Western Wing Of The Royal Albion Hotel

Western Wing of the Royal Albion Hotel

The western wing of the Royal Albion Hotel, originally known as Lion Mansions Hotel, is a stuccoed hotel building constructed in 1856. It stands on the north side of Grand Junction Road and the extension of Old Steine in Brighton, with a parapeted roof.

The principal north-facing elevation presents six windows across four storeys with an attic above a basement. The ground floor is treated as rustication. The entrance is positioned in the third window range, set beneath a Doric prostyle porch with responds. Above it sits a first-floor balcony with a pierced balustrade, topped by a reclining lion sculpture. Segmental-arched windows flank either side of the entrance; all other openings are flat-arched. Canted bays with tripartite windows rising from ground to third floor occupy the first, fifth, and sixth window ranges. Four giant Composite-order pilasters rise through the first to third floors in the second through fourth window ranges. First-floor windows are set in Tuscan aedicules; second-floor windows have architraves and are topped by alternating segmental and triangular pediments. Both first and second-floor windows are full-length. Third-floor and attic windows have architraves. An entablature separates the third floor from the attic. Cast-iron balconettes ornament the first-floor and bay windows; cast-iron railings guard the areas on all elevations.

The building follows an irregular site along Pool Valley to Grand Junction Road. The Grand Junction Road elevation features an elaborately faceted plan with a seven-window range. The first three ranges turn the corner; range four angles sharply back to form a full-height arrís; ranges five through seven are set into facets of a full-height canted bay adjoining the right party wall. The ground floor is rusticated. All openings are flat-arched with architraves, except the triple windows to the full-height bay at the right party wall, which have no architraves. First and second-floor windows throughout have mid to late nineteenth-century cast-iron balconettes. Second-floor windows display pediments. An entrance sits at the base of the "V" formed by the conjunction of ranges four and five, set beneath a tetrastyle portico with columns paired at the corner to create a broad central gap; the portico plan is segmental.

The Pool Valley elevation presents a four-window range with full-height canted bays and storey bands between all floors. Both Pool Valley and Grand Junction Road elevations feature an entablature with dentil cornice between the third floor and attic, and a plain entablature band to the attic.

The interior was not inspected.

A green plaque to the right of the Grand Junction Road entrance records that William Ewart Gladstone (1809–1898) often stayed at this hotel during its time as Lion Mansions Hotel. The structure to the right of the Grand Junction Road elevation, which was built on the site of William's Baths and was known as the Adelphi before its incorporation into the Royal Albion Hotel in 1963, is specifically excluded from this listing. That structure has six storeys with an attic and two full-height shallow canted bays rising from an enclosed ground-floor porch.