Viva Brighton Issue #58 December 2017
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BRICKS AND MORTAR<br />
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<strong>Brighton</strong>’s founding fathers…<br />
...and their sons<br />
<strong>Brighton</strong> and Hove was<br />
built by families – from<br />
the names of our streets<br />
to the buildings themselves,<br />
our city has been<br />
marked by dynasties of<br />
landowners and of architects<br />
and developers.<br />
Streets and areas of<br />
<strong>Brighton</strong> and Hove carry<br />
the history of past ‘developer-dynasties’.<br />
One<br />
Sir Isaac Goldsmid was also Baron Palmeria, and a<br />
landowner of some substance in Hove and Preston.<br />
The Preston estate had previously been owned by<br />
the Shirley family (as in Shirley Street, BN3), related<br />
over the generations to the Westerns (Western<br />
Road) and sold on to the Stanfords (Stanford Rd<br />
BN1). ‘Kemp Town’, as known at the time, was<br />
named after Thomas Read Kemp, a member of an<br />
old Sussex family which had lived at Preston since<br />
the 16th century. He was behind the development<br />
of Lewes Crescent, Sussex Square, Arundel Terrace<br />
and Chichester Terrace.<br />
There were a number of notable architect families<br />
during the city’s Regency period and other periods<br />
of city growth. Thomas Cooper (1792–1854) was<br />
the son of a <strong>Brighton</strong> builder and was the architect<br />
of <strong>Brighton</strong> Town Hall in 1830–32. Thomas<br />
Lainson (1825–98) ran an architectural practice with<br />
his two sons, Thomas and Arthur, from premises on<br />
North Street, and were architects to the Goldsmid<br />
estate, Sir Isaac being a fan of their Italianate style.<br />
Denman & Son was a partnership of John Leopold<br />
Denman (1882–1975) and John Bluet Denman<br />
(1914–2002). John Leopold had been in the family<br />
architectural trade since graduating from Central<br />
School of Arts and Crafts in London, joining its<br />
practice on Queens Road.<br />
His partnership with his<br />
son, John Bluet, was responsible<br />
for a number of<br />
religious and commercial<br />
buildings, most extensively<br />
in <strong>Brighton</strong> for the<br />
Kemp Town Brewery.<br />
Denman is depicted in<br />
relief form on the wall of<br />
the former Citizens’ Permanent<br />
Building Society<br />
building at 20–22 Marlborough Place.<br />
Thomas Simpson (1825–1908), another name<br />
closely associated with the city, worked alongside his<br />
son, Gilbert, on the design of a number of schools<br />
between 1870 and 1903, with the extension of mass<br />
education here. Several of these are still in use as<br />
schools, many with Grade II listed status. They<br />
include: Finsbury Road Board School (1881) in<br />
Hanover; Connaught Road School (1884) in Hove;<br />
Ditchling Road Board School (1890); Stanford<br />
Road School in Prestonville (1893); Elm Grove<br />
School (1893) and St Luke’s School in Queen’s Park<br />
(1900–03).<br />
Another family that we owe much of our Regency<br />
grandeur to is the Wilds; father Amon Wilds<br />
(1762–1833) and son Amon Henry Wilds (1790–<br />
1857), who worked with architect Charles A Busby.<br />
The huge Regency developments in Kemp Town,<br />
Marine Parade, Regency Square, and Brunswick in<br />
Hove are the work of this team. Amon Henry also<br />
went on to design Oriental Place, Park Crescent,<br />
Western Terrace and Montpelier Crescent, as well<br />
as the Victoria Fountain on the Steine. Cara Courage<br />
To find out more about who built <strong>Brighton</strong> and Hove<br />
and the family stories behind the city, visit brightonhistory.org.uk<br />
for indexes by name and by street.<br />
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