Round Hill, Brighton
Encyclopedia
Round Hill is an inner suburban area of Brighton
, part of the coastal city of Brighton and Hove in England. The area contains a mix of privately owned and privately rented terraced housing, much of which has been converted for multiple occupancy, and small-scale commercial development. It was developed mostly in the late 19th century on an area of high land overlooking central Brighton, and with good views in all directions, the area became a desirable middle-class suburb—particularly the large terraced houses of Roundhill Crescent
and Richmond Road, and the exclusive Park Crescent
—and within a few decades the whole of the hill had been built up with smaller terraces and some large villas.
Non-residential buildings include the landmark St Martin's Church
, Brighton's largest place of worship, with its dramatically extravagant interior; the Brighton Forum
, a Gothic Revival
former college now in commercial use; Brighton's main fire station; and the oldest working cinema in Britain. The first hospital in England catering for mental illness was established in a house in Roundhill Crescent in 1905. Brighton's first Jewish cemetery, although a short distance outside Round Hill according to Brighton & Hove City Council's definition, has been associated with the suburb throughout its near 200-year history. The London Road viaduct
, a distinctive, sweeping piece of railway architecture, forms the northern boundary of the area and "a literal gateway" between outer and inner suburbia. All of these buildings have been listed by English Heritage
for their architectural and historical importance, and the core of Round Hill, around Roundhill Crescent, is one of 34 conservation areas in the city. Round Hill's steep slopes and road layout encouraged the introduction of another feature which gives the area its character: the "cat's-creep" staircase. The area has good tree cover, and increasingly heavy traffic along the three main roads which run through the area.
Past features of Round Hill include a windmill, which took advantage of the windy conditions on the 223 feet (68 m) hilltop until 1913; 19th-century laundries, which sought the same advantage; early 19th-century pleasure gardens, now occupied by the houses of Park Crescent; the landmark Cox's Pill Factory, demolished in the 1980s; glasshouses and smallholdings, some of which survived until after the Second World War despite being surrounded by houses; and the Kemp Town branch line, a passenger and freight railway which cut through the area and had a short-lived station serving Round Hill. The former St Saviour's Church survived until 1983, and a Congregational church elsewhere in the suburb closed but retained its façade after its conversion into housing.
to the west, the East Coastway
railway line to the north—including the London Road viaduct
and London Road railway station
—and the Lewes Road to the east. Ditchling Road, a third main road, runs through the centre of the suburb. The large, round-topped hill which gave the suburb its name stands between the two main valleys along which the original routes into and out of Brighton developed (the present London and Lewes Roads). Ditchling Road, the middle route, climbs the hill. London and Lewes Roads became turnpikes (toll road
s) in 1770, and The Level—originally common land
between Ditchling Road and Lewes Road—was enclosed and reserved for public recreation in 1822.
Round Hill's elevated, fairly central position gives excellent inward and outward views. To the northeast, the South Downs
can be seen; long views of the English Channel
are possible to the south, beyond the city centre and St Peter's Church
; to the southeast, Elm Grove, Race Hill and Brighton General Hospital can be seen on high ground beyond the Lewes Road valley; and to the west, Preston Park
(the city's oldest and largest public park) can be seen. Crescent and Wakefield Roads have long southward views towards the city centre, as do the small blocks of flats which replaced some large villas in the middle of the suburb. The tall viaduct is the main landmark to the west and north. There are clear views into Round Hill from many parts of Brighton, especially areas to the east and southeast such as Race Hill.
When the railway line was built between Brighton and Lewes in 1846, the northern slope of Round Hill was effectively severed from the rest of the area. It developed separately as an industrial area and the site of many Brighton Corporation utilities: the Brighton Dust Destructor, an incinerator for rubbish, was built in 1866, followed by another incinerator in 1898; the Municipal Abattoir
was established in 1894; and in the early 20th century a meat market and a municipal cleansing station for the fumigation and delousing
of people and property were built nearby. Although they occupy land that was part of the hill, these buildings were considered to be part of neighbouring Hollingdean
. Residents of Round Hill, especially those who owned laundries, often complained about the smell and soot from the incinerators.
to the road to Lewes
. Two of the largest landowners in the Brighton and Hove area, Thomas Read Kemp
and William Stanford (an ancestor of Charles Thomas-Stanford
of the Thomas-Stanford Baronetcy of Preston Manor
), owned most of the land between them. In the late 19th century, the Stanford family sold some of their land—which almost completely encircled Brighton, Preston and Hove to the north—for housing development, and retained much of it to develop themselves.
The earliest development in the Round Hill area was Ireland's Pleasure Gardens on the southern slope in 1823. Also known as the Royal Pleasure Gardens, this venture by James Ireland was intended to be a profitable speculation, attracting the increasing number of visitors and short-term residents who had doubled Brighton's population in the previous decade. Ireland, a rich businessman with interests in drapery
and undertaking
, bought a 10 acres (4 ha) site from Thomas Read Kemp in 1822 and opened the gardens on 1 May 1823. The vast range of attractions included an aviary
, maze, formal gardens with a canal, Gothic-style
tower, bowling greens, billiard rooms, assembly rooms
with a roof promenade, a grotto
and a lake. A cricket ground (the Royal New Ground
) was also provided, and was said to be "the best in the country" at the time. Despite the range of activities, and occasional high-profile stunts by associates of Ireland (such as a flying demonstration), the gardens never thrived, and soon fell into decline. Ireland sold them in 1826, and later owners presided over further decline until the facility was eventually closed in the 1840s. Only its south boundary wall and gate piers
, decorated with copies of their original stone lions, survive.
Another development of the 1820s, on Thomas Read Kemp's landholding, was the Jewish cemetery and its chapel. Its location on Florence Place, off Ditchling Road just north of the railway line, places it marginally outside Brighton and Hove City Council's definition of the Round Hill area, but the site has always been associated with Round Hill. In 1826, Kemp, who at the time was a Member of Parliament
, donated a parcel of land on the north slope of the hill to the congregation of Brighton's synagogue
. The town had a large Jewish
population—about 150 by 1840. An octagonal brick cemetery chapel (the Ohel), designed by the firm of Thomas Lainson
and Son, was built in the burial ground in 1893. In accordance with Jewish custom, it had facilities for mourners to wash their hands upon leaving the "presence of death". Money to build the chapel and a fence round the cemetery was raised in the 1890s by charging members of the Middle Street Synagogue two shillings per week for a year; some prominent members of Brighton's Jewish community provided interest-free loans as well. Burials include Henry Solomon
, Brighton Borough's Chief Constable
(murdered in 1844); Hyam Lewis, a Brighton Town Commissioner and the first Jew in England to hold such a high-ranking municipal position; Levi Emanuel Cohen, a radical journalist who helped Brighton achieve borough status
; and Sir John Howard, an engineer. The cemetery has been full for many years and is now closed except for family burials where a tomb already exists. It is locked and in poor condition; many graves are overgrown. The foundation stone
commemorating Kemp's gift of the land survives, though. The cemetery chapel and its surrounding walls and gates are Grade II listed buildings.
In 1838, a windmill was built at the top of the hill, where the northern end of the present-day Belton Road stands. Although it was demolished in the early 20th century, it has been called "probably the most well-known feature of the Round Hill area". Its names included Rose Hill Mill, Round Hill Mill and Cutress's Mill, but its most common name—alluding to the type of windmill it was
—was Tower Mill. Ownership changed regularly, and the mill was rarely profitable—even after Charles Cutress converted it to steam power in 1880. Storm damage soon afterwards caused further problems. The mill was demolished in 1913, and its bricks were recovered and used in the construction of some houses in Belton Road.
In 1854, the Diocese of Chichester
selected an area of open land on the west side of Ditchling Road as the site of their Training College for Anglican Schoolmistresses, which had outgrown its premises in Black Lion Street in the old town. Viaduct Road was built in front of the Gothic Revival
building's south façade around the same time, and was built up with terraced houses by the early 1860s. In the early 20th century, the Diocese bought three of the four villas nearby and converted them into accommodation for trainee schoolteachers. Before that, the trainee teachers slept in large rooms in the Training College.
popular in Brighton over the previous 30 years. Iron gates, protected by gatekeepers who lived in three cottages in the grounds, gave the villas privacy.
The site of the failed Pleasure Gardens then became one of Brighton's most exclusive residential developments in the 1850s, when prominent and influential local architect Amon Henry Wilds
conceived and built the three-part Park Crescent
development. The horseshoe-shaped terrace of 48 houses faced inwards towards a private garden formed from the old cricket ground. The "most ambitious scheme" of his long career was also one of his last: construction lasted from 1849 until 1854, and he died in 1857.
