East Brunswick

Brunswick Town from the air

East Brunswick is the area to the right of Brunswick Square. Western Road cuts across this view left to right near the top. The Old Market is just right of centre. Waterloo Street can be seen clearly, and Norfolk Square is near the top right of the photo, with Western Street running down towards Kings Road.

Embassy Court is the big white building at the lower right, at the junction with Kings Road. The street running up the extreme left of the photo is Lansdowne Place.

Photo by Duncan McNeill, with permission.

About Brunswick Town

Brunswick Town was designed and built by Amon Wilds and Charles Busby who were responsible for many of the fine buildings of Brighton & Hove. Work started in 1824 and by 1828 the grand square and terraces were complete. The estate was designed as a whole with an infrastructure of support trades; workshops, stables, a market, and houses and lodgings for tradesmen and working people. It is these that make up the EBRA area.

Brunswick Town was built on Wick Farm in the parish of Hove. In 1800 Hove was a tiny village of about 100 people almost a mile to the west. Residents of the time would have considered themselves as living in Brighton, not Hove!

Read more about Brunswick Town and Wilds and Busby

Horses and Donkeys

For almost one hundred years horses and donkeys were the only means of transport in Brunswick Town. The grand houses were built with coach houses or stables at the rear, some with accommodation above for grooms and horsemen. Donkeys, as well as transporting goods, were also used in the summer to give children rides along the beach and this was a thriving business in the mid-1800s. Horses require stabling, some would have been housed in the mews buildings but it is known that The Old Market catered for this and there were other livery stables elsewhere in Brunswick Town.

Brunswick Street East

Jane Middleton, a local historian describes it as "a curious little street" and it is a very mixed bag. It is of course a mews; the buildings on the west side (on the right here) were obviously coach houses belonging to the great houses of Brunswick Square and built at the same time. They would also have served as accomodation for grooms, ostlers and other servants. Near the top of the street is Donkey Mews, originally Donkey Row, just to the right where the two ladies are walking.

Many of the coach houses have since been converted to homes but a few are used for the motor trade, which seems a logical evolution from their original use, and some other small businesses flourish here.

The west side of the street is a different matter. Mostly it consists of the backs of buildings in Upper and Lower Market Streets but there are a few that belong to this street. At the top is a pub, The Juggler, originally the Western Hotel and later 0'Reillys but no dates are known, though the pub is clearly Early Victorian rather than Regency in style.

Next to it sits The Sanctuary and this worthy café has been there since the late 1990s, a nice place for a veggie lunch, although the coffee is a bit iffy. There is a room in the basement for music and arts events known appropriately and a bit cutely as "The Cella". The building itself looks a little grand, as if it were intended to serve some important purpose, but research has produced no clue as to what it once was.

Across the road No 38 is a strange building with a small but imposing frontage which is original and about 1828. Drawings show that it has fine interior detailing from the Regency period. It was certainly not a coach house or servants quarters and one authority says it may have been a picture galley for No 14 Brunswick Square, the grand house behind it. John R Watson, a local historian, claimed the building was once the Brunswick Town Law Courts but that does not seem likely; the west side is a typical mews, the building was too ornate inside, built too early, and the magistrates would surely have sat in the old Town Hall in Brunswick Street West.

In 1999 an application was made to demolish No 38 and build four houses on the site, which would be no mean feat, but this was refused consent. In December 2005 a successful application was made to convert it to a single residence and work is still going on (2008). The house will be bigger than it looks as it extends a long way back and is on two floors.

The Coach House

Right at the bottom of the street is The Coach House, a charming little building tucked in behind Brunswick Terrace. It looks very much as a coach house should except that is has clearly been updated a few times, but nothing is known.

From here the street turns sharp left on its way to Waterloo Street and is again a typical mews, a bit gloomy since the sun rarely reaches it. There is an excellent and obliging cycle sales and repair shop and a florist in what once were coach houses and stables.

Upper Market Street

The fine houses either side of this street were built in 1828, again by Wilds and Busby. Numbers 2 to 9 on the west side shown here are Grade II listed. They were originally lodgings or houses for tradesmen and working people. Many were in multiple occupancy in the late 1800s and overcrowding was rife. The 1890 census records four families in one house and five in another.

