Amon Henry Wilds
Encyclopedia
Amon Henry Wilds was an English
architect
. He was part of a team of three architects and builders who—working together or independently at different times—were almost solely responsible for a surge in residential construction and development in early 19th-century Brighton
, which until then had been a small but increasingly fashionable seaside resort on the East Sussex
coast. In the 1820s, when Wilds, his father Amon Wilds
In this article, Amon Henry Wilds is referred to as Wilds junior and his father Amon Wilds as Wilds senior. and Charles Busby
were at their most active, nearly 4,000 new houses were built, along with many hotels, churches and venues for socialising; most of these still survive, giving Brighton a distinctive Regency-era
character, and many are listed buildings.
on 4 November 1790. Some sources give his birth year as 1784, but others consider 1790 more likely. At this time, Wilds senior's profession was listed as "carpenter and builder". In around 1806, the father and son established an architectural and building partnership in Lewes, but in 1815 they moved to Brighton, which was experiencing rapid growth; they carried out work in both places for the next five years until they moved permanently to Brighton in 1820. Their early work in the town, preceding their relocation, included Richmond Terrace and Waterloo Place. Wilds junior was chiefly responsible for these speculative developments.
In 1818, Wilds junior took independent responsibility for a design scheme for the first time: he submitted a design for a new road to connect the ancient Middle Street and West Street. By 1821, the scope of the project had been extended, and Wilds junior ended up supervising the construction of a raised promenade and sea-wall all the way from West Street to East Street, providing a direct east–west link across the town via the seafront for the first time. It was built between 1821 and 1822 and opened by King George IV
on 29 January 1822. Named King's Road, it became the town's most important promenading and horse-riding route, and is still a major road. Around the same time, Wilds junior was commissioned to design and build Brighton Unitarian Church
for the town's recently established Unitarian
community; he laid the foundation stone in 1819 and completed the building the next year.
Charles Busby arrived in Brighton in 1822 and formed a loose partnership with the Wilds. Proving who was responsible for particular buildings or projects is difficult and sometimes contradictory because many designs were signed "Wilds and Busby", the three men carried out individual works simultaneously, and Wilds junior established his own independent company as well after 1823. Although he still had some involvement with his father and Busby's work, his own projects took up more of his time over the next 25 years: Oriental Place, Sillwood Place, Hanover Crescent, Park Crescent
, the Royal Newburgh Assembly Rooms and the Royal Albion Hotel
all still exist and are listed buildings.
Wilds junior also worked in Gravesend
, a town in Kent. His scheme for a new town at Milton
, a neighbouring parish, in the 1820s was not carried out, but in 1836 he designed the Town Hall in the Classical style
(both the building and the adjacent High Street are dominated by its "noble Greek Doric
tetrastyle portico
"), and between 1838 and 1841 he designed triumphal arch
-style entrance lodges and a chapel at Gravesend Cemetery. These were of brick with pink stucco
façades and were also in the Classical/Greek Revival style.
Later in his life, Wilds junior experimented in other areas: he invented a new way of cleaning chimneys, proposed a breakwater
to protect Brighton's coastline, and served as an officer of the Brighton Commissioners for three years from 1842. In 1852, the Commissioners asked him to plant elm trees along the road to Brighton Racecourse
; this road became known as Elm Grove. He moved to Shoreham-by-Sea
, where he died in 1857. He was buried at the town's St Nicolas' Church
.
estate—have now been accredited to Wilds junior. At both Kemp Town and other locations he worked at, architectural devices and features characteristic of Wilds junior can be seen: Egyptian-style flourishes
and scallop
designs inlaid into stucco
ed walls above windows in his earlier days, and a move towards the Italianate style
when that became popular later. His most distinctive and famous motif—which his father also used, and which had been developed during their time in partnership in Lewes—was the ammonite capital
. This was a type of Ionic
capital
used to decorate the top of pilaster
s and columns; it took the spiral shape of an ammonite
fossil. As well as approving of the design, the Wilds enjoyed the pun on their unusual first name, and used it on many buildings. Wilds junior designed his father's headstone at St Nicholas' Church
and decorated it with an ammonite capital design.
Brighton Unitarian Church
, a Grade II*-listed building, was built early in Wilds junior's architectural career. He designed the 350-capacity building with guidance from its first minister, Dr Morell. It was intended to resemble the Temple of Thesæus
in Athens
, and has an enormous tetrastyle portico of four Doric columns
beneath a pediment
.