Contemporary housing developments included the southeast side of Upper Lewes Road, the west side of Lewes Road, and a series of impressive semi-detached villas on Ditchling Road, but Round Hill's most intensive period of growth began in the mid-1860s. "Fine curving terraces of Regency-style
houses" appeared on the newly built Roundhill Crescent, which curved away from the northwest side of Upper Lewes Road, and semi-detached houses were laid out on Richmond Road behind and at a higher level. The first parts of Roundhill Crescent, still with a post-Regency character despite their late date, were built in 1865. Further development of the middle-class houses on these roads was patchy—many gaps still existed in 1875— but lower-class terraced housing spread rapidly elsewhere. Vicar of Brighton Rev. Arthur Wagner bought the northern part of the former Pleasure Gardens—still open land in 1860—and stipulated that houses costing no more than £120 should be built for Brighton's working-class population. He lent money to builders to increase the pace of development. The tightly packed terraced streets between Upper Lewes Road and Lewes Road were mostly complete by the 1870s, and St Martin's Church
was built nearby to serve the area. Larger individual houses of the 1860s included Prince's Villa, in an isolated position next to Tower Mill, and Bryn—built in 1869 on Wakefield Road and used as an orphanage from 1875 until 1937.
Another period of rapid residential development occurred in the 1880s. The gaps in Roundhill Crescent were filled with houses in a more contemporary style than the old-fashioned Regency-style houses of the 1860s. Several streets around Prince's Road were built between 1880 and 1884. Also in the 1880s, The Salvation Army
founded a place of worship in the area. The citadel could hold 1,400 people, and was located on Park Crescent Terrace behind the west side of Park Crescent. Nearby, the Royal Hippodrome (unrelated to the Hippodrome
in Brighton's old town) had opened on 31 October 1876. The 1,600-capacity building hosted a circus until 1889, then reopened under new ownership on 28 July 1890 as the Gaiety Theatre and cinema. Never a success, it closed permanently in 1900 and passed into commercial use until its demolition for flats in 1930.
s and plant nurseries were common. Two existed in 1838, including one where grapes were cultivated, and more were planted in the 1850s. When the houses of Prince's Road were laid out, there were already two nurseries on it. A large nursery existed behind Park Crescent until 1883, when the Salvation Army Citadel was built on the site. Other areas of green space survive behind Richmond Road, between Wakefield Road and Roundhill Crescent, and along the railway embankment east of Ditchling Road tunnel. Clearly visible from afar, these green spaces give the area a strong visual character and are important wildlife habitats. Another characteristic topographical feature of Round Hill is the "cat's-creep", a type of steep, narrow staircase between buildings. Often found in Brighton's hilly suburbs such as Moulsecoomb
and Hollingbury
, the best example is found between Roundhill Crescent and Richmond Road. Named Lennox Place, it was planned at the same time as the nearby Mayo, D'Aubigny and Wakefield Roads, and was meant to be a proper street with houses. It was found to be too steep for horses and carts to negotiate, though, and it was laid out as a footpath with eight steep flights of 15 steps instead. It was a popular play area as well as a short-cut.
. Other long-established businesses included the Northern, Tivoli, Primrose and Mayo Laundries; and in the 1880s many houses in the newly built Prince's and Richmond Roads were set up as small-scale laundries, using their gardens for drying. For many years, the suburb was popularly known as "Laundry Hill", and laundries were the main source of local employment; but all trace of the industry disappeared by the 1980s.
Another important 20th-century industry was Cox's Pill Factory, which took over the Brighton and Sussex Laundry Works premises when that company moved to Hove
in 1910. Founded by Arthur Cox in 1839 at Ship Street in the old town, the manufacturing division moved to premises at St Martin's Place in 1871. Cox's speciality was coating pills with a layer of sugar-based material to hide their taste, for which he received a patent in 1854. His sons bought the former laundry building on Lewes Road for £5,500 in 1910 and converted it into a factory, adding a landmark clock to the façade. The building was ready in 1912. Wartime government contracts augmented production for their regular customers, and the business thrived; it only moved away from the Lewes Road site in 1979 because expansion and modernisation were required. No suitable sites could be found locally, and the company relocated to Barnstaple
in Devon
. Another factory, which produced golf balls and (latterly) rubber products, occupied one of the semi-detached houses on Richmond Road from the 1920s until the 1980s.
founded in 1899 by Dr Helen Boyle in the nearby suburb of Hanover
. Dr Boyle rented the house at Roundhill Crescent, moved the dispensary there and added a 12-bed hospital for the treatment of what were then termed "nervous disorders". The Lewes Road Hospital for Women and Children was the first such facility in England: until then, people regarded as suffering from such disorders were sent to lunatic asylums
. The hospital expanded in 1911 and moved to Ditchling Road, and later split into two parts housed in Brighton and the Brunswick Town
area of Hove respectively. Inpatient facilities at the institutions ceased only in 1988.
Round Hill was at the centre of a health scare in 1950–51. A smallpox
epidemic broke out in Brighton in late December 1950; the family of the first sufferer were regular users of the Tivoli Laundry on Crescent Road, and many employees were infected by the soiled linen. Two died, but rapid work by Brighton Corporation's health department prevented the outbreak spreading beyond Brighton.
was so scarce in Brighton at the time (1945) that Brighton Borough Council bought the land using a compulsory purchase order
and redeveloped it with council flats based on the family's designs. The new flats, built in the early 1950s, were large and well-built, and the old gardens were retained. At first, no young children were allowed to live there, and only higher earning council tenants could apply.
The closure of Cox's Pill Factory, the Kemp Town branch line and the nearby Vogue cinema in the 1970s and early 1980s prompted large-scale redevelopment. Between 1983 and 1985, a large area around the junction of Lewes and Upper Lewes Roads was cleared in favour of the Vogue Gyratory system and a Sainsbury's supermarket. The Vogue Gyratory, a major road junction connecting Upper Lewes Road, Lewes Road, Bear Road and Hollingdean Road, opened in mid-1984. Sainsbury's was completed and opened on 23 April 1985; its design featured round-arched exterior arcades
which recalled the recently demolished viaduct, and the clock was retrieved from the demolished pill factory and reset on the exterior of the new building. It won Brighton Council's design award in 1985.
. A building or structure is defined as "listed" when it is placed on a statutory register of buildings of "special architectural or historic interest" by the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
, a Government department. Grade I-listed buildings are defined as being of "exceptional interest" and greater than national importance; Grade II*, the next highest status, is used for "particularly important buildings of more than special interest"; and the lowest grade, Grade II, is used for "nationally important buildings of special interest".
Vicar of Brighton Rev. Arthur Wagner, who established a mission chapel in an old school building in 1867, planned to build a permanent church to serve the Round Hill area. St Martin's Church
was built between 1872 and 1875 as a memorial to Wagner's father (and predecessor as Vicar of Brighton) Rev. Henry Michell Wagner, who died in 1870. The church was very large, reflecting the density of housing in Round Hill and its proximity to Preston Barracks, where many soldiers were based. This also influenced its dedication—to Martin of Tours
, the patron saint
of soldiers. Up to 1,500 worshippers could be accommodated in the vast, cathedral-like interior. George Somers Leigh Clarke
's plain, "almost ruthless" exterior, of red and yellow brick in the Early English Gothic Revival style
, contrasts with the "breathtaking magnificence" of the interior, whose fixtures and decoration were planned by Clarke and designed to his specifications. It is one of 69 Grade II* listed buildings in Brighton and Hove.
A small chapel, opened by the Railway Mission
in 1876 but now with an Evangelical
congregation, is adjacent to the fire station on Viaduct Road. James Barnes's Gothic Revival building has three lancet window
s on the façade and projecting entrances which resemble porches. There is decorative machicolation
on the parapet
.
Catherine Booth
, wife of the founder of The Salvation Army
William Booth
, opened a large Salvation Army citadel behind Park Crescent in March 1884. Designed and built of red brick and terracotta in 1883 by E.J. Hamilton, it could hold 1,400 people and had castellated towers at the corners. It was extended in 1925, but in 2000 it was demolished and replaced with a smaller octagonal Congress Hall designed by David Greenwood. Its design recalls some of the features of the Park Crescent houses opposite.
