7, 9 AND 11, SOUTH ROAD

This estate office, located at 7, 9, and 11 South Road, Brighton, was built in 1907 by Charles Stanley Peach. It is constructed of stucco with a slate roof.

The building is two storeys high with dormers in the attic, presented as a ten-window range. A recessed central section of four windows is flanked by wings of three windows each, with a single-storey range connecting them. The ground floor features flat-arched entrances at either end of the single-storey range, framed by engaged Doric columns. Above each door and overlight is a panel decorated with festoons and paterae. A three-part glazed screen and an introduced door fill the space between the doors. The wings have giant angle pilasters with acanthus-leaf capitals, and their windows are largely glazed with 6/6 sashes. One window in the left wing likely retains a panel suggesting its original use as a doorway, while the window on the right has been altered. An entablature with a dentil cornice runs across the entire facade, topped by cast-iron railings. The first-floor windows feature flat arches, with sashes almost flush with the wall, and a similarly decorated entablature with paterae, oakleaf festoons, and a dentil cornice. A blocking course sits above the windows, and four dormers are incorporated into the mansard roof; a stack serves as a party wall between numbers 7 and 9, while another marks the end of numbers 7 and 11. The left-hand return elevation mirrors the street frontage with pilasters, entablature, and fascia.

Inside, a dogleg staircase remains in the central and west wings, exhibiting square newels, turned balusters, and moulded rails. Only the upper flight of the staircase survives in the east wing. Original cast-iron fireplaces with mantelshelves, and in some cases, original grates, are present in the first-floor back room of the middle wing and the attic rooms of the middle and east wings. Original architraves and panelled doors are found on the first and attic floors of the middle and west wings. The rooms on the first and attic floors of the west wing were not inspected.

The building is recognised as an early example of the revival of late 18th and early 19th century English architectural forms, a trend typically associated with the work on the Duchy of Cornwall estate in Kennington, London, around 1910-14. It was built, at least in part, as the Preston Estate office.