Fife House is a Grade I listed building in Kemp Town

Kemp 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....

, 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...

, United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

, which was previously owned by the Duke of Devonshire

Duke of Devonshire

Duke of Devonshire is a title in the peerage of England held by members of the Cavendish family. This branch of the Cavendish family has been one of the richest and most influential aristocratic families in England since the 16th century, and have been rivalled in political influence perhaps only...

 and the Duke of Fife

Duke of Fife

Duke of Fife is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom, named after Fife in Scotland. There have been two creations of the title, the first in 1889 and the second in 1900, both in favour of Alexander Duff, 6th Earl Fife in the Peerage of Ireland and 1st Earl of Fife in the Peerage of the...

; it is not to be confused with the former Fife House, Whitehall

Whitehall

Whitehall is a road in Westminster, in London, England. It is the main artery running north from Parliament Square, towards Charing Cross at the southern end of Trafalgar Square...

, in London.

History

Fife House was originally built in 1828 by Thomas Cubitt

Thomas Cubitt

Thomas Cubitt , born Buxton, Norfolk, was the leading master builder in London in the second quarter of the 19th century, and also carried out several projects in other parts of England.-Background:...

, as part of the Kemp Town estate planned by Thomas Read Kemp

Thomas Read Kemp

Thomas Read Kemp was an English property developer and politician. He was the son of Sussex landowner Thomas Kemp, whose farmhouse in Brighton was rented by the Prince of Wales in 1786.-Biography:...

, and designed by 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....

 and 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...

. It was bought in 1829 by the William Cavendish, 6th Duke of Devonshire

William Cavendish, 6th Duke of Devonshire

William George Spencer Cavendish, 6th Duke of Devonshire KG, PC , styled Marquess of Hartington until 1811, was a British peer, courtier and Whig politician...

. He had the property, situated at 1, Lewes Crescent, joined internally with an adjacent property he also owned at 14, Chichester Terrace by Thomas Cubitt, using workmen from Chatsworth

Chatsworth

-Places:Australia* Chatsworth, Queensland* Electoral district of Chatsworth, Queensland, AustraliaCanada* Chatsworth, Ontario, a township* Chatsworth, Ontario , located within above townshipSouth Africa* Chatsworth, Durban* Chatsworth, Western Cape...

. The Duke had the property redecorated by John Gregory Crace

John Gregory Crace (designer)

John Gregory Crace was an English interior decorator and author.-Early life and education:The Crace family had been prominent London interior decorators since Edward Crace , later keeper of the royal pictures to George III, established a business in 1768...

 in 1848, and lived there until his death in 1858.

The Duke of Fife

Alexander Duff, 1st Duke of Fife

Alexander William George Duff, 1st Duke of Fife KG, KT, GCVO, PC, VD , styled Viscount Macduff between 1857 and 1879 and known as The Earl Fife between 1879 and 1889, was a British Peer who married Princess Louise of Wales, the third child and eldest daughter of King Edward VII and Alexandra of...

 lived in the property from 1896, with his wife, Princess Louise

Louise, Princess Royal and Duchess of Fife

The Princess Louise, Princess Royal and Duchess of Fife was the third child and the eldest daughter of King Edward VII and Alexandra of Denmark...

, the daughter of King Edward VII. The house was named Fife House at that time. King Edward visited the house on a number of occasions, most notably staying there during his convalescence in 1908. It was for this reason that the King's toilet was installed in the house. Princess Louise lived in the property until 1924.

From 1947 and for most of the rest of the 20th century, Fife House was the home of the Weston family, who founded and ran the nearby Nevill House Hotel.

Recent history

During renovation work in 2001 the decoration carried out by Crace was rediscovered under several layers of wallpaper.

Telecommunications millionnaire Patrick Naughton bought the property in 2002 for £2.85 million. The bathrooms in Fife House were renovated in 2002 by Emily Swift-Jones and Joseph Atkinson of Aurum Design.

The property was sold in 2008, to an unknown buyer, for £1.75 million. It was reported that the property had been occupied by squatters during December 2008, but they had moved out by mid-January 2009.