St Saviour's Church served the southwestern part of Round Hill until 1981. The flint and brick building, set below the level of Ditchling Road and on its west side, was in the Early English Gothic Revival
style and was meant to have a tower; only a stub was ever built. The architects were Edmund Scott and F.T. Cawthorn. An extension was built in 1889, and in 1904 a large reredos
designed by Richard Herbert Carpenter
and W. Slater was moved to the church from Chichester Cathedral
. Congregations declined, and the church was demolished in 1983; flats called St Saviour's Court and a rear archway in Vere Road recall its existence.
At the north end of the suburb, the Lewes Road Congregational Church was built in 1872. A. Harford's design has been described as Italianate
Gothic
. The congregation joined the United Reformed Church
, but the church closed in 1993 and the building was sold for redevelopment. The congregation moved to a new building, and the flats of Stanley Court were built behind the old façade.
The cemetery chapel (Ohel) at the Jewish burial ground is Grade II-listed. Designed in 1893 by Lainson and Son
and built by the Garrett building firm, it is a red-brick octagonal structure in the Queen Anne style
, with a tiled turreted roof and corbel
-topped piers
at each corner, a pediment
ed entrance and arched windows set below recessed panels. The burial ground is surrounded by walls, stucco
-faced gate piers and wrought iron fences which are listed separately at Grade II.
, at the junction of Ditchling and Viaduct Roads, forms a local landmark. The Grade II-listed knapped flint Gothic Revival
structure, designed by William and Edward Habershon, was built in 1854 on open land at the northern boundary of Brighton Borough as the Diocese of Chichester
's training college for Anglican
schoolmistresses. It was extended to the north in 1886, and was used as a training college until the Second World War, when the Royal Engineers
requisitioned
it and used it to store their records and archives. After its closure in 1987, it was briefly threatened with demolition, but in 1988 it was converted into serviced offices under the name Brighton Business Centre (later Brighton Forum).
Standing next to each other at Preston Circus, at the northwest edge of the suburb, are the Duke of York's Picture House and Brighton's main fire station. The cinema opened on 22 September 1910, making it one of the first in the world, and it is still operational as England's oldest working cinema. The Clayton & Black firm's ornate Baroque-style
building, with a three-bay façade defined by paired pilaster
s with rustication
, cost £3,000. The fire station, designed in a "restrained Modernist
" style by Graeme Highet in 1938, curves round the road and features carved motifs by Joseph Cribb
. Its materials are brown brick and Portland stone
.
The former Tower Mill stood at the top of Round Hill between 1838 and 1913. Built of about 50,000 bricks, and with walls with a maximum thickness of 2 foot (0.6096 m), it rose to 60 feet (18.3 m) and was topped with a copper
dome. The four sails were about 32 feet (9.8 m) long and were attached to a walnut wood rotating roof.
, a railway line currently operated by Southern
, forms Round Hill's northern boundary. London Road station
, situated in a cutting between London Road and Ditchling Road, serves the area. Situated 3/4 mi from Brighton station
, it opened on 1 October 1877 and retains its substantial ticket office building. The 400 yards (365.8 m), 27-arch London Road viaduct (built in 1846) rises to 67 feet (20.4 m) above the London Road valley immediately west of the station, separating the Round Hill suburb from neighbouring Preston
. A 63 yards (57.6 m) tunnel then takes the line under Ditchling Road.
Immediately beyond the tunnel was Kemp Town Junction, where the Kemp Town branch line diverged. The first station to serve Round Hill was on this route, which "cut through the area and created a new artery" upon its opening on 2 August 1869. A three-platform station called Lewes Road opened on 1 September 1873 at the north end of D'Aubigny Road. The line was expensive to build and maintain: it crossed Lewes Road on a 52 feet (15.8 m)-high, 180 yards (164.6 m)-long viaduct, and beyond Round Hill there was another short viaduct and a long tunnel. Passenger services at Lewes Road station ceased on 31 December 1932, but coal trains continued to use its six-siding goods yard. The line closed completely on 14 June 1971, and the Lewes Road viaduct was demolished in part in 1976 and completely in 1983.
The main reason for the Kemp Town branch line's decline was the increasing popularity of buses. The three main roads running through Round Hill—London Road, Ditchling Road and Lewes Road—are used by many regular routes, mainly operated by the Brighton & Hove Bus and Coach Company. Routes 26, 46 and 50, which serve Hollingbury
and Hollingdean
northbound and Brighton city centre, Hove
and Southwick
southbound, run via Ditchling Road. Routes along London Road include the 5 (Patcham
to Hangleton
) and 56 (Patcham to the Knoll Estate in Hove). Along Lewes Road, regular routes include 23, 24, 25, 28, 29, 38, 49 and 81 and their variants, serving places such as Sussex
and Brighton
Universities, Lewes
, Uckfield
, Tunbridge Wells
, Moulsecoomb
, Bevendean
and Queen's Park
. Several other routes use Union Road, the southern boundary of the Round Hill area.
Some bus services are based on old tram routes operated by Brighton Corporation Tramways between 1901 and 1939, and their trolleybus
successors. The Corporation ran eight tram routes, mostly from Brighton Aquarium, to various parts of Brighton. Routes B and D (a pair of circular services between the Aquarium and Beaconsfield Villas/Ditchling Road) used Ditchling and London Roads, and route L (Aquarium to Moulsecoomb) travelled along Lewes Road. Some routes also used tracks on Viaduct Road. The system's only fatal accident occurred in 1935 in Round Hill when a tram skidded outside the Diocesan Training College and hit a cyclist.
The three main roads—and Upper Lewes Road, which runs between the Ditchling and Lewes Roads—experience heavy traffic, but little through traffic uses the smaller residential streets such as Roundhill Crescent. Traffic calming
measures installed in 2003 have acted as a deterrent. There are high levels of on-street car parking, though. Union Road and the Vogue Gyratory are also high-traffic routes. The Gyratory, "a fiendish maze of one-way systems, roundabouts and crossings", is the point at which Upper Lewes Road and Lewes Road meet two other routes. Named after the Vogue—latterly a pornographic cinema—it was built in 1983–84 on the site of the former Lewes Road viaduct, Cox's Pill Factory and surrounding buildings in connection with a Sainsbury's supermarket development. Demolition of the entire complex of roads was already being advocated in 2007.
; as of it is one of 34 such areas in the city of Brighton and Hove. Its boundaries are (clockwise from north) Prince's Road, Mayo Road, D'Aubigny Road, Roundhill Crescent, Upper Lewes Road, Wakefield Road, Prince's Crescent and Ditchling Road. This area includes all the Grade II-listed houses of Roundhill Crescent (described by Brighton and Hove City Council as "the most important architecturally"), two pubs (including the Tudor Revival-style New Vic, built in the 1920s and representing a late addition to the mostly late 19th-century streetscape), and four paired semi-detached villas on Ditchling Road which were some of the earliest houses in the area—they date from about 1850.
The area's character derives from its "tight urban form" and lack of 20th-century redevelopment, resulting in a homogeneous streetscape of mostly residential buildings in long terraces; its steeply sloping land; and the swathes of trees and gardens which can be seen in long views into the area, which help to "define the unaltered Victorian
streetplan" when seen from a distance. Roundhill Crescent "both curves and changes height dramatically along its length". The houses, which on the northwest side of the road are not a continuous terrace and which date from the 1860s to the 1880s, vary in height and the extent of their architectural detailing; canted
bay window
s and original cast-iron balconies feature prominently. Some pairs of semi-detached villas of the 1860s survive on Richmond Road. Prince's Road, where the 223 feet (68 m) summit of Round Hill is located, has a long, well-defined frontage of rendered terraced houses dating from the 1880s, with an older flint and brick house with decorative bargeboard
s and gable
s breaking up the composition.
Building materials vary greatly. Brick was rarely used at the time Round Hill was developing (although a few houses in Belton Road were built of it); bungaroosh
was often used for walls instead. Characteristic of Brighton but almost unknown elsewhere, this consisted of random assortments of materials such as low-quality brick, cobbles, flints, pebbles, rubble, wood and sand, set in hydraulic lime
and shuttered
. Bungaroosh was often faced with render or stucco to make it weatherproof. Some flint buildings survive on Prince's Crescent. When built, most windows in the conservation area's houses were sashes
, and roofs were of Welsh slate
.
The area retains many original boundary walls, often in brick and flint or cast iron. Some pavements were laid with blue-brick paving slabs
, and a few survive. Elsewhere, granite
kerbstones, stone-dressed gutters and road crossing points laid with limestone and brick remain from the 19th-century development of the area, and some cast-iron lamp-posts have survived.