Six years later, a merchant named Charles Elliott acquired the right to build a proprietary chapel on land belonging to the 3rd Earl of Egremont
east of Brighton; Wilds junior created another Classical-style
design for the new St Mary the Virgin Church
. It was based on the Temple of Nemesis. By 1876, its structural condition was so poor that it collapsed, and it was rebuilt in red-brick Gothic style
.
Oriental Place and Sillwood Place are the remaining parts of an ambitious scheme for which Wilds junior was hired in 1825 by a horticulturalist and landscape gardener, Henry Phillips, who had designed Kemp Town's enclosed gardens. He proposed an Oriental-style garden with a tall, steam-heated glasshouse called the Athenaeum, a library, museum and school, all surrounded by high-class houses. Wilds junior started building two north-south terraces accordingly, but Phillips' money ran out and he abandoned the project. A local magistrate bought the land in 1827 and asked Wilds junior to finish the work. Sillwood Place was built on the proposed Athenaeum site. Ammonite capitals feature prominently on Oriental Place, which is listed at Grade II*.
Wilds junior also built Hanover Crescent, to the northeast of Brighton off the Lewes Road, on behalf of a speculator—this time, local entrepreneur Henry Brooker. He felt that property speculation would be profitable even in areas further away from the town centre, such was Brighton's growing popularity in the Regency era, so he bought a set of strips of farmland in 1814 and commissioned Wilds junior to build a crescent-shaped façade and the shells of houses; buyers could then add internal fittings as they wished. They were built in around 1822 and are listed at Grade II.
The Western Pavilion
on Western Terrace was built in an elaborate Oriental and Indian style in imitation of the Royal Pavilion
in 1828, and is now a Grade II* listed building. Amon Henry Wilds built it as his own house. He lived at two other houses in Western Terrace at other times.
Following the success of his work in Brighton, AH Wilds was commissioned to design a new Crescent for the growing seaside town of Worthing, 11 miles west along the coast. Originally to be called Royal Park Crescent, it became known simply as Park Crescent
. Wilds also designed a triumphal arch and Swiss Cottages for the site.
On Montpelier Road in the Montpelier
area of Brighton, he built numbers 53 to 56—a three-storey terrace of four houses designed as two identical pairs—in about 1830. The entrances are between Doric
pilasters, and there are ammonite capitals at second-floor level. There are small cast-iron balconies outside the first-floor windows. The group has been listed at Grade II.
Nearby Montpelier Crescent was Wilds junior's largest-scale independent work. Built between 1843 and 1847 in the Seven Dials
area, whose development had been stimulated by the recent opening of the nearby railway station
, it was laid out as a curving terrace of mansions, each divided into two dwellings. Some had pilasters decorated with ammonite capitals. The section of the crescent now numbered 7–31 is listed at Grade II*; the other houses are of a different design and are newer: they date from around 1855 and are listed at Grade II in four separate parts.
Wilds Junior's last work in Brighton was the Victoria Fountain in Old Steine. Partly paid for by public donations, it was unveiled on 24 May 1846—Queen Victoria's 27th birthday—and is now a Grade II listed structure. It consists of two cast-iron or bronze basins, one of which stands on three dolphins, and a pool, and is 32 feet (9.8 m) high. The iron casting was done at a local foundry, and the sculpting was undertaken by a Mr Pepper. The structure cost £989.16s.7d.
, and a further £114.7s.6d.
was spent constructing it.
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
architect
Architect
An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...
. He was part of a team of three architects and builders who—working together or independently at different times—were almost solely responsible for a surge in residential construction and development in early 19th-century Brighton
Brighton
Brighton is the major part of the city of Brighton and Hove in East Sussex, England on the south coast of Great Britain...
, which until then had been a small but increasingly fashionable seaside resort on the East Sussex
East Sussex
East Sussex is a county in South East England. It is bordered by the counties of Kent, Surrey and West Sussex, and to the south by the English Channel.-History:...
coast. In the 1820s, when Wilds, his father Amon Wilds
Amon Wilds
Amon Wilds was an English architect and builder. He formed an architectural partnership with his son Amon Henry WildsIn this article, Amon Wilds is referred to as Wilds senior and his son Amon Henry Wilds as Wilds junior. in 1806 and started working in the fashionable and growing seaside resort...