Number 11 was once a pub, the Victory Inn, which closed around 1910, and there was another pub in the street, the Locksmith's Arms that closed in 1934 and then became a cafe. At the far end you can just see the Old Market.

Lower Market Street

Separated from its upper end by The Old Market is Lower Market Street. The houses are similar but plainer in style than Upper Market Street and some were in use by 1839.

The street once had a large number of pubs and beer houses. The Horse and Groom was established at No 3 before 1839, but is seems to have closed in 1906 and the building was demolished in 1970. There was also a beer and lodging house which later became the The Market Inn. It disappears from the records by 1935.

The Hero of Waterloo Inn was at number 34. It opened in the early 1850s but disappears from the records before the end of that century. The Carpenters Arms was at number 35 before 1832 and originally a beer shop rather than a pub. The name was acquired around 1850. By 1875 it had ceased to be a pub and became dining rooms. This must have been a very lively street at one time!

Of the pubs only The Conqueror remains. Established around 1860 it prospered through being adjacent to The Old Market. In later years it was owned by Courage but is now run by Conqueror Inns who also run the bar at the Old Market.

The Old Market

Aiming to provide everything needed to support the great square and terraces, a covered market for the estate was designed by Wills and Busby and built in 1828. It failed to attract traders however and by 1839 it was being used as a school. By 1850 it had become a riding school, and in 1875 it was taken over by Alfred Dupont and became the celebrated West Brighton Riding Academy with the address of 21 Waterloo Street.

The original building was single storey but in Mr Dupont's day two floors were added to provide stabling, saddle rooms and stores. Donkeys were stabled in the basement. The building was also extended to the north and south so that what you see today is mainly from the late 1800s. The only major part of the orginal single storey building that can still be viewed is the east front seen from Waterloo Arch.

The Story of the Arts Centre

The riding school remained in existence until after World War I when the rise of the motor car killed it off. Subsequently the building was used for smoking bacon and ham, and then by a wholesale grocer but by 1970 it was unused and derelict. Then in 1976 it was purchased by OMAC, the Old Market Arts Centre. Voluntary efforts brought much of the building back into use with an art gallery and studio, a pottery studio, ballet and yoga classes and poetry reading. The enterprise failed and closed with large debts in 1982 amid much acrimony. The building was again empty and derelict for the next 13 years.

Proposals were made to convert the building into flats but in 1995 the Hanover Band, an internationally acclaimed period-instrument orchestra decided to make the Old Market their home and the Old Market Trust was formed. The building was completely restored with the aid of Lottery funding at a cost of £6 million and finally Hove's centre for the arts, education and the community opened in 1999. Despite early financial difficulties it continues today and offers an impressive programme of music, arts and literary events.

The Old Market, the Garden

The Old Market is Grade II listed. The north façade of the building seen above is entirely Victorian and rather imposing. The original Regency single story frontage can be seen only on the east side shown on the left.

The garden you see here was a gift from Louise Rennison, the famous author of novels for teenage girls. Louise lives nearby in East Brunswick.

EBRA helps maintain the garden you see on the left, and was instrumental in having two olive trees planted at the east side of The Old Market, bringing this pleasant spot some much-needed greenery.

Waterloo Street

The battle of Waterloo was fought on 18 June 1815 and the name of the street is a commemoration of the famous event just a few years earlier. Waterloo Street was built over a period of 25 years. A few of the buildings were erected in 1825 and the 1841 census shows that about half of the present houses were occupied, mainly at the south end. A map of Brighton of 1850 shows the street and virtually all of Brunswick Town as complete, and the census of 1861 has all the houses occupied.

By then, Ebenezer Robins the brewer occupied four houses numbers 57 to 61 on the east side and his Anchor Brewery lay just behind them, reached through a covered passage (see also The Anchor Brewery below).

The houses built in Waterloo Street were clearly up-market and almost all are the work of Wilds and Busby and these, on both sides of the street are Grade II listed, a classification that even includes the railings!