Brighton
Brighton is the major part of the city of Brighton and Hove in East Sussex, England on the south coast of Great Britain...
, part of the coastal city of Brighton and Hove in England. The area contains a mix of privately owned and privately rented terraced housing, much of which has been converted for multiple occupancy, and small-scale commercial development. It was developed mostly in the late 19th century on an area of high land overlooking central Brighton, and with good views in all directions, the area became a desirable middle-class suburb—particularly the large terraced houses of Roundhill Crescent
Roundhill Crescent
Roundhill Crescent is a late 19th-century housing development in Round Hill, an inner suburb of the English coastal city of Brighton and Hove...
and Richmond Road, and the exclusive 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...
—and within a few decades the whole of the hill had been built up with smaller terraces and some large villas.
Non-residential buildings include the landmark St Martin's Church
St Martin's Church, Brighton
St Martin's Church is an Anglican church in Brighton, England, dating from the mid-Victorian era. It is located on the Lewes Road in the Round Hill area of the city, northeast of the city centre and approximately north of the seafront...
, Brighton's largest place of worship, with its dramatically extravagant interior; the Brighton Forum
Brighton Forum
The Brighton Forum is a complex of serviced offices on a prominent elevated position in the Round Hill area of Brighton, part of the English city of Brighton and Hove...
, a Gothic Revival
Gothic Revival architecture
The Gothic Revival is an architectural movement that began in the 1740s in England...
former college now in commercial use; Brighton's main fire station; and the oldest working cinema in Britain. The first hospital in England catering for mental illness was established in a house in Roundhill Crescent in 1905. Brighton's first Jewish cemetery, although a short distance outside Round Hill according to Brighton & Hove City Council's definition, has been associated with the suburb throughout its near 200-year history. The London Road viaduct
London Road viaduct
The London Road Viaduct is a brick railway viaduct in Brighton, part of the city of Brighton and Hove in East Sussex, England. It carries the East Coastway Line between Brighton and London Road railway stations...
, a distinctive, sweeping piece of railway architecture, forms the northern boundary of the area and "a literal gateway" between outer and inner suburbia. All of these buildings have been listed by English Heritage
English Heritage
English Heritage . is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport...
for their architectural and historical importance, and the core of Round Hill, around Roundhill Crescent, is one of 34 conservation areas in the city. Round Hill's steep slopes and road layout encouraged the introduction of another feature which gives the area its character: the "cat's-creep" staircase. The area has good tree cover, and increasingly heavy traffic along the three main roads which run through the area.
Past features of Round Hill include a windmill, which took advantage of the windy conditions on the 223 feet (68 m) hilltop until 1913; 19th-century laundries, which sought the same advantage; early 19th-century pleasure gardens, now occupied by the houses of Park Crescent; the landmark Cox's Pill Factory, demolished in the 1980s; glasshouses and smallholdings, some of which survived until after the Second World War despite being surrounded by houses; and the Kemp Town branch line, a passenger and freight railway which cut through the area and had a short-lived station serving Round Hill. The former St Saviour's Church survived until 1983, and a Congregational church elsewhere in the suburb closed but retained its façade after its conversion into housing.
Location
Round Hill is an approximately triangular area directly north of Brighton city centre. The name is now applied to a wider area than the 223 feet (68 m) hill at its centre; its boundaries are now defined as Union Road and The Level (a large area of open ground) to the south, the main London RoadA23 road
The A23 road is a major road in the United Kingdom between London and Brighton, East Sussex. It became an arterial route following the construction of Westminster Bridge in 1750 and the consequent improvement of roads leading to the bridge south of the river by the Turnpike Trusts...
to the west, the East Coastway
East Coastway Line
East Coastway is the name used by the train operating company, Southern , for the routes it operates along the south coast of Sussex and Kent to the east of Brighton, England. Those to the West of Brighton are named the West Coastway Line...
railway line to the north—including the London Road viaduct
London Road viaduct
The London Road Viaduct is a brick railway viaduct in Brighton, part of the city of Brighton and Hove in East Sussex, England. It carries the East Coastway Line between Brighton and London Road railway stations...
and London Road railway station
London Road (Brighton) railway station
London Road Railway Station is in Brighton, East Sussex, England. Train services from the station are provided by Southern, and the station is on the East Coastway Line.- History :...
—and the Lewes Road to the east. Ditchling Road, a third main road, runs through the centre of the suburb. The large, round-topped hill which gave the suburb its name stands between the two main valleys along which the original routes into and out of Brighton developed (the present London and Lewes Roads). Ditchling Road, the middle route, climbs the hill. London and Lewes Roads became turnpikes (toll road
Toll road
A toll road is a privately or publicly built road for which a driver pays a toll for use. Structures for which tolls are charged include toll bridges and toll tunnels. Non-toll roads are financed using other sources of revenue, most typically fuel tax or general tax funds...
s) in 1770, and The Level—originally common land
Common land
Common land is land owned collectively or by one person, but over which other people have certain traditional rights, such as to allow their livestock to graze upon it, to collect firewood, or to cut turf for fuel...
between Ditchling Road and Lewes Road—was enclosed and reserved for public recreation in 1822.
Round Hill's elevated, fairly central position gives excellent inward and outward views. To the northeast, the South Downs
South Downs
The South Downs is a range of chalk hills that extends for about across the south-eastern coastal counties of England from the Itchen Valley of Hampshire in the west to Beachy Head, near Eastbourne, East Sussex, in the east. It is bounded on its northern side by a steep escarpment, from whose...
can be seen; long views of the English Channel
English Channel
The English Channel , often referred to simply as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates southern England from northern France, and joins the North Sea to the Atlantic. It is about long and varies in width from at its widest to in the Strait of Dover...
are possible to the south, beyond the city centre and St Peter's Church
St Peter's Church, Brighton
St Peter's Church is a Church of England parish church in Brighton in the English city of Brighton and Hove. It is near the centre of the town, on an island between two major roads, the A23 London Road and A270 Lewes Road. Built from 1824-28 to a design by Sir Charles Barry, it is arguably the...
; to the southeast, Elm Grove, Race Hill and Brighton General Hospital can be seen on high ground beyond the Lewes Road valley; and to the west, Preston Park
Preston Park, Brighton
Preston Park is a park near Preston Village in the city of Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, England. It is located in Preston Park ward to the north of the centre of Brighton, and served by the nearby Preston Park railway station....
(the city's oldest and largest public park) can be seen. Crescent and Wakefield Roads have long southward views towards the city centre, as do the small blocks of flats which replaced some large villas in the middle of the suburb. The tall viaduct is the main landmark to the west and north. There are clear views into Round Hill from many parts of Brighton, especially areas to the east and southeast such as Race Hill.
When the railway line was built between Brighton and Lewes in 1846, the northern slope of Round Hill was effectively severed from the rest of the area. It developed separately as an industrial area and the site of many Brighton Corporation utilities: the Brighton Dust Destructor, an incinerator for rubbish, was built in 1866, followed by another incinerator in 1898; the Municipal Abattoir
Slaughterhouse
A slaughterhouse or abattoir is a facility where animals are killed for consumption as food products.Approximately 45-50% of the animal can be turned into edible products...
was established in 1894; and in the early 20th century a meat market and a municipal cleansing station for the fumigation and delousing
Pediculosis
Pediculosis is an infestation of lice — blood-feeding ectoparasitic insects of the order Phthiraptera. The condition can occur in almost any species of warm-blooded animal , including humans...
of people and property were built nearby. Although they occupy land that was part of the hill, these buildings were considered to be part of neighbouring Hollingdean
Hollingdean
Hollingdean is a part of the city of Brighton & Hove.Hollingdean is in effect the older part of Hollingbury south of the park. It is bounded by Ditchling Road to the west, the Round Hill area to the south, and Lewes Road and Moulsecoomb to the east...
. Residents of Round Hill, especially those who owned laundries, often complained about the smell and soot from the incinerators.
History
Early history
In 1800, Round Hill was a steep-sided, round-topped hill rising to 223 feet (68 m) and ploughed up for use by farmers. Some poorly defined tracks crossed it, linking Preston villagePreston Village, Brighton
Preston Village is a suburban area of Brighton and Hove, East Sussex to the north of the centre. Originally a village in its own right, it was eventually absorbed into Brighton with the development of the farmland owned by the local Stanford family, officially becoming a parish of the town in 1928...
to the road to Lewes
Lewes
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...