In this article, Amon Henry Wilds is referred to as Wilds junior and his father Amon Wilds as Wilds senior. and Charles Busby
Charles Busby
Charles Augustin Busby was an English architect.He created many buildings in and around Brighton such as Brunswick Square and St Margarets Church. His style usually included Romanesque style pillars to his buildings....
were at their most active, nearly 4,000 new houses were built, along with many hotels, churches and venues for socialising; most of these still survive, giving Brighton a distinctive Regency-era
Regency architecture
The Regency style of architecture refers primarily to buildings built in Britain during the period in the early 19th century when George IV was Prince Regent, and also to later buildings following the same style...
character, and many are listed buildings.
Life and activities
Amon Henry Wilds was born to Amon Wilds and Sarah Dunn, and was baptised at All Saints Church, LewesLewes
Lewes is the county town of East Sussex, England and historically of all of Sussex. It is a civil parish and is the centre of the Lewes local government district. The settlement has a history as a bridging point and as a market town, and today as a communications hub and tourist-oriented town...
on 4 November 1790. Some sources give his birth year as 1784, but others consider 1790 more likely. At this time, Wilds senior's profession was listed as "carpenter and builder". In around 1806, the father and son established an architectural and building partnership in Lewes, but in 1815 they moved to Brighton, which was experiencing rapid growth; they carried out work in both places for the next five years until they moved permanently to Brighton in 1820. Their early work in the town, preceding their relocation, included Richmond Terrace and Waterloo Place. Wilds junior was chiefly responsible for these speculative developments.
In 1818, Wilds junior took independent responsibility for a design scheme for the first time: he submitted a design for a new road to connect the ancient Middle Street and West Street. By 1821, the scope of the project had been extended, and Wilds junior ended up supervising the construction of a raised promenade and sea-wall all the way from West Street to East Street, providing a direct east–west link across the town via the seafront for the first time. It was built between 1821 and 1822 and opened by King George IV
George IV of the United Kingdom
George IV was the King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and also of Hanover from the death of his father, George III, on 29 January 1820 until his own death ten years later...
on 29 January 1822. Named King's Road, it became the town's most important promenading and horse-riding route, and is still a major road. Around the same time, Wilds junior was commissioned to design and build Brighton Unitarian Church
Brighton Unitarian Church
The Brighton Unitarian Church, previously known as Christ Church, is a Unitarian chapel in Brighton, England. Built in 1820 by prolific local architect Amon Henry Wilds on land sold to the fledgling Unitarian community by the Prince Regent, the stuccoed Greek Revival building occupies a prominent...
for the town's recently established Unitarian
Unitarianism
Unitarianism is a Christian theological movement, named for its understanding of God as one person, in direct contrast to Trinitarianism which defines God as three persons coexisting consubstantially as one in being....
community; he laid the foundation stone in 1819 and completed the building the next year.
Charles Busby arrived in Brighton in 1822 and formed a loose partnership with the Wilds. Proving who was responsible for particular buildings or projects is difficult and sometimes contradictory because many designs were signed "Wilds and Busby", the three men carried out individual works simultaneously, and Wilds junior established his own independent company as well after 1823. Although he still had some involvement with his father and Busby's work, his own projects took up more of his time over the next 25 years: Oriental Place, Sillwood Place, Hanover Crescent, Park Crescent
Park Crescent, Brighton
Park Crescent is a mid-19th-century residential development in the Round Hill area of Brighton, part of the English city of Brighton and Hove. The horseshoe-shaped, three-part terrace of 48 houses was designed and built by one of Brighton's most important architects, Amon Henry Wilds; by the...
, the Royal Newburgh Assembly Rooms and the Royal Albion Hotel
Royal Albion Hotel
The Royal Albion Hotel is a 3-star hotel in the seaside resort of Brighton, part of the English city of Brighton and Hove...
all still exist and are listed buildings.
Wilds junior also worked in Gravesend
Gravesend, Kent
Gravesend is a town in northwest Kent, England, on the south bank of the Thames, opposite Tilbury in Essex. It is the administrative town of the Borough of Gravesham and, because of its geographical position, has always had an important role to play in the history and communications of this part of...
, a town in Kent. His scheme for a new town at Milton
Milton-next-Gravesend
Milton-next-Gravesend was, and still is, one of the ancient ecclesiastical parishes in the NW of the county of Kent, England. When Gravesend became a town under Royal Charter in the 13th century, Milton was included within it. Much of the parish was, until c. 1840, rural...