The architecture is less grand and dramatic than Brunswick Square but no less pleasing. The rhythm of the bow windows as they march down the hill to the sea is quite beautiful. Waterloo Street is vernacular Regency architecture at its best.

In the mid-1800s many of the buildings were boarding or lodging houses for itinerant merchants and workers and also for the holiday trade, Brunswick Town was becoming a place to see and be seen. Waterloo Street had a thriving Jewish community at that time with several kosher shops.

The street is now almost wholly residential but quite recently there were several shops here. Skevington's the chemist was at No. 6 in the early days and the frontage of the shop remains, so it was probably built like that. The St Andrews Year Book for 1972 lists Tugwell's the butcher at No 42, the Toffee Tin at 54, and Sandy's General Store at 55.

The street has seen drama in recent years. The infamous strangling of Jane Longhurst took place here in 2003.

Pages from the St Andrews Year Book for 1972-1973

St Andrews, Waterloo Street

While the Brunswick Town estate was being built the Reverend Edward Everard bought a small parcel of land and commissioned Charles Barry to build a chapel for him, completed by 1828. Barry was a relatively unknown architect although he had also built St Peters church in Brighton in 1826. He went on to become architect of the Palace of Westminster.

The church is Italianate in design, more severe looking and in sharp contrast to the prevailing Regency style of Brunswick Town. Originally there was just a nave with a chancel being added in 1888 by Barry's son. It is Grade I listed. The interior is quite plain but very beautiful. The church has a crypt used for local burials in earlier times since there was no cemetery in Brunswick Town, and coffins still lie there undisturbed.

After a long decline in attendances the church finally closed in 1990 and became the responsibility of the Churches Conservation Trust. The Friends of St Andrew's Church are now custodians and work with the Trust to restore the building and make use of the church for community events. The restored St Andrews Church reopened at Easter 2007.

Photographs of the interior of St Andrews

The Iron Duke

The Iron Duke at No 3 Waterloo Street started life as the Kerrison Arms Hotel around 1825. On 31 October 1829 a committee met there to discuss how Brunswick Town should be administered, the group became the Brunswick Town Commissioners in 1830. They continued to meet at the hotel until their committee room opened in 1831.

The hotel has changed its name a few times. In 1907 it was completely refurbished and reopened as the Hove Lawns Hotel. Around 1974 it was renamed The Iron Duke, after the Duke of Wellington. During the 1990s it went through several name changes, first as The Duke, The Iron Duke again and in 1997 it became The Duke Inn.

Several different breweries have owned the Iron Duke but it is now a free house. Between 1987 and 1991 Averil Older, currently Councillor for Central Hove was a partner in the business. The building is very plain in style and quite unlike the other buildings of Waterloo Street. It is obviously the work of a different and unknown architect or builder. A photograph from the early 1900s shows iron railings in front, now replaced by a low wall.

The Waterloo Street Arch

This miniature triumphal arch was built in 1877 by Alfred Dupont who wanted an imposing entrance to his Riding Academy from Waterloo Street. After the riding school closed the arch fell into disrepair. By 1980, Hove Council had bought the arch and had plans to restore it. However a small workshop building had by this time been erected in the passageway through to the Old Market next to the arch and the site had become an eyesore.

Following a petition by residents, funding was allocated, the offending building was purchased and removed and in 1986 the arch was restored and painted Regency cream while the passageway was laid with York Stone flags. The arch has been well-maintained ever since and is a Grade II listed building.

Unfortunately, since then someone at Brighton & Hove Council decided to fix a bright blue parking sign to the adjacent wall, which does nothing to enhance the scene.

Ivy Mews, Ivy Place, Cavendish Mews

Off Waterloo Street and tucked behind buildings in the surrounding streets, Ivy Mews is a charming little enclave of artisan cottages. They do not appear on the OS map of 1875 so must be of later date.

Just across from them in Ivy Place is The School House where Ivy Place Infants School was, founded around 1840 by a Miss Roper the headmistress who lived in the house. The house is now half behind a later building. The school finally closed in 1927. There are a couple of cottages behind the School House backing onto Golden Lane that can only be reached by a narrow footpath.