. Two of the largest landowners in the Brighton and Hove area, 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 William Stanford (an ancestor of Charles Thomas-Stanford
Charles Thomas-Stanford
Sir Charles Thomas-Stanford, 1st Baronet , born Charles Thomas, was a British Conservative Party politician from Brighton. He sat in the House of Commons from 1914 to 1922.- Early life and family :...
of the Thomas-Stanford Baronetcy of Preston Manor
Preston Manor, Brighton
Preston Manor is the former manor house of the ancient Sussex village of Preston, now part of the coastal city of Brighton and Hove, England. The present building dates mostly from 1738, when Lord of the manor Thomas Western rebuilt the original 13th-century structure , and 1905 when Charles...
), owned most of the land between them. In the late 19th century, the Stanford family sold some of their land—which almost completely encircled Brighton, Preston and Hove to the north—for housing development, and retained much of it to develop themselves.
The earliest development in the Round Hill area was Ireland's Pleasure Gardens on the southern slope in 1823. Also known as the Royal Pleasure Gardens, this venture by James Ireland was intended to be a profitable speculation, attracting the increasing number of visitors and short-term residents who had doubled Brighton's population in the previous decade. Ireland, a rich businessman with interests in drapery
Drapery
Drapery is a general word referring to cloths or textiles . It may refer to cloth used for decorative purposes – such as around windows – or to the trade of retailing cloth, originally mostly for clothing, formerly conducted by drapers.In art history, drapery refers to any cloth or...
and undertaking
Funeral director
A funeral director , also known as a mortician or undertaker, is a professional involved in the business of funeral rites. These tasks often entail the embalming and burial or cremation of the dead, as well as the planning and arrangement of the actual funeral ceremony...
, bought a 10 acres (4 ha) site from Thomas Read Kemp in 1822 and opened the gardens on 1 May 1823. The vast range of attractions included an aviary
Aviary
An aviary is a large enclosure for confining birds. Unlike cages, aviaries allow birds a larger living space where they can fly; hence, aviaries are also sometimes known as flight cages...
, maze, formal gardens with a canal, Gothic-style
Gothic Revival architecture
The Gothic Revival is an architectural movement that began in the 1740s in England...
tower, bowling greens, billiard rooms, assembly rooms
Assembly rooms
In Great Britain and Ireland, especially in the 18th and 19th centuries, assembly rooms were gathering places for members of the higher social classes open to members of both sexes. At that time most entertaining was done at home and there were few public places of entertainment open to both sexes...
with a roof promenade, a grotto
Grotto
A grotto is any type of natural or artificial cave that is associated with modern, historic or prehistoric use by humans. When it is not an artificial garden feature, a grotto is often a small cave near water and often flooded or liable to flood at high tide...
and a lake. A cricket ground (the Royal New Ground
Royal New Ground
The Royal New Ground, also known as "Box's Ground", in Brighton, Sussex was a venue for first-class cricket matches from 1814 to 1847.The ground was the home of Brighton Cricket Club and became the county ground of Sussex CCC when this was formed in 1839...
) was also provided, and was said to be "the best in the country" at the time. Despite the range of activities, and occasional high-profile stunts by associates of Ireland (such as a flying demonstration), the gardens never thrived, and soon fell into decline. Ireland sold them in 1826, and later owners presided over further decline until the facility was eventually closed in the 1840s. Only its south boundary wall and gate piers
Pier (architecture)
In architecture, a pier is an upright support for a superstructure, such as an arch or bridge. Sections of wall between openings function as piers. The simplest cross section of the pier is square, or rectangular, although other shapes are also common, such as the richly articulated piers of Donato...
, decorated with copies of their original stone lions, survive.
Another development of the 1820s, on Thomas Read Kemp's landholding, was the Jewish cemetery and its chapel. Its location on Florence Place, off Ditchling Road just north of the railway line, places it marginally outside Brighton and Hove City Council's definition of the Round Hill area, but the site has always been associated with Round Hill. In 1826, Kemp, who at the time was a Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
, donated a parcel of land on the north slope of the hill to the congregation of Brighton's synagogue
Synagogue
A synagogue is a Jewish house of prayer. This use of the Greek term synagogue originates in the Septuagint where it sometimes translates the Hebrew word for assembly, kahal...
. The town had a large Jewish
Judaism
Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...
population—about 150 by 1840. An octagonal brick cemetery chapel (the Ohel), designed by the firm of Thomas Lainson
Thomas Lainson
Thomas Lainson was a British architect. He is best known for his work in the East Sussex coastal towns of Brighton and Hove , where several of his eclectic range of residential, commercial and religious buildings have been awarded listed status by English Heritage...
and Son, was built in the burial ground in 1893. In accordance with Jewish custom, it had facilities for mourners to wash their hands upon leaving the "presence of death". Money to build the chapel and a fence round the cemetery was raised in the 1890s by charging members of the Middle Street Synagogue two shillings per week for a year; some prominent members of Brighton's Jewish community provided interest-free loans as well. Burials include Henry Solomon
Henry Solomon
Chief Constable Henry Solomon was a police officer who became the first Chief Constable of Brighton Borough Police in East Sussex, England....
, Brighton Borough's Chief Constable
Chief Constable
Chief constable is the rank used by the chief police officer of every territorial police force in the United Kingdom except for the City of London Police and the Metropolitan Police, as well as the chief officers of the three 'special' national police forces, the British Transport Police, Ministry...
(murdered in 1844); Hyam Lewis, a Brighton Town Commissioner and the first Jew in England to hold such a high-ranking municipal position; Levi Emanuel Cohen, a radical journalist who helped Brighton achieve borough status
Borough status in the United Kingdom
Borough status in the United Kingdom is granted by royal charter to local government districts in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The status is purely honorary, and does not give any additional powers to the council or inhabitants of the district...
; and Sir John Howard, an engineer. The cemetery has been full for many years and is now closed except for family burials where a tomb already exists. It is locked and in poor condition; many graves are overgrown. The foundation stone
Cornerstone
The cornerstone concept is derived from the first stone set in the construction of a masonry foundation, important since all other stones will be set in reference to this stone, thus determining the position of the entire structure.Over time a cornerstone became a ceremonial masonry stone, or...
commemorating Kemp's gift of the land survives, though. The cemetery chapel and its surrounding walls and gates are Grade II listed buildings.
In 1838, a windmill was built at the top of the hill, where the northern end of the present-day Belton Road stands. Although it was demolished in the early 20th century, it has been called "probably the most well-known feature of the Round Hill area". Its names included Rose Hill Mill, Round Hill Mill and Cutress's Mill, but its most common name—alluding to the type of windmill it was
Tower mill
A tower mill is a type of windmill which consists of a brick or stone tower, on top of which sits a roof or cap which can be turned to bring the sails into the wind....
—was Tower Mill. Ownership changed regularly, and the mill was rarely profitable—even after Charles Cutress converted it to steam power in 1880. Storm damage soon afterwards caused further problems. The mill was demolished in 1913, and its bricks were recovered and used in the construction of some houses in Belton Road.
In 1854, the Diocese of Chichester
Diocese of Chichester
The Diocese of Chichester is a Church of England diocese based in Chichester, covering Sussex. It was created in 1075 to replace the old Diocese of Selsey, which was based at Selsey Abbey from 681. The cathedral is Chichester Cathedral and the bishop is the Bishop of Chichester...
selected an area of open land on the west side of Ditchling Road as the site of their Training College for Anglican Schoolmistresses, which had outgrown its premises in Black Lion Street in the old town. Viaduct Road was built in front of the Gothic Revival
Gothic Revival architecture
The Gothic Revival is an architectural movement that began in the 1740s in England...
building's south façade around the same time, and was built up with terraced houses by the early 1860s. In the early 20th century, the Diocese bought three of the four villas nearby and converted them into accommodation for trainee schoolteachers. Before that, the trainee teachers slept in large rooms in the Training College.
Residential development in the 19th century
Between 1838 and 1840, the local Colbatch family built four large detached villas in the former Rose Hill Park on a southwest-facing part of the hill. They were described as the "grandest and most ostentatious part of Round Hill", and the first (Rose Hill Villa, finished in 1838) was a "classic Victorian building". All four were large family homes in the Regency styleRegency 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...
popular in Brighton over the previous 30 years. Iron gates, protected by gatekeepers who lived in three cottages in the grounds, gave the villas privacy.
