Numbers 5 And 6 And Attached Railings And Piers

Numbers 5 and 6, with their attached railings and piers, are a pair of semi-detached houses dating from approximately 1845. They are located within Montpelier Villas, Brighton, and represent a rare example of this house type in the town.

The houses are constructed of stucco with slate roofs. The overall plan is notable: each house is wider towards the rear, with the entrance situated in the resulting angle, and the front and rear sections covered by separate roofs. The front of the houses, facing Montpelier Villas, has a two-window range, while the return presents a three-window range.

The front part of the houses features ground-floor rustication, and long and short quoins to the first floor. Steps lead to a flat-arched entrance with pilasters and consoles supporting a first-floor balcony with a scalloped balustrade; an overlight is present. A segmental bay, with flat-arched triple windows, extends from the basement to the ground floor, terminating in a shallow dome above the storey band. The basement windows have 6/6 sash windows of an original design. Bracketed balconies extend to the ground-floor windows, incorporating cast-iron railings and a fringed canopy (now lacking on Number 6). The first-floor windows are flat-arched with margin lights; the westernmost first-floor window on the return is blank. A window above the entrance also has margin lights.

The rear part of the houses includes a full-height segmental bay with tripartite windows; basement windows on Number 5 have 6/6 sashes, and first-floor sashes on both numbers 5 and 6 feature margin lights. The eaves are supported by console brackets with paterae in the frieze, and the roof is hipped with a central and other stacks. The interior remains uninspected.

Attached cast-iron railings are present to the entrance steps and front gardens, with brackets. Square, stuccoed, corniced piers are positioned between each pair of houses within Montpelier Villas. The twenty houses of Montpelier Villas share a uniform design. The railings were also listed in 1971.