Numbers 1 To 7 Including Colonnade To Numbers 6 And 7

Terraced houses now converted to shops and offices, arranged in a continuous row on New Road and North Street corner site in Brighton. The buildings date from the early 19th century but were refaced in the early 20th century. The Royal Colonnade, a distinctive portico feature, was added in 1823 by the architects Cooper and Lynn and survives only on Numbers 6 and 7 New Road.

The buildings are constructed in brick laid in Flemish bond with stucco dressings. Corner houses are faced entirely in stucco. The roofs are parapeted throughout.

The New Road frontage rises to three storeys with an attic storey over a basement. The original design consisted of pairs of units, each with a single window, framed by panelled giant pilasters extending from the first to attic floors at the party walls. These pilasters have panelled capitals filled with anthemion friezes and fountain motifs. Numbers 2 and 3, Numbers 4 and 5, and Numbers 6 and 7 are thus paired. Number 1 is paired with the short return wall of Number 161 North Street.

All first-floor bays feature flat-arched, tripartite windows. Those to Numbers 1 to 5 are shallow and segmental, dating to the early 20th century when the Royal Colonnade was removed. Numbers 6 and 7 retain the original scheme with broad semicircular bays.

The Royal Colonnade, as designed by Cooper and Lynn, survives only on Numbers 6 and 7. It consisted of paired Ionic columns set on socles with very broad elliptical arches spanning each unit. The coupled columns were placed on the line of each party wall and joined by narrow round arches, creating a fully enclosed balcony fronted with cast-iron railings, which remain extant on these two properties. The colonnade originally turned the corner into North Street with an exceptionally broad elliptical arch, now removed.

Between the bays to Numbers 4 and 5 is a round-arched niche with a blocked flat-arched window above. All windows display flat-arched lintels with projecting sills. The second-floor windows have floating cornices in a blocky Greek-Revival style, each supported by a pair of fluted console brackets. A continuous cornice and parapet runs across the top. At the centre of Numbers 6 and 7 is a raised panelled parapet section.

Some sashes retain their original design: the second floors of Numbers 2, 4, 5 and 7 have 8 by 8 sashes; Numbers 3 and 6 have 8-pane sashes in the top light only; the attic of Number 7 has 4 by 4 sashes.

The North Street frontage comprises three houses. Number 159 alone preserves the original elevation scheme, with a round-arched niche on the first floor at the party wall with Number 160, similar to those on New Road though half obscured by stucco cement render. Above this niche are blocked and partially obscured windows to each floor.

The remaining North Street units to the corner are covered in stucco cement render. The first floors are treated with banded rustication and full-height rusticated pilasters at the party walls and at the corner. A rusticated storey band runs between the second and attic floors.

Number 161 is the widest of the three North Street houses and contains a two-window range on the first floor, with a three-window range (the centre window narrower than the sides) on the second floor and attic. A projecting cornice extends across all rendered sections, with a curved corner entablature to Number 161.

The return wall of Number 161 onto New Road has a two-window range, concluding at the party wall with Number 1 New Road in a rusticated pilaster. Chimneystack flues run to the party walls.

The interior has not been inspected.