The site of the failed Pleasure Gardens then became one of Brighton's most exclusive residential developments in the 1850s, when prominent and influential local architect Amon Henry Wilds
Amon Henry Wilds
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...
conceived and built the three-part 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...
development. The horseshoe-shaped terrace of 48 houses faced inwards towards a private garden formed from the old cricket ground. The "most ambitious scheme" of his long career was also one of his last: construction lasted from 1849 until 1854, and he died in 1857.
Contemporary housing developments included the southeast side of Upper Lewes Road, the west side of Lewes Road, and a series of impressive semi-detached villas on Ditchling Road, but Round Hill's most intensive period of growth began in the mid-1860s. "Fine curving terraces of Regency-style
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...
houses" appeared on the newly built Roundhill Crescent, which curved away from the northwest side of Upper Lewes Road, and semi-detached houses were laid out on Richmond Road behind and at a higher level. The first parts of Roundhill Crescent, still with a post-Regency character despite their late date, were built in 1865. Further development of the middle-class houses on these roads was patchy—many gaps still existed in 1875— but lower-class terraced housing spread rapidly elsewhere. Vicar of Brighton Rev. Arthur Wagner bought the northern part of the former Pleasure Gardens—still open land in 1860—and stipulated that houses costing no more than £120 should be built for Brighton's working-class population. He lent money to builders to increase the pace of development. The tightly packed terraced streets between Upper Lewes Road and Lewes Road were mostly complete by the 1870s, and St Martin's Church
St Martin's Church, Brighton
St Martin's Church is an Anglican church in Brighton, England, dating from the mid-Victorian era. It is located on the Lewes Road in the Round Hill area of the city, northeast of the city centre and approximately north of the seafront...
was built nearby to serve the area. Larger individual houses of the 1860s included Prince's Villa, in an isolated position next to Tower Mill, and Bryn—built in 1869 on Wakefield Road and used as an orphanage from 1875 until 1937.
Another period of rapid residential development occurred in the 1880s. The gaps in Roundhill Crescent were filled with houses in a more contemporary style than the old-fashioned Regency-style houses of the 1860s. Several streets around Prince's Road were built between 1880 and 1884. Also in the 1880s, The Salvation Army
The Salvation Army
The Salvation Army is a Protestant Christian church known for its thrift stores and charity work. It is an international movement that currently works in over a hundred countries....
founded a place of worship in the area. The citadel could hold 1,400 people, and was located on Park Crescent Terrace behind the west side of Park Crescent. Nearby, the Royal Hippodrome (unrelated to the Hippodrome
Brighton Hippodrome
The former Brighton Hippodrome is an entertainment venue in the ancient centre of Brighton, part of the English city of Brighton and Hove. It has been empty and out of use since 2007, when its use as a bingo hall ceased, but since its construction in 1897 it has hosted an ice rink, circus acts,...
in Brighton's old town) had opened on 31 October 1876. The 1,600-capacity building hosted a circus until 1889, then reopened under new ownership on 28 July 1890 as the Gaiety Theatre and cinema. Never a success, it closed permanently in 1900 and passed into commercial use until its demolition for flats in 1930.
Smallholdings and cat's-creeps
Despite this intensive building work, there were many gaps between houses and streets, and smallholdingSmallholding
A smallholding is a farm of small size.In third world countries, smallholdings are usually farms supporting a single family with a mixture of cash crops and subsistence farming. As a country becomes more affluent and farming practices become more efficient, smallholdings may persist as a legacy of...
s and plant nurseries were common. Two existed in 1838, including one where grapes were cultivated, and more were planted in the 1850s. When the houses of Prince's Road were laid out, there were already two nurseries on it. A large nursery existed behind Park Crescent until 1883, when the Salvation Army Citadel was built on the site. Other areas of green space survive behind Richmond Road, between Wakefield Road and Roundhill Crescent, and along the railway embankment east of Ditchling Road tunnel. Clearly visible from afar, these green spaces give the area a strong visual character and are important wildlife habitats. Another characteristic topographical feature of Round Hill is the "cat's-creep", a type of steep, narrow staircase between buildings. Often found in Brighton's hilly suburbs such as Moulsecoomb
Moulsecoomb
Moulsecoomb is a large suburb of Brighton, part of the city of Brighton and Hove. It is located on the northeastern side of Brighton, around the A270 Lewes Road, between the areas of Coldean and Bevendean and approximately 2¼ miles north of the seafront. The eastern edges of the built-up area...
and Hollingbury
Hollingbury
Hollingbury is an area of the city of Brighton and Hove, East Sussex. The area sits high on a hillside across the north of the city above Patcham which lies in a valley to the west, Coldean in a valley to the east, and the A27 bypass forming the northern limit...
, the best example is found between Roundhill Crescent and Richmond Road. Named Lennox Place, it was planned at the same time as the nearby Mayo, D'Aubigny and Wakefield Roads, and was meant to be a proper street with houses. It was found to be too steep for horses and carts to negotiate, though, and it was laid out as a footpath with eight steep flights of 15 steps instead. It was a popular play area as well as a short-cut.
Employment and industry in the 19th and 20th centuries
With its sunny, breezy slopes, wide open spaces and distance from the polluted town centre, Round Hill was ideally placed for the development of 19th-century laundries. In many cases, these were small, home-based businesses, but some larger premises also existed. The Brighton and Sussex Laundry Works catered for large institutions such as hotels and schools as well as for small orders, employed many local women, and had its own vans to transport washing around Brighton. Drying was carried out on a large area of open ground attached to the premises. Washing was also transported in and out by train via Lewes Road station, which was behind the building. This enabled work to be taken on from all parts of SussexSussex
Sussex , from the Old English Sūþsēaxe , is an historic county in South East England corresponding roughly in area to the ancient Kingdom of Sussex. It is bounded on the north by Surrey, east by Kent, south by the English Channel, and west by Hampshire, and is divided for local government into West...
. Other long-established businesses included the Northern, Tivoli, Primrose and Mayo Laundries; and in the 1880s many houses in the newly built Prince's and Richmond Roads were set up as small-scale laundries, using their gardens for drying. For many years, the suburb was popularly known as "Laundry Hill", and laundries were the main source of local employment; but all trace of the industry disappeared by the 1980s.
Another important 20th-century industry was Cox's Pill Factory, which took over the Brighton and Sussex Laundry Works premises when that company moved to Hove
Hove
Hove is a town on the south coast of England, immediately to the west of its larger neighbour Brighton, with which it forms the unitary authority Brighton and Hove. It forms a single conurbation together with Brighton and some smaller towns and villages running along the coast...
in 1910. Founded by Arthur Cox in 1839 at Ship Street in the old town, the manufacturing division moved to premises at St Martin's Place in 1871. Cox's speciality was coating pills with a layer of sugar-based material to hide their taste, for which he received a patent in 1854. His sons bought the former laundry building on Lewes Road for £5,500 in 1910 and converted it into a factory, adding a landmark clock to the façade. The building was ready in 1912. Wartime government contracts augmented production for their regular customers, and the business thrived; it only moved away from the Lewes Road site in 1979 because expansion and modernisation were required. No suitable sites could be found locally, and the company relocated to Barnstaple
Barnstaple
Barnstaple is a town and civil parish in the local government district of North Devon in the county of Devon, England, UK. It lies west southwest of Bristol, north of Plymouth and northwest of the county town of Exeter. The old spelling Barnstable is now obsolete.It is the main town of the...
in Devon
Devon
Devon is a large county in southwestern England. The county is sometimes referred to as Devonshire, although the term is rarely used inside the county itself as the county has never been officially "shired", it often indicates a traditional or historical context.The county shares borders with...
. Another factory, which produced golf balls and (latterly) rubber products, occupied one of the semi-detached houses on Richmond Road from the 1920s until the 1980s.
Health
In 1905, Round Hill became a national leader in the field of mental healthcare when the first hospital for the treatment of mental illness was opened in the large house at 101 Roundhill Crescent. It evolved from a dispensaryDispensary
A dispensary is an office in a school, hospital or other organization that dispenses medications and medical supplies. In a traditional dispensary set-up a pharmacist dispenses medication as per prescription or order form....
founded in 1899 by Dr Helen Boyle in the nearby suburb of Hanover
Hanover, Brighton
thumb|right|Hanover Day 2007.Hanover is an area within the city of Brighton and Hove, United Kingdom. It is part of the electoral ward of Hanover & Elm Grove....
