Numbers 1-14 And Chichester House And Attached Railings

Terrace of houses in Chichester Terrace, Brighton, dating from 1824 to 1855. The terrace was designed by Amon Wilds and Charles Augustin Busby for the developer Thomas Read Kemp. Thomas Cubitt, who served on the Kemp Town Management Committee alongside Kemp and the Reverend James Anderson, built numbers 1 to 3 and completed the terrace in 1855 with numbers 4 to 10.

The buildings are constructed of stucco. The roofs are largely obscured by blocking courses, parapets or additions, except for numbers 7, 12 and 14 which have slate roofs, numbers 4 and 5 which have slate roofs treated with turnerising, and numbers 2 and 3 which have tile roofs.

Most units are three storeys with an attic storey over a basement, with three storeys and dormers to numbers 7, 12 and 14. An extra storey was added to numbers 4 to 6, 8 to 11 and 13 to 14 during the 20th century. Each unit has three windows except number 14, which also has a three-window range but is wider than the rest. Busby's original plan called for every third house to have giant pilasters, similar to those built in Portland Place. Cubitt modified the plan.

All openings are flat arched. Steps lead up to each entrance, enclosed in a prostyle porch with fluted Doric columns supporting an entablature with projecting cornice. The porch side walls have antae stopping short of the columns, each pierced by a single window. To the left of the entrance porch are two windows, some showing traces of shutter runners, and two basement windows to the area.

French doors to the first floor open onto a verandah with cast-iron colonnettes, railings and brackets underneath. The verandah roof is concave in section and projects to form a porch over the entrance porch, supported by elaborate cast-iron stanchions with acanthus scroll brackets. The verandah abuts against a storey band between the first and second floors.

Second-floor windows have projecting sills. An entablature with projecting cornice marks the second floor, the upper fascia of which is level with the sills of the attic windows. The attic storey has a diminutive plain entablature and then blocking course.

Cubitt attempted to create a central point of emphasis by treating numbers 6, 7 and 8 as projecting bays, with number 7 projecting furthest. This emphasis is diminished by numbers 3 and 11, which project as far as number 7. The resulting bay rhythm alternates between three projection depths across the terrace.

The end units, Chichester House and number 14, are the only units to have received the giant order. The ground floor of Chichester House is treated as banded rustication. Steps lead up to the entrance with over- and sidelights, set under a prostyle porch of fluted Doric columns which stop just short of antae at the end of short side walls. The entablature has a frieze of laurel wreaths, with a blocking course topped by a balustrade enclosing a first floor balcony. To the right of the entrance rises a full-height segmental bay of three windows.

Giant pilasters of the Composite order rise across the first and second floors, with those framing the entrance range paired. The entablature to the pilasters is continuous with that of the entire terrace, except that the projecting cornice was removed from the bay when the attic windows were lengthened. Plain pilasters are applied to the attic storey on the axes of the giant order below, with the parapet above each attic pilaster projecting to form a short socle topped by an antefix finial. Instead of the first-floor balcony found on other units, first-floor windows including those on the return have individual cast-iron balconettes.

The design extends around the return, where coupled giant pilasters appear at the corner and bay, with single pilasters defining the remaining window ranges. A full-height segmental bay rises through the fourth- and fifth-window ranges. The second-window range is blocked. Giant pilasters are used again on number 14, where the facade is treated as a tetrastyle portico with a corresponding attic pilastrade. The entrance is reached up steps, enclosed by a distyle in antis porch of fluted Doric columns, with two side walls between antae and responds each pierced by one window. The entablature frieze features laurel wreaths.

Verandahs above porches have all been glazed during the 20th century except for number 4, where the verandah has been removed entirely. All units have four-panel doors of early to mid 19th century design. Entrance porches have been removed from numbers 1 to 4. Only a few sashes of original design remain: four-over-four to the ground floor of numbers 2, 3, 8, 9 and 10; two-over-two to the second floor of numbers 2, 3, 8 and 9; and two-over-two to the attic of number 8. Number 1 is currently undergoing restoration. Stacks are present to party and end walls.

Railings enclose stairs and areas. The interior was not inspected.

Chichester House, initially not considered part of the terrace or the broader development, was completed by 1832 and stood independently for some time. It was used as a young gentleman's academy and from 1938 to 1944 served as the home of novelist David Llewellyn Murray, an important member of Brighton's literary community.