they] have no superior in England". The buildings in the main part of Adelaide Crescent are Grade II* listed. Some of the associated buildings at the sea-facing south end are listed at the lower Grade II.
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