. Dr Boyle rented the house at Roundhill Crescent, moved the dispensary there and added a 12-bed hospital for the treatment of what were then termed "nervous disorders". The Lewes Road Hospital for Women and Children was the first such facility in England: until then, people regarded as suffering from such disorders were sent to lunatic asylums
History of psychiatric institutions
The story of the rise of the lunatic asylum and its gradual transformation into, and eventual replacement by, the modern psychiatric hospital, is also the story of the rise of organized, institutional psychiatry...
. The hospital expanded in 1911 and moved to Ditchling Road, and later split into two parts housed in Brighton and the Brunswick Town
Brunswick (Hove)
Brunswick Town is an area in Hove, in the city of Brighton and Hove, England. It is best known for the Regency architecture of the Brunswick estate.-History:...
area of Hove respectively. Inpatient facilities at the institutions ceased only in 1988.
Round Hill was at the centre of a health scare in 1950–51. A smallpox
Smallpox
Smallpox was an infectious disease unique to humans, caused by either of two virus variants, Variola major and Variola minor. The disease is also known by the Latin names Variola or Variola vera, which is a derivative of the Latin varius, meaning "spotted", or varus, meaning "pimple"...
epidemic broke out in Brighton in late December 1950; the family of the first sufferer were regular users of the Tivoli Laundry on Crescent Road, and many employees were infected by the soiled linen. Two died, but rapid work by Brighton Corporation's health department prevented the outbreak spreading beyond Brighton.
Roundhill in the postwar era
The villas erected by the Colbatch family were demolished after the Second World War. The family, which still owned the buildings and the land, drew up plans to replace the four villas and the gatekeepers' cottages with flats. These were intended for private ownership; but council housingCouncil house
A council house, otherwise known as a local authority house, is a form of public or social housing. The term is used primarily in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. Council houses were built and operated by local councils to supply uncrowded, well-built homes on secure tenancies at...
was so scarce in Brighton at the time (1945) that Brighton Borough Council bought the land using a compulsory purchase order
Compulsory purchase order
A compulsory purchase order is a legal function in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland that allows certain bodies which need to obtain land or property to do so without the consent of the owner. It may be enforced if a proposed development is considered one for public betterment - for...
and redeveloped it with council flats based on the family's designs. The new flats, built in the early 1950s, were large and well-built, and the old gardens were retained. At first, no young children were allowed to live there, and only higher earning council tenants could apply.
The closure of Cox's Pill Factory, the Kemp Town branch line and the nearby Vogue cinema in the 1970s and early 1980s prompted large-scale redevelopment. Between 1983 and 1985, a large area around the junction of Lewes and Upper Lewes Roads was cleared in favour of the Vogue Gyratory system and a Sainsbury's supermarket. The Vogue Gyratory, a major road junction connecting Upper Lewes Road, Lewes Road, Bear Road and Hollingdean Road, opened in mid-1984. Sainsbury's was completed and opened on 23 April 1985; its design featured round-arched exterior arcades
Arcade (architecture)
An arcade is a succession of arches, each counterthrusting the next, supported by columns or piers or a covered walk enclosed by a line of such arches on one or both sides. In warmer or wet climates, exterior arcades provide shelter for pedestrians....
which recalled the recently demolished viaduct, and the clock was retrieved from the demolished pill factory and reset on the exterior of the new building. It won Brighton Council's design award in 1985.
Buildings
Many buildings in the Round Hill area have been listed by English HeritageEnglish Heritage
English Heritage . is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport...
. A building or structure is defined as "listed" when it is placed on a statutory register of buildings of "special architectural or historic interest" by the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
Department for Culture, Media and Sport
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport is a department of the United Kingdom government, with responsibility for culture and sport in England, and some aspects of the media throughout the whole UK, such as broadcasting and internet....
, a Government department. Grade I-listed buildings are defined as being of "exceptional interest" and greater than national importance; Grade II*, the next highest status, is used for "particularly important buildings of more than special interest"; and the lowest grade, Grade II, is used for "nationally important buildings of special interest".
Religious buildings
St Martin's Church, Brighton
St Martin's Church is an Anglican church in Brighton, England, dating from the mid-Victorian era. It is located on the Lewes Road in the Round Hill area of the city, northeast of the city centre and approximately north of the seafront...
was built between 1872 and 1875 as a memorial to Wagner's father (and predecessor as Vicar of Brighton) Rev. Henry Michell Wagner, who died in 1870. The church was very large, reflecting the density of housing in Round Hill and its proximity to Preston Barracks, where many soldiers were based. This also influenced its dedication—to Martin of Tours
Martin of Tours
Martin of Tours was a Bishop of Tours whose shrine became a famous stopping-point for pilgrims on the road to Santiago de Compostela. Around his name much legendary material accrued, and he has become one of the most familiar and recognizable Christian saints...
, the patron saint
Patron saint
A patron saint is a saint who is regarded as the intercessor and advocate in heaven of a nation, place, craft, activity, class, clan, family, or person...
of soldiers. Up to 1,500 worshippers could be accommodated in the vast, cathedral-like interior. George Somers Leigh Clarke
George Somers Leigh Clarke
George Somers Clarke was an English architect. He became a RIBA Associate in March 1845 and a Fellow in June 1859. He sat on RIBA Council. In 1868 he had offices at 20 Cockspur Street, London...
's plain, "almost ruthless" exterior, of red and yellow brick in the Early English Gothic Revival style
Gothic Revival architecture
The Gothic Revival is an architectural movement that began in the 1740s in England...
, contrasts with the "breathtaking magnificence" of the interior, whose fixtures and decoration were planned by Clarke and designed to his specifications. It is one of 69 Grade II* listed buildings in Brighton and Hove.
A small chapel, opened by the Railway Mission
Railway Mission
The Railway Mission is a British mission devoted to the rail industry. It was founded in 1881 based in mission halls, and now operates a chaplaincy service. In the early days of the Railway Mission there were a number of mission halls at railway stations throughout the country, including one at...
in 1876 but now with an Evangelical
Evangelicalism
Evangelicalism is a Protestant Christian movement which began in Great Britain in the 1730s and gained popularity in the United States during the series of Great Awakenings of the 18th and 19th century.Its key commitments are:...
congregation, is adjacent to the fire station on Viaduct Road. James Barnes's Gothic Revival building has three lancet window
Lancet window
A lancet window is a tall narrow window with a pointed arch at its top. It acquired the "lancet" name from its resemblance to a lance. Instances of this architectural motif are most often found in Gothic and ecclesiastical structures, where they are often placed singly or in pairs.The motif first...
s on the façade and projecting entrances which resemble porches. There is decorative machicolation
Machicolation
A machicolation is a floor opening between the supporting corbels of a battlement, through which stones, or other objects, could be dropped on attackers at the base of a defensive wall. The design was developed in the Middle Ages when the Norman crusaders returned. A machicolated battlement...
on the parapet
Parapet
A parapet is a wall-like barrier at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony or other structure. Where extending above a roof, it may simply be the portion of an exterior wall that continues above the line of the roof surface, or may be a continuation of a vertical feature beneath the roof such as a...
.
Catherine Booth
Catherine Booth
Catherine Booth was the wife of the founder of The Salvation Army, William Booth. Because of her influence in the formation of The Salvation Army she was known as the 'Army Mother'....
, wife of the founder of The Salvation Army
The Salvation Army
The Salvation Army is a Protestant Christian church known for its thrift stores and charity work. It is an international movement that currently works in over a hundred countries....
William Booth
William Booth
William Booth was a British Methodist preacher who founded The Salvation Army and became its first General...
, opened a large Salvation Army citadel behind Park Crescent in March 1884. Designed and built of red brick and terracotta in 1883 by E.J. Hamilton, it could hold 1,400 people and had castellated towers at the corners. It was extended in 1925, but in 2000 it was demolished and replaced with a smaller octagonal Congress Hall designed by David Greenwood. Its design recalls some of the features of the Park Crescent houses opposite.
St Saviour's Church served the southwestern part of Round Hill until 1981. The flint and brick building, set below the level of Ditchling Road and on its west side, was in the Early English Gothic Revival
Gothic Revival architecture
The Gothic Revival is an architectural movement that began in the 1740s in England...
style and was meant to have a tower; only a stub was ever built. The architects were Edmund Scott and F.T. Cawthorn. An extension was built in 1889, and in 1904 a large reredos
Reredos
thumb|300px|right|An altar and reredos from [[St. Josaphat's Roman Catholic Church|St. Josaphat Catholic Church]] in [[Detroit]], [[Michigan]]. This would be called a [[retable]] in many other languages and countries....
designed by Richard Herbert Carpenter
Richard Carpenter (architect)
Richard Herbert Carpenter was an eminent Victorian architect from England.Richard was born 1841 in St. Pancras, London, Middlesex, England and died in 1893...
and W. Slater was moved to the church from Chichester Cathedral
Chichester Cathedral
The Cathedral Church of the Holy Trinity, otherwise called Chichester Cathedral, is the seat of the Anglican Bishop of Chichester. It is located in Chichester, in Sussex, England...
