Eastern Part Of Debenhams Store And Attached Wall

House, now eastern part of Debenham's store. Built 1822–25, designed by Amon Wilds and Charles Augustus Busby. Stucco with slate roofs.

The building stands on Western Road (south side), Brighton, at Nos. 95 and 96, and includes Nos. 1, 2 and 3 Western Terrace. It was formerly known as Priory Lodge and The Gothic House.

Exterior: The building comprises two and three storeys with a six-window range to Western Road. It is best understood in three distinct parts.

The original front to Western Road features a 20th-century shop front at ground floor level. Above this rises an octagonal tower with offset buttresses terminating in pinnacles. On the first floor of the tower are pointed-arched windows glazed as two lancets beneath hoodmoulds with heads as stops on the north and north-west faces. A frieze of shields forms a storey band. Above this are segmental-pointed-arched windows with hoodmoulds and heads as stops; those to the north and north-east faces are blind, while the north-west window is glazed as two cusped lancets. An embattled parapet runs between the pinnacles, decorated with blind lancets and quatrefoils. To the right is a single-window bay with similar windows and a storey band continuing to a roll-moulded parapet. Further right, a single-window bay projects forward, flanked by octagonal piers with blind arcading; its first-floor window is 20th-century; the storey band continues and a low gable sits above with roll-moulding. Finally, a single-window bay was added in 1880 with a canted bay to the first floor, a springing band, and a sill band to the second-floor window, which is flat with a hoodmould and likely altered glazing.

The fronts visible on Western Terrace show early 20th-century shop detailing to the ground floor. An octagonal pier at the south-east corner terminates in an embattled pinnacle above the original parapet. A five-sided bay to the first floor, probably 20th-century in date, sits beneath a gable decorated with squared quatrefoils. To its right is a canted bay, probably three sides of a former tower, with lancet windows to the first floor bearing hoodmoulds and head stops; the whole bay is glazed to the second floor. Above the early 20th-century extension are visible a gable similarly decorated to that at the south end and the remains of an octagonal pier decorated with blind arcading.

A two-storey shop extension occupies the corner of Western Road and Western Terrace, obscuring the corner of the original buildings. Dating to the early 20th century, it has a late 20th-century shop front to Western Road and Western Terrace. The former restaurant to the first floor features a continuously-glazed frontage with a flattened bow window to Western Road, around which runs a frieze lettered 'RESTAURANT'. A stepped and balustraded parapet crowns this section. The southern part in Western Terrace has an entrance, now a window, beneath a shell-moulded canopy. Adjacent to this is a partly blind segmental arcade of three bays between rusticated pilasters with lugged panels to the lower part and flat-arched windows above. The first floor has three flat-arched windows beneath an entablature and balustraded parapet. The south front is similarly detailed but now much altered.

Interior: Not inspected.

A wall to the south end in Western Terrace features a segmental-arched gateway under a console to the north and two gateways to the south: one flat-arched and late 20th-century in date, and the other four-centred with splayed jambs.