In the 1990s the enclave was threatened by redevelopment but the plans were turned down. However Cavendish Mews was built to replace two dilapidated houses and it does not now seem out of place.

Cross Street

Cross Street runs from Waterloo Street towards Norfolk Square. The houses are mostly quite small. The street seems to have been completed by 1841 and records show most of the occupants at the time as bricklayers by trade. No 15 later served as a beer house. No 22 also became a beer house in 1867 and in 1881 it became The Coachman's Arms. It closed in 1905 and then became a dining room.

The St Andrews Year Book for 1972-1973 shows that No 15 was by then a fish and chip shop, The Happy Sole. A florist, "August" was at No 17, No 18 was Janet's Poodle Parlour and Carmena, a hair stylist was at 21.

Around 2001 No 11 was sold to Heather Mills, who lived there until her marriage to Paul McCartney. A source tells me Sir Paul would be seen arriving, always in a big black Mercedes driven by a chauffeur. After they married they moved to a house on Hove Beach by the lagoon and the Cross Street house was sold shortly afterwards.

Farman Street

This little close is tucked away between Western Road and Cross Street. The exit to the north is through a wagon way under No 6 Western Road. Farman Street contains only a few cottages and houses, quite humble in style but very pretty, and a couple of other buildings. You might think there is little to say about Farman Street but you would be wrong!

The date of the buildings is not well documented but census records show many of the houses occupied in 1841, and a school was operating there. The occupiers at that time included bricklayers and a donkey-keeper and his sons, both donkey drivers, lived at No 7.

Farman Street Schools

The first public (as distinct from private) school opened in Hove in 1934 in rented premises that it rapidly outgrew. A new building was built to house the school on the east side of Farman Street, part funded by local subscriptions and opened on 25 November 1840. Because boys and girls were educated separately at that time, this was in fact two schools in one, for 100 boys and 100 girls. There were fee-paying scholars, but many children from poor families were educated there with the assistance of church and charitable donations.

Jane Middleton has researched the schools' history extensively and records a pattern of violence by teachers and pupils alike, bullying and general bad behaviour, which suggests that present problems in schools are nothing new. She records that in November 1863 the headmaster William Hamilton threatened that the first boy caught teasing girls or saying rude words to them would be expelled.

Over the years there was much criticism from the Schools Inspectorate, who besides being concerned by teaching standards, the state of attendance records and poaching of pupils from other schools, became increasingly concerned about the suitability of the building. The Farman Street Schools finally closed in April 1893 when the institution moved to Davigdor Road. A block of flats now stands on the site.

The Farman Street Fire

In the early 1900s Nos 1 to 3 Farman Street housed Seymour & Seymour's Picture Frame Factory. Partly brick built, most of the frontage on the upper floors was wood and glass and the stairs in the building were also wooden. In 1912 the borough surveyor reported that the building was a fire hazard and means of escape were inadequate. 46 people worked there, most of them women and girls.

On the night of 7 June 1913 fire broke out and burned fiercely for many hours, and it is said that the flames could be seen from Worthing. The building was gutted and No 4 was also badly damaged in the blaze. Hove Fire Brigade evacuated the whole street as a precaution. Fortunately the factory was closed at the time and no one was injured. The former factory was rebuilt and now houses offices.

Little Western Street

Little Western Street lies on the old boundary between Hove and Brighton. The building at the top, on the corner at No 1 Western Road, Hove was the Little Western Arms when built in 1835. In the 1930s it became the Embassy Cinema and in 1950 the auditorium was extended over vacant land behind. When the cinema closed it became a bingo hall then an amusement arcade.

In 2003, plans to turn it into a lap-dancing club were turned down amid vociferous local opposition, then in 2006 planning consent was given to convert No 1 Western Road into a shop with flats above and five town houses will soon replace the old auditorium.

There are some pretty houses in the street of the kind built for artisans and tradesmen and on the left of the photo above, one that looks as if it may have been a hotel or a lodgings. Opposite is an excellent hardware store, Banfields, which has been there since 1856, and a hairdresser.

Below Cross Street there are some workshops then this pleasant row of cottages. There was a smithy on the right in 1875. Beyond the end of the street you can see the grey curved roofs of houses in Golden Lane and the back of Embassy Court.

