Numbers 1-10 And Attached Piers And Railings

Terraced houses facing Sussex Square, Brighton, built 1825-1827. The facades were designed by architects Amon Wilds and Charles Augustin Busby, with Thomas Cubitt acting as builder for some units. The development was undertaken by Thomas Read Kemp. The interiors were completed by individual purchasers over the following years.

The ten houses are constructed in stucco and brick in Flemish bond, with slate roofs except for No.10 which has tile. They form part of the wider Kemp Town layout, which includes Lewes Crescent, Arundel Terrace, Chichester Terrace and related buildings.

Each house has three storeys and an attic over basement, except No.5 which has three segmental-arched dormers of 20th-century date in place of the attic storey. The facades present a generally uniform appearance through common features including banded rustication on the ground floor, first-floor balconies with cast-iron railings and brackets, a storey band between first and second floors, flat-arched openings throughout, and an entablature with projecting cornice.

Every third unit—Nos 1, 4, 7 and 10—is distinguished by a giant tetrastyle pilastrade of Composite order applied to the first and second floors, with a plain pilastrade on axis articulating the attic storey above. The architects accommodated the level change across Sussex Square by breaking the terrace joins between Nos 3 and 4, between 6 and 7, and between 9 and 10; No.10 stands at the north end elevated above the rest.

Despite the overall unity, minor variations distinguish individual units. The brick walls of the first, second and attic floors of Nos 1-3 are exposed with gauged brick lintels to all windows in these areas and architraves except in basements. Nos 4-6 follow the same pattern for their lower floors but have stucco-covered attic storeys with architraves only on first- and second-floor windows, except at No.4. The facades of Nos 7-10 are entirely covered in stucco, though the return of No.10 is in brick.

The entrance porches vary in treatment. Nos 1 and 2 share paired entrances reached by a short flight of steps beneath a Doric tetrastyle portico with coupled columns creating broad entryways. The entablature has a triglyph and metope frieze. Screens pierce each side wall with a round-arched window, and cast-iron railings at the porch top function as an extension to the first-floor balcony. Nos 3 and 6 have smaller Doric prostyle porches with coupled responds and similarly pierced side walls. The broadest porch covers Nos 4 and 5, a tetrastyle portico of fluted Doric columns with centre columns coupled at the party wall, responds to each side, and round-arched windows in side walls. The former entrance to No.5 has been blocked by conversion of the pair into flats; the entrance to No.1 is now accessed through No.2; the entrance to No.8 is also blocked. Nos 7 and 8 have no entrance porches. No.9 has a shallow porch with antae of attached fluted Doric columns supporting a plain entablature. No.10's porch is prostyle with Tuscan columns supporting a plain entablature, with side walls ending in antae that stop just short of the columns.

Original 4-panel studded doors survive at Nos 3 and 5-10; Nos 1, 2 and 4 are now much altered. Each doorcase comprises a pair of Tuscan pilasters supporting a lintel treated as an entablature. All windows are flat-arched sashes of original design: basements have 3 x 6 sashes in all except Nos 6 and 7; 2 x 4 sashes to the ground floor of Nos 4 and 9 only; floor-to-ceiling first-floor windows of 2 x 4 design to Nos 1 and 2, and 4 x 6 to Nos 3-5; 3 x 6 sashes to second floors of Nos 1, 2 and 4, with top sashes only to Nos 7-10; 3 x 3 sashes to attics of all except Nos 3, 5 and 6. Railings occur to stairs and areas. Stacks are positioned to party and end walls.

The listing includes the rear elevation to Rock Street, where piers in the form of truncated Doric columns and cast-iron railings serve areas and rear entrances. The rear elevation retains many sashes of original design, with first-floor French doors having margin lights.

The interiors were not inspected for this listing.