Numbers 1 And 2 And Attached Railings And Gate Piers

Numbers 1 and 2 Montpelier Villas are a pair of semi-detached houses dating to around 1845. They are constructed of stucco with a slate roof. Each house is two storeys high with a raised basement. The front elevation facing Montpelier Villas has a two-window arrangement, while the return elevation has a four-window range. The plan incorporates a wider rear section, with the entrance positioned at the resulting angle, and separate rooflines for the front and rear portions.

The front of the houses features ground-floor rustication and long and short quoins to the first floor. A flat-arched entrance is flanked by pilasters and consoles, supporting a first-floor balcony with a scalloped balustrade and an overlight. A segmental bay with flat-arched triple windows extends from the basement to the ground floor, culminating in a shallow dome. Bracketed balconies with cast-iron railings and fringed canopies are present beneath the ground-floor windows. First-floor windows are flat-arched with margin lights; the westernmost first-floor window on the return elevation is blank. The rear part of the houses has a full-height segmental bay with tripartite windows. Original sash windows with margin lights are found on the first floor. An easternmost first-floor window is blank on each house, and the first-floor window over the entrance to Number 2 retains its original margin lights. The eaves are supported by console brackets with paterae in the frieze, except for the extension to Number 1, which is set back behind the rear segmental bay. The roof is hipped with central and other stacks. The interior of the houses has not been inspected.

Cast-iron railings are present to the entrance steps and front gardens, with brackets supporting the front garden railings. Stuccoed, corniced, square piers are positioned between each pair of houses along Montpelier Villas. The 20 houses that form Montpelier Villas share a uniform design, and such semi-detached houses are considered rare in Brighton. The railings were also listed in 1971.