Description

BRIGHTON

TQ3303NW SUSSEX SQUARE
577-1/50/877 (East side)
13/10/52 Nos.41-50 (Consecutive)
and attached railings
(Formerly Listed as:
SUSSEX SQUARE
Nos 1-50 (consec) Chester Crt,
Prince Mansions, The leas, Sussex
Crt & Mansions)

I

Terraced houses, most now converted to flats. Facades date to
1825-27, with the interiors executed over the next several
years. Designed by Amon Wilds and Charles Augustin Busby for
the developer of Kemp Town, Thomas Read Kemp; Thomas Cubitt
the builder of some of the units. Stucco; return of No.41,
brick in Flemish bond. All the gambrel roofs of slate, that to
No.41 turnerised.
EXTERIOR: 3 windows each. 3 storeys and attic over basement;
above the attic storey of Nos 42 and 45 is a single dormer,
the former dating to the late C19 or early C20; No.45 has 3
flat-arched dormers above the attic storey. All openings are
flat arched. The most striking motif used throughout the group
is one found in other designs by CA Busby, most notably in the
rest of Sussex Square (qv), Lewes Crescent (qv), and Portland
Place (qv): a giant tetrastyle portico of Composite pilasters
applied to the first and second floors of every third unit and
a plain pilastrade on the same axis to the attic storey. These
pilastered bays, which in this group correspond to Nos 41, 44,
47 and 50, project slightly beyond the intermediary units.
Features common to each unit and which help to unify the
design of the whole include: a ground floor treated as banded
rustication; ground-floor windows with projecting sills to all
but Nos 42, 43 and 44; French doors to first-floor openings;
identical cast-iron railings and brackets to balconies of Nos
41, 45, 46, 49 and 50 and to verandahs of the rest; the latter
have concave metal roofs with wood valance boards and
cast-iron stanchions; the roof of all entrance porches are
extensions either of a balcony or a verandah; storey band
between first and second floors; above second floor an
entablature with projecting cornice, the upper fascia of which
is level with the sills of the attic windows; all entrances
with overlights. The level change from north to south in
Sussex Square is negotiated by broken joins at the party walls
shared by Nos 41 and 42, 44 and 45, as well as 47 and 48. The
latter feature produces straight joins between every 3 units,
another feature common to Wilds and Busby's work in Kemp Town.
There are entrance porches to Nos 41-44, the entrances to
which units also have sidelights. The design of each porch is
nearly identical: side walls ending in Tuscan antae support an
entablature with projecting cornice. The entablature to the
porch on No.41 is no longer complete. There are a considerable
number of sash windows of an original early to mid C19 design:
2 x 2 to ground-floor windows of No.43; 3 x 6 to second-floor
windows of Nos 45, 48 and 50; the second floor of No.47 has
3-pane casement windows with margin lights; 3 x 3 to attic
floors of Nos 47 and 50; and 3 x 6 to dormers of No.45. The
second-floor windows to No.45 have architraves. Many windows
on the ground and second floors are fitted with tracks for
shutters.
Alterations to the original design include: entablature and
attic pilastrade on No.44 altered, 2 of its second-floor
windows enlarged; the Composite capitals on No.50 damaged. The
return to No.41 has scattered fenestration and steps down to a
low service range; like the return to No.10 Sussex Square
(qv), the architectural elements of the main elevation are
carried around the return but unpainted; walls and gable end
are of brown brick. Every unit but No.45 has 4-panel, studded
doors of original design; on No.48 the studded mouldings have
been removed from an otherwise intact door. Stacks to party
walls.
INTERIOR: not inspected.
Railings to stairs and broad areas are complete.
Kemp Town constitutes a most important group comprising
Arundel Terrace, Chichester Terrace, Lewes Crescent, Sussex
Square and related structures on The Esplanade.

Listing NGR: TQ3324003579

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17527957

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Central Leinster: Kildare, Laois and Offaly (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)
• 
  Oxfordshire: North and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  A Buying and Owning a Listed Building: A Brief Guide
• 
  Building Small Projects (New Best of Fine Woodworking)
• 
  Hertfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  [(Shropshire)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1958)