, a neighbouring parish, in the 1820s was not carried out, but in 1836 he designed the Town Hall in the Classical style
Classical architecture
Classical architecture is a mode of architecture employing vocabulary derived in part from the Greek and Roman architecture of classical antiquity, enriched by classicizing architectural practice in Europe since the Renaissance...
(both the building and the adjacent High Street are dominated by its "noble Greek Doric
Doric order
The Doric order was one of the three orders or organizational systems of ancient Greek or classical architecture; the other two canonical orders were the Ionic and the Corinthian.-History:...
tetrastyle portico
Portico
A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls...
"), and between 1838 and 1841 he designed triumphal arch
Triumphal arch
A triumphal arch is a monumental structure in the shape of an archway with one or more arched passageways, often designed to span a road. In its simplest form a triumphal arch consists of two massive piers connected by an arch, crowned with a flat entablature or attic on which a statue might be...
-style entrance lodges and a chapel at Gravesend Cemetery. These were of brick with pink stucco
Stucco
Stucco or render is a material made of an aggregate, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as decorative coating for walls and ceilings and as a sculptural and artistic material in architecture...
façades and were also in the Classical/Greek Revival style.
Later in his life, Wilds junior experimented in other areas: he invented a new way of cleaning chimneys, proposed a breakwater
Breakwater (structure)
Breakwaters are structures constructed on coasts as part of coastal defence or to protect an anchorage from the effects of weather and longshore drift.-Purposes of breakwaters:...
to protect Brighton's coastline, and served as an officer of the Brighton Commissioners for three years from 1842. In 1852, the Commissioners asked him to plant elm trees along the road to Brighton Racecourse
Brighton Racecourse
Brighton Racecourse is a horse racing course at Brighton, East Sussex in England, for flat races of up to about one and a half miles. The course is one of three courses in Britain which is not a circuit and forms a figure like three sides of a square, sloping, with wide left-hand turns and an...
; this road became known as Elm Grove. He moved to Shoreham-by-Sea
Shoreham-by-Sea
Shoreham-by-Sea is a small town, port and seaside resort in West Sussex, England. Shoreham-by-Sea railway station is located less than a mile from the town centre and London Gatwick Airport is away...
, where he died in 1857. He was buried at the town's St Nicolas' Church
St Nicolas' Church, Shoreham-by-Sea
St Nicolas' Church is an Anglican church in Old Shoreham, an ancient inland settlement that is now part of the town of Shoreham-by-Sea in the district of Adur, one of seven local government districts in the English county of West Sussex. It was founded on a riverside site by Anglo-Saxons at the...
.
Architectural characteristics
Many buildings originally attributed to Wilds senior in partnership with Charles Busby—in particular, the terraces of the Kemp TownKemp Town
Kemp Town is a 19th Century residential estate in the east of Brighton in East Sussex, England, UK. Kemp Town was conceived and financed by Thomas Read Kemp. It has given its name to the larger Kemptown region of Brighton....
estate—have now been accredited to Wilds junior. At both Kemp Town and other locations he worked at, architectural devices and features characteristic of Wilds junior can be seen: Egyptian-style flourishes
Ancient Egyptian architecture
The Nile valley has been the site of one of the most influential civilizations which developed a vast array of diverse structures encompassing ancient Egyptian architecture...
and scallop
Scallop
A scallop is a marine bivalve mollusk of the family Pectinidae. Scallops are a cosmopolitan family, found in all of the world's oceans. Many scallops are highly prized as a food source...
designs inlaid into stucco
Stucco
Stucco or render is a material made of an aggregate, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as decorative coating for walls and ceilings and as a sculptural and artistic material in architecture...
ed walls above windows in his earlier days, and a move towards the Italianate style
Italianate architecture
The Italianate style of architecture was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. In the Italianate style, the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italian Renaissance architecture, which had served as inspiration for both Palladianism and...
when that became popular later. His most distinctive and famous motif—which his father also used, and which had been developed during their time in partnership in Lewes—was the ammonite capital
Ammonite Order
The Ammonite Order is an architectural order that features fluted columns and capitals with volutes shaped to resemble fossil ammonites. The style was invented by George Dance and first used on John Boydell's Shakespeare Gallery in Pall Mall, London in 1789 .Ammonite motifs were also used on...
