Arundel House

Terraced houses on Arundel Terrace, Brighton, built between 1824 and 1828 and designed by Amon Wilds and Charles Augustin Busby for Thomas Read Kemp. The terrace consists of thirteen consecutive units (Nos 1–13), of which Nos 12 and 13 form Arundel House. The buildings are rendered in stucco with slate roofs to Nos 10, 12 and 13; the remainder have roofs obscured by parapets.

The architecture comprises three storeys and an attic over a basement; Nos 8 and 12 have dormers as well. Each unit has three windows. The entire composition is treated as a single, bilaterally symmetrical design of projecting, porticoed bays alternating with recessed connecting ranges. The rhythm of constituent bays can be notated as: ac, b, b, b, aa, a, c, a, aa, b, b, b, ac.

The centre five units (Nos 5–9) feature giant Composite pilasters and columns, while the giant Composite order reappears on the end units, Nos 1 and 13. The architects achieved visual unity by treating all ground floors as a rusticated base from which the giant orders rise, with a boldly scaled entablature and cornice running continuously across the terrace. All windows are flat arched.

The composition culminates at No.7, which projects further forward than any other unit. Its ground floor serves as a base for a giant tetrastyle portico of Composite columns serving the first and second floors, with pilaster responds. The entablature is capped by a balustrade enclosing the only attic porch. The windows of the attic storey and those in the pilastered bays are separated into three bays by pilaster strips topped with plain cornice and low parapet.

The flat-arched entrance to No.7 is reached by a flight of steps and enclosed by a distyle in antis porch with side walls pierced by windows. Only the entrance porches of the end units are of the same scale and type. The entrance to No.7 is set to the right party wall; all other entrances, whether enclosed by porches or not, are set to the left. French doors to the first floor of every unit are exceptionally tall, with those at No.7 featuring original sashes of two panels to transom and three to each door, with margin lights at sides and top; cast-iron balconies are present at first-floor level.

Nos 5 and 9 project to serve as a base for a tetrastyle portico of giant attached Composite columns with pilasters at the party walls and attached columns between. Nos 6 and 8 do not project as far forward as other bays in the centre but have a giant order of pilaster similar to Nos 5 and 9. The entrances to Nos 3, 5, 9–12 are set under porches with entablature supported by antae of the Doric order and side walls pierced by round-arched windows. The end units are wider than the rest; their tetrastyle is made from giant attached columns of Composite order with entablature and pilastered attic. Arundel House, No.13, has an elaborate return with steps up to a round-arched entrance set under a tetrastyle portico porch of the Doric order; a balustrade above encloses a porch.

Numerous alterations have been made to the original scheme, some recent and others dating from near the time of completion. A continuous cast-iron porch to the first floor and entrance porch of all units except Nos 5, 7 and 13 has been added. No.4 has a verandah to the first floor; the centre window of the attic has been lengthened and now interrupts the cornice. A balcony has been added to the centre-window range of the second floor of No.5; its door has been replaced but retains original design with sidelights and margin lights to overlight. The centre window in the attic of No.6 is blocked. No.8 has been insensitively altered in the late twentieth century: a glazed porch to the first and second floors encloses the giant pilasters and attached columns; the attic pilasters have been removed; a twentieth-century balustrade and extra storey have been added to the roof. No.9 is currently under restoration; its door has sidelights, and a twentieth-century solarium has been added to the roof of the entrance porch. The cornice of No.10 has been cut back where the attic windows were lengthened; it retains a four-panelled, studded door of original design and glazing bars of original design to the first-floor French door transoms. A twentieth-century solarium has been added to the verandah over the entrance porch of No.11.

The most noteworthy variation from the common type appears on No.1. Salomonic shafts have been added to the corner of the porch, which has a cornice of cable moulding, coving and nail heads continuing across the ground floor. All openings have billeted architraves; each ground-floor window has a projecting sill moulded as a cable and a hood moulding in a diamond pattern. These details impart an eastern or "Moorish" flavour to the otherwise Classical elevation, intended as a reference to the Royal Pavilion. The attic windows of No.1 are camber arched, unlike the rest in the terrace. Stacks are positioned to party and end walls.

The interior has not been inspected. Railings enclose areas and entrances not enclosed by porches; a low wall at the east end of the terrace closes the range off.

Historical note: No.5 was lived in by the novelist William Henry Ainsworthy (1887–1967). No.13, Arundel House, was finished in 1826 when it was opened as the Bush Hotel by William Bush. In 1850 the hotel was relocated and No.13 became a private house; in 1910 it became a rest home and after 1950 a guest house. Arundel Terrace was the first part of the Kemp Town estate to be finished. The complete Kemp Town layout constitutes a most important group.