Left of this view is Norfolk Place leading to Norfolk Square with nothing of interest in it except The Robin Hood, an pleasant pub with an open fire in winter. The profits of the pub go to charity, and it is painted a spectacular shade of red.

Norfolk Square

Norfolk Square is actually not in Brunswick Town or Hove, but the West Laine of Brighton, as the old boundary with Hove runs down the middle of Little Western Street. One source says the area of the West Laine near here from Western Road to the sea front was called "Blacklands" and was a brick-making area. An old map of 1792 shows the area as arable land called West Fields with no trace of industry but showing a few villas along the sea front. This was at the beginning of the great building boom in Brighton so it may well be true, brickmaking was a much-needed industry. Unlike Brunswick Town, development of the West Laine was piecemeal and started earlier, for instance Bedford Square was started in 1801.

The exact date of the building of Norfolk Square cannot be stated with any certainty. The square does not appear on a map dated 1826 but the style of the houses suggests it is not much later than that, and it is shown on an old map of Brighton dated 1850.

The original architect is unknown but the bow fronted style can be seen at Wellington Court in Waterloo Street and elsewhere, so this may well be the work of one of the Wilds or of Busby. The fine range of Regency buldings on the west and east sides are all Grade II listed. The north side of the square is not so nice.

Norfolk Square has an arm that stretches down to Western Street and the houses on the west side are in the same style as those in the square. On the east side are a group of imposing villas in Italianate style.

The fine appearance of the square is utterly ruined by the two atrocious modern buildings at the southwest corner. They lack any kind of style and are completely out of sympathy with their elegant neighbours.

Although the square is a pleasant place in daytime the occasional vagrant or street drinker can be found there. I am told it used to be much worse. Seagulls can often be seen here stamping their feet to bring up the worms, not, one would have thought, natural seagull behaviour.

The garden is surrounded by metal fencing of unbelievable awfulness, possibly to be replaced with iron railings in a more appropriate style. If this ever happens it will have been largely due to the efforts of EBRA.

Western Street

Once we leave Norfolk Square we are in Western Street and the houses are in a different style, plainer and not so grand. Mostly they seem to date from about 1840 but some houses were occupied here in 1833.

On the east side the houses have been painted in a variety of colours. No 21 has strange square bay windows, not a style often seen in Brunswick, No 29 is painted shocking pink, while next door to it is The Bedford Tavern. Below Norfolk Street the houses continue and the first 3 have very pretty balconies. Beyond these Nos 35 and 36 are in shocking condition. The last house, No 37 is another with a typical Regency bow front. Below this the buildings belong to Kings Road.

At the top end on the east side, Nos 12, 13 (John Ash Court) and No 14 are modern and were built as part of the Golden Lane development. John Ash Court is run by Sanctuary Housing Association and is the token social housing element of the Golden Lane scheme. Nos 12 and 13 mark the end of the former Everton Place, but when that disappeared is not yet known.

The older buildings continue down to No 5 (shown on the right) which is grander than the rest with a Regency bow front and this is the only listed building in the street, Grade II. Below that the old buildings are long gone, replaced by Embassy Court. Ebenezer Robins once had a brewery at No 2, and later, the Royal Brunswick Baths were here.

The boundary between Regency and Brunswick and Adelaide wards runs in a more ot less straight line up the middle of Western Street and on up through Norfolk Square to Western Road and beyond.

Golden Lane

Off Western Street lies Golden Lane, a new development built in 1999 on a brownfield site. Before the final design was accepted there had been a succession of planning applications over a few years some including blocks of flats and offices. There are 23 architect-designed town houses around a courtyard, the majority with the highly prized asset of a garage. The design has a nautical theme which is quite pleasing, the south side vaguely resembles an ocean liner. The roofs are of curved sheet aluminium, which have the unplanned virtue of being intensely disliked by seagulls.

All but a couple of houses are on four floors and have sun terraces on the top floor, a first floor balcony and a rear patio garden. The rooms are a decent size, rare in modern town houses and the estate includes two gardens for residents and ample parking.