. This was a type of Ionic
Ionic order
The Ionic order forms one of the three orders or organizational systems of classical architecture, the other two canonic orders being the Doric and the Corinthian...
capital
Capital (architecture)
In architecture the capital forms the topmost member of a column . It mediates between the column and the load thrusting down upon it, broadening the area of the column's supporting surface...
used to decorate the top of pilaster
Pilaster
A pilaster is a slightly-projecting column built into or applied to the face of a wall. Most commonly flattened or rectangular in form, pilasters can also take a half-round form or the shape of any type of column, including tortile....
s and columns; it took the spiral shape of an ammonite
Ammonite
Ammonite, as a zoological or paleontological term, refers to any member of the Ammonoidea an extinct subclass within the Molluscan class Cephalopoda which are more closely related to living coleoids Ammonite, as a zoological or paleontological term, refers to any member of the Ammonoidea an extinct...
fossil. As well as approving of the design, the Wilds enjoyed the pun on their unusual first name, and used it on many buildings. Wilds junior designed his father's headstone at St Nicholas' Church
St Nicholas' Church, Brighton
The Church of Saint Nicholas of Myra, usually known as St. Nicholas Church, is an Anglican church in Brighton, England. It is both the original parish church of Brighton and the oldest surviving building in Brighton. It is located on high ground at the junction of Church Street and Dyke Road in...
and decorated it with an ammonite capital design.
Works
Brighton Unitarian Church
The Brighton Unitarian Church, previously known as Christ Church, is a Unitarian chapel in Brighton, England. Built in 1820 by prolific local architect Amon Henry Wilds on land sold to the fledgling Unitarian community by the Prince Regent, the stuccoed Greek Revival building occupies a prominent...
, a Grade II*-listed building, was built early in Wilds junior's architectural career. He designed the 350-capacity building with guidance from its first minister, Dr Morell. It was intended to resemble the Temple of Thesæus
Temple of Hephaestus
The Temple of Hephaestus, also known as the Hephaisteion or earlier as the Theseion, is the best-preserved ancient Greek temple; it remains standing largely as built. It is a Doric peripteral temple, and is located at the north-west side of the Agora of Athens, on top of the Agoraios Kolonos hill....
in Athens
Athens
Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...
, and has an enormous tetrastyle portico of four Doric columns
Doric order
The Doric order was one of the three orders or organizational systems of ancient Greek or classical architecture; the other two canonical orders were the Ionic and the Corinthian.-History:...
beneath a pediment
Pediment
A pediment is a classical architectural element consisting of the triangular section found above the horizontal structure , typically supported by columns. The gable end of the pediment is surrounded by the cornice moulding...
.
Six years later, a merchant named Charles Elliott acquired the right to build a proprietary chapel on land belonging to the 3rd Earl of Egremont
Earl of Egremont
Earls of Egremont was a title in the Peerage of Great Britain. It was created in 1749, along with the subsidiary title of Baron Cockermouth, for Algernon Seymour, 7th Duke of Somerset, with remainder to his nephews Sir Charles Wyndham, 4th Baronet, of Orchard Wyndham, and Percy Wyndham-O’Brien...
east of Brighton; Wilds junior created another Classical-style
Classical architecture
Classical architecture is a mode of architecture employing vocabulary derived in part from the Greek and Roman architecture of classical antiquity, enriched by classicizing architectural practice in Europe since the Renaissance...
design for the new St Mary the Virgin Church
St Mary the Virgin, Brighton
St Mary the Virgin Church is an Anglican church in the Kemptown area of Brighton, in the English city of Brighton and Hove. The present building dates from the late 1870s and replaced a church of the same name which suddenly collapsed while being renovated...
. It was based on the Temple of Nemesis. By 1876, its structural condition was so poor that it collapsed, and it was rebuilt in red-brick Gothic style
Gothic architecture
Gothic architecture is a style of architecture that flourished during the high and late medieval period. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture....
.
Oriental Place and Sillwood Place are the remaining parts of an ambitious scheme for which Wilds junior was hired in 1825 by a horticulturalist and landscape gardener, Henry Phillips, who had designed Kemp Town's enclosed gardens. He proposed an Oriental-style garden with a tall, steam-heated glasshouse called the Athenaeum, a library, museum and school, all surrounded by high-class houses. Wilds junior started building two north-south terraces accordingly, but Phillips' money ran out and he abandoned the project. A local magistrate bought the land in 1827 and asked Wilds junior to finish the work. Sillwood Place was built on the proposed Athenaeum site. Ammonite capitals feature prominently on Oriental Place, which is listed at Grade II*.
