Palmeira Mansions

PALMEIRA MANSIONS, Church Road, Hove

A house at the end of terrace, now part of a language school. Built 1883–4, designed by architect H.J. Lanchester and built by Jabez Reynolds Jnr.

The building is constructed of stucco over brick, with a concealed roof behind a parapet and rendered stacks topped with moulded caps.

The house forms the end of a terrace adjoining No. 31 Palmeira Mansions. The original entrance on the long west return is now blocked, with access instead gained through a late 20th-century extension to the north.

The south front has four storeys over a basement. A full-height canted bay dominates this elevation, containing three windows. The sash windows lack glazing bars. The facade features a bracketed eaves cornice and moulded strings. The second-floor central window is topped with a garlanded scroll pediment carried on console brackets. The first floor contains arch-head windows with a central pediment and linked entablature. A continuous cast-iron balcony, carried on shaped brackets, runs across the bay. The ground floor is rusticated.

The west front has irregular fenestration. A flat-roofed porch projects at the right, with an arch-head opening containing a panelled door and leaded fanlight. Adjacent to this is a three-bay projection featuring rusticated columns and an entablature continuing from the porch. The first floor incorporates a conservatory with cast-iron columns, cresting and stained glass. Apart from these distinctive west-front features, the facade mirrors that of the other end of the terrace.

The interior contains a remarkable assemblage of fittings from the 1880s, largely unaltered. Original lincrusta wall and ceiling papers and original light fittings survive throughout.

The ground floor makes extensive use of coloured marbles. The entrance hall is marble-panelled with marble doorcases, heraldic stained glass, and a marble floor. A curved marble stair features marble balusters and handrail. The front room on the ground floor has a painted and gilded ceiling coffered in Moorish style, a marble-panelled dado, and corner columns. The doorcase comprises paired columns with an ogee arch to the overdoor—a design repeated in the marble chimneypiece. An original mahogany door survives.

The first-floor landing displays Moorish horseshoe arches and an ornate painted and gilded ceiling extending into the conservatory, which contains Tiffany-style stained glass but is now divided by a partition. The front room has an ornate chimneypiece with mirrored overmantel, original frieze and lavish pelmet box to the portiere. A conference room features an ornate chimneypiece with a Venetian glass overmantel incorporating glass columns and engraved glass, and an ornate doorcase. Other chimneypieces survive throughout, including a wooden example painted white in a style loosely associated with Robert Adam.

The third floor once served as a ballroom, now used as a video library. A patterned parquet floor, fine carved mahogany door, and plasterwork frieze with roundels are features of note. A notable Doulton ceramic chimneypiece occupies this space. A partition separates an inner room, possibly originally used as a stage, which contains a rococo-style wood and plaster chimneypiece incorporating a mirror overmantel. The hearth is tiled with lustreware tiles of a design by Walter Crane.

Little is documented regarding the original owner, believed to have been an ink-millionaire. It remains uncertain whether Lanchester, who designed this terrace and numerous other properties in Hove, was actually responsible for the interior decoration. The house first appears in street directories in 1886, occupied by R. Gillespie Esq., and three years later by A.W. Mason. The collection of fittings represents an outstanding survival from the period.