Golden Lane and the Anchor Brewery

The original Golden Lane was off Western Street between what is now Nos 13 and 14. It ran only as far as the Hove/Brighton boundary to about where the present 4 Golden Lane is, about 30 yards. There was probably access to the Anchor Brewery from this end since rights of access are reflected in old covenants but the lane was never a thoroughfare. On the north side was a pub, the City of Brunswick and in 1875 a smithy. The south side of the lane was formed by the backs of houses in Everton Place, off Western Street, but this disappeared long ago.

The new Golden Lane development was built mostly on the site of the old Anchor Brewery but incorporates the original Golden Lane. Ebenezer Robins was established as a brewer in 1800 and in 1831 is recorded as carrying on his business at 2 Western Street. Around 1840 Robins had built the Anchor Brewery on land behind the east side of Waterloo Street stretching back to the Brunswick Town boundary behind Western Street. The entrance to the brewery lay between Nos 56 and 57 Waterloo Street, and the boundary stones either side of it can still be seen. Ebenezer Robins was one of the original Brunswick Town Commissioners.

The brewery remained in existence for many years but by 1949 it had disappeared from the records. It seems that parts of the present Golden Lane site may have lain derelict for fifty years before it was finally redeveloped.

The redevelopment also took in the site of Brunswick Mews, once livery stables reached through a passage under No 61 Waterloo Street. The passage now leads to Golden Lane. There is another Brunswick Mews off Lansdowne Place, not to be confused with this one.

 1875 Map of the Anchor Brewery and Golden Lane

Norfolk Street

Turn left off Western Street by the Bedford Arms and you will find a street with pretty cottages down the right hand side. Walk down it and turn right and you see this view with the sea at the end of the street, as so often in our area.

These little cottages are obviously quite old but exact dates are unknown. Being so close to the sea they may have been fishermen's cottages. Brighton had a thriving fishing industry at the time they were built.

Continue on, cross Kings Road and walk right to the Peace Statue by Brunswick Lawns and then turn round and take at look at...

Embassy Court

Embassy Court is listed as Grade II* so it must be a bit special. But you either like it or not and personally I don't, if it were somewhere else, perhaps Bexhill, then I might, but not here, it looks out of place.

The left of the building where it meets Brunswick Terrace is the old boundary between Hove and Brighton which was also the end of the Wick Farm estate on which Brunswick Town was built. The disjunction between old and new buildings is profoundly ugly. Apparently an effort was made to align the windows with those of Brunswick Terrace, but just look at it, four into five just does not go!

On its own terms Embassy Court is quite a dramatic building provided it is seen in isolation and from the front or side since the rear is quite hideous. It was designed by Wells Coates and built in 1936. The Art Deco style was inspired by the work of Erich Mendelsohn who designed the De La Warr Pavilion in Bexhill. Mendelsohn was a fan of curvy concrete.

At the time it was state of the art, all-electric services, communal hot water system, heating from ceiling panels and electric fires, none of which we would want today. The building contained bars, a restaurant for residents, a roof terrace and the UK's first penthouses.

By the 1990s a long period of neglect by successive owners had left the building in a dilapidated state with lumps of concrete falling from the façade and exposed reinforcing bars streaking the building with rust. By then it was impossible to get a mortgage on any of the flats because of the state of the structure.

In 1997 the Crown seized the freehold as a listed building in danger and gave it to a management company set up by the residents. After a legal battle lasting a further six years, the former owners lost their appeal against a judgement to repay withheld maintenance funds, and Conran & Partners led by style guru Sir Terence Conran were appointed to manage the restoration. This was completed in 2005 and the building now looks as it first did, although the colour was changed.

Embassy Court Sales Particulars, 1936

The Meeting Place

This is a good place to end our tour, it provides decent coffee and bacon sandwiches and much else to choose from and there is a wonderful view of the sea.

East Brunswick is a small area; it is about 300 meters from Western Road to Kings Road, and only 200 metres from Brunswick Street East to Norfolk Square, yet it is packed with lovely buildings and it is full of interest. The area used to be quite shabby but it has improved a lot in the last few years. EBRA is our best hope of ensuring that improvement continues in the years ahead.

Sources and Credits

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