Wilds junior also built Hanover Crescent, to the northeast of Brighton off the Lewes Road, on behalf of a speculator—this time, local entrepreneur Henry Brooker. He felt that property speculation would be profitable even in areas further away from the town centre, such was Brighton's growing popularity in the Regency era, so he bought a set of strips of farmland in 1814 and commissioned Wilds junior to build a crescent-shaped façade and the shells of houses; buyers could then add internal fittings as they wished. They were built in around 1822 and are listed at Grade II.
The Western Pavilion
Western Pavilion
The Western Pavilion is an exotically designed early 19th-century house in the centre of Brighton, part of the English city of Brighton and Hove...
on Western Terrace was built in an elaborate Oriental and Indian style in imitation of the Royal Pavilion
Royal Pavilion
The Royal Pavilion is a former royal residence located in Brighton, England. It was built in three campaigns, beginning in 1787, as a seaside retreat for George, Prince of Wales, from 1811 Prince Regent. It is often referred to as the Brighton Pavilion...
in 1828, and is now a Grade II* listed building. Amon Henry Wilds built it as his own house. He lived at two other houses in Western Terrace at other times.
Following the success of his work in Brighton, AH Wilds was commissioned to design a new Crescent for the growing seaside town of Worthing, 11 miles west along the coast. Originally to be called Royal Park Crescent, it became known simply as Park Crescent
Park Crescent, Worthing
Park Crescent is an example of Georgian architecture in Worthing, England, designed in 1829 by Amon Henry Wilds, son of the architect Amon Wilds and constructed between 1831 and 1833...
. Wilds also designed a triumphal arch and Swiss Cottages for the site.
On Montpelier Road in the Montpelier
Montpelier, Brighton
Montpelier is an inner suburban area of Brighton, part of the English city and seaside resort of Brighton and Hove. Developed together with the adjacent Clifton Hill area in the mid-19th century, it forms a high-class, architecturally cohesive residential district with "an exceptionally complete...
area of Brighton, he built numbers 53 to 56—a three-storey terrace of four houses designed as two identical pairs—in about 1830. The entrances are between Doric
Doric order
The Doric order was one of the three orders or organizational systems of ancient Greek or classical architecture; the other two canonical orders were the Ionic and the Corinthian.-History:...
pilasters, and there are ammonite capitals at second-floor level. There are small cast-iron balconies outside the first-floor windows. The group has been listed at Grade II.
Nearby Montpelier Crescent was Wilds junior's largest-scale independent work. Built between 1843 and 1847 in the Seven Dials
Seven Dials, Brighton
Seven Dials is an area surrounding a major road junction of the same name in Brighton, in the city of Brighton and Hove. It is located on high ground just northwest of Brighton railway station, and approximately ¾ mile north of the seafront....
area, whose development had been stimulated by the recent opening of the nearby railway station
Brighton railway station
Brighton railway station is the principal railway station in the city of Brighton and Hove, on the south coast of England. The station master is Mark Epsom...
, it was laid out as a curving terrace of mansions, each divided into two dwellings. Some had pilasters decorated with ammonite capitals. The section of the crescent now numbered 7–31 is listed at Grade II*; the other houses are of a different design and are newer: they date from around 1855 and are listed at Grade II in four separate parts.
Wilds Junior's last work in Brighton was the Victoria Fountain in Old Steine. Partly paid for by public donations, it was unveiled on 24 May 1846—Queen Victoria's 27th birthday—and is now a Grade II listed structure. It consists of two cast-iron or bronze basins, one of which stands on three dolphins, and a pool, and is 32 feet (9.8 m) high. The iron casting was done at a local foundry, and the sculpting was undertaken by a Mr Pepper. The structure cost £989.16s.7d.
£sd
£sd was the popular name for the pre-decimal currencies used in the Kingdom of England, later the United Kingdom, and ultimately in much of the British Empire...
, and a further £114.7s.6d.
£sd
£sd was the popular name for the pre-decimal currencies used in the Kingdom of England, later the United Kingdom, and ultimately in much of the British Empire...
was spent constructing it.