The Regency Town House Brunswick Square

Print description

Elevation of the Regency Town House in Brunswick Square, Brighton.

Print details

I created this print from my original ink drawings to which I apply colour digitally. Printed on fine art paper using archival inks. I issue the formats A2,A3 and A4  as limited editions of 100 where I individually sign and number each print.

Brunswick Square

Originally, the area had been part of Wick Farm. Then in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, nearby Brighton had become very fashionable, especially amongst the top tier of British society. The Kemp Town estate there had been a success, and so in 1824 architect Charles Busby entered into an agreement to build houses on land lying at the extreme east of Hove, adjacent to Brighton — land which belonged to Thomas Read Kemp, creator of Kemp Town. The name “Brunswick” was presumably taken from House of Brunswick, a term sometimes used for the House of Hanover, the name of the British royal family at the time.

Brunswick Town was built as a collaborative project between the architect C A Busby and the landowner Reverend Thomas Scutt (also a clergyman). Construction started in 1824. The first houses were completed by 1826. September in fact.

Busby designed Brunswick Town as a long row of terraced houses facing the sea. In the middle point of this sea-facing terrace was a central square, which stretched back. This square was named Brunswick Square. The terraced houses, in Brunswick Terrace and in Brunswick Square, were built for the upper classes, they were designed as ‘first class’ housing. Beyond these houses were second classes houses in streets such as Waterloo Street.

Facilities including a market were provided. The market, opened in 1828, was funded by Busby himself but was not a success and was converted to a riding school in the 1840s. It is now a theatre.

In the late 1990s the top of Brunswick Square, where it meets busy Western Road, was closed to motor traffic, changing the nature of the square from a through route to a strictly residential area.

At the extreme eastern edge of Brunswick Terrace, on the border of Hove and Brighton, the bluntly modernist Embassy Court apartment block was refurbished in the mid-2000s. When originally envisaged in the 1930s, this lone block was imagined as the beginning of a transformation of the entire seafront, which would have entailed the obliteration of Brunswick Terrace. By the late 1940s Brunswick Square itself had become so run-down that the Council was considering wholesale demolition and redevelopment with modern housing. (Source – Wiki Pedia)

The Regency Town House

The Regency Town House is a grade 1 listed terraced property c. 1820s, built as a part of architect Charles Busby’s ‘Brunswick Town’ estate.

Today, the House is being developed as a museum and heritage centre with a focus on the architecture and social history of Brighton & Hove between the 1780s and 1840s.

The main building at 13 Brunswick Square and its Basement Annexe a few doors away at number 10 are being restored by specialists and a team of volunteers.

The house is often open to the public and run fund-raising events, including supper clubs, performances, readings and recitals. Hosting often too art and photography exhibitions and events such as readings, book launches, and small functions.

Ocean Blue

This print belongs to a tonal collection named ‘Ocean Blue’. It reflects the aquamarine colours of the sea I encountered one summer day walking on the Palace Pier in Brighton with the ‘Big Blue’ underneath my feet glistening through the cracks between the planks of the wooden deck. And later lounging on a deck chair watching the English Channel framed in the horizon by the white lattice of Victorian wrought iron railings.