. Congregations declined, and the church was demolished in 1983; flats called St Saviour's Court and a rear archway in Vere Road recall its existence.
At the north end of the suburb, the Lewes Road Congregational Church was built in 1872. A. Harford's design has been described as Italianate
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...
Gothic
Gothic Revival architecture
The Gothic Revival is an architectural movement that began in the 1740s in England...
. The congregation joined the United Reformed Church
United Reformed Church
The United Reformed Church is a Christian church in the United Kingdom. It has approximately 68,000 members in 1,500 congregations with some 700 ministers.-Origins and history:...
, but the church closed in 1993 and the building was sold for redevelopment. The congregation moved to a new building, and the flats of Stanley Court were built behind the old façade.
The cemetery chapel (Ohel) at the Jewish burial ground is Grade II-listed. Designed in 1893 by Lainson and Son
Thomas Lainson
Thomas Lainson was a British architect. He is best known for his work in the East Sussex coastal towns of Brighton and Hove , where several of his eclectic range of residential, commercial and religious buildings have been awarded listed status by English Heritage...
and built by the Garrett building firm, it is a red-brick octagonal structure in the Queen Anne style
Queen Anne Style architecture
The Queen Anne Style in Britain means either the English Baroque architectural style roughly of the reign of Queen Anne , or a revived form that was popular in the last quarter of the 19th century and the early decades of the 20th century...
, with a tiled turreted roof and corbel
Corbel
In architecture a corbel is a piece of stone jutting out of a wall to carry any superincumbent weight. A piece of timber projecting in the same way was called a "tassel" or a "bragger". The technique of corbelling, where rows of corbels deeply keyed inside a wall support a projecting wall or...
-topped piers
Pier (architecture)
In architecture, a pier is an upright support for a superstructure, such as an arch or bridge. Sections of wall between openings function as piers. The simplest cross section of the pier is square, or rectangular, although other shapes are also common, such as the richly articulated piers of Donato...
at each corner, 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...
ed entrance and arched windows set below recessed panels. The burial ground is surrounded by walls, 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...
-faced gate piers and wrought iron fences which are listed separately at Grade II.
Other buildings
The building now called Brighton ForumBrighton Forum
The Brighton Forum is a complex of serviced offices on a prominent elevated position in the Round Hill area of Brighton, part of the English city of Brighton and Hove...
, at the junction of Ditchling and Viaduct Roads, forms a local landmark. The Grade II-listed knapped flint Gothic Revival
Gothic Revival architecture
The Gothic Revival is an architectural movement that began in the 1740s in England...
structure, designed by William and Edward Habershon, was built in 1854 on open land at the northern boundary of Brighton Borough as the Diocese of Chichester
Diocese of Chichester
The Diocese of Chichester is a Church of England diocese based in Chichester, covering Sussex. It was created in 1075 to replace the old Diocese of Selsey, which was based at Selsey Abbey from 681. The cathedral is Chichester Cathedral and the bishop is the Bishop of Chichester...
's training college for Anglican
Anglicanism
Anglicanism is a tradition within Christianity comprising churches with historical connections to the Church of England or similar beliefs, worship and church structures. The word Anglican originates in ecclesia anglicana, a medieval Latin phrase dating to at least 1246 that means the English...
schoolmistresses. It was extended to the north in 1886, and was used as a training college until the Second World War, when the Royal Engineers
Royal Engineers
The Corps of Royal Engineers, usually just called the Royal Engineers , and commonly known as the Sappers, is one of the corps of the British Army....
requisitioned
Eminent domain
Eminent domain , compulsory purchase , resumption/compulsory acquisition , or expropriation is an action of the state to seize a citizen's private property, expropriate property, or seize a citizen's rights in property with due monetary compensation, but without the owner's consent...
it and used it to store their records and archives. After its closure in 1987, it was briefly threatened with demolition, but in 1988 it was converted into serviced offices under the name Brighton Business Centre (later Brighton Forum).
Standing next to each other at Preston Circus, at the northwest edge of the suburb, are the Duke of York's Picture House and Brighton's main fire station. The cinema opened on 22 September 1910, making it one of the first in the world, and it is still operational as England's oldest working cinema. The Clayton & Black firm's ornate Baroque-style
Baroque architecture
Baroque architecture is a term used to describe the building style of the Baroque era, begun in late sixteenth century Italy, that took the Roman vocabulary of Renaissance architecture and used it in a new rhetorical and theatrical fashion, often to express the triumph of the Catholic Church and...
building, with a three-bay façade defined by paired 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 with rustication
Rustication (architecture)
thumb|upright|Two different styles of rustication in the [[Palazzo Medici-Riccardi]] in [[Florence]].In classical architecture rustication is an architectural feature that contrasts in texture with the smoothly finished, squared block masonry surfaces called ashlar...
, cost £3,000. The fire station, designed in a "restrained Modernist
Modernism
Modernism, in its broadest definition, is modern thought, character, or practice. More specifically, the term describes the modernist movement, its set of cultural tendencies and array of associated cultural movements, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western society...
" style by Graeme Highet in 1938, curves round the road and features carved motifs by Joseph Cribb
Joseph Cribb
Joseph Cribb was born in Hammersmith, London, in 1892, and became Eric Gill's assistant at the age of 14. The following year he started an official five year apprenticeship with Gill. He became a well-known sculptor in his own right, after Gill left Ditchling for Wales in 1924...
. Its materials are brown brick and Portland stone
Portland stone
Portland stone is a limestone from the Tithonian stage of the Jurassic period quarried on the Isle of Portland, Dorset. The quarries consist of beds of white-grey limestone separated by chert beds. It has been used extensively as a building stone throughout the British Isles, notably in major...
.
The former Tower Mill stood at the top of Round Hill between 1838 and 1913. Built of about 50,000 bricks, and with walls with a maximum thickness of 2 foot (0.6096 m), it rose to 60 feet (18.3 m) and was topped with a copper
Copper
Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29. It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. Pure copper is soft and malleable; an exposed surface has a reddish-orange tarnish...
dome. The four sails were about 32 feet (9.8 m) long and were attached to a walnut wood rotating roof.
Transport
The East Coastway LineEast Coastway Line
East Coastway is the name used by the train operating company, Southern , for the routes it operates along the south coast of Sussex and Kent to the east of Brighton, England. Those to the West of Brighton are named the West Coastway Line...
, a railway line currently operated by Southern
Southern (train operating company)
Southern is a train operating company in the United Kingdom. Officially named Southern Railway Ltd., it is a subsidiary of Govia, a joint venture between transport groups Go-Ahead Group and Keolis, and has operated the South Central rail franchise since October 2000 and the Gatwick Express service...
, forms Round Hill's northern boundary. London Road station
London Road (Brighton) railway station
London Road Railway Station is in Brighton, East Sussex, England. Train services from the station are provided by Southern, and the station is on the East Coastway Line.- History :...
, situated in a cutting between London Road and Ditchling Road, serves the area. Situated 3/4 mi from Brighton 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 opened on 1 October 1877 and retains its substantial ticket office building. The 400 yards (365.8 m), 27-arch London Road viaduct (built in 1846) rises to 67 feet (20.4 m) above the London Road valley immediately west of the station, separating the Round Hill suburb from neighbouring Preston
Preston Village, Brighton
Preston Village is a suburban area of Brighton and Hove, East Sussex to the north of the centre. Originally a village in its own right, it was eventually absorbed into Brighton with the development of the farmland owned by the local Stanford family, officially becoming a parish of the town in 1928...
. A 63 yards (57.6 m) tunnel then takes the line under Ditchling Road.
Immediately beyond the tunnel was Kemp Town Junction, where the Kemp Town branch line diverged. The first station to serve Round Hill was on this route, which "cut through the area and created a new artery" upon its opening on 2 August 1869. A three-platform station called Lewes Road opened on 1 September 1873 at the north end of D'Aubigny Road. The line was expensive to build and maintain: it crossed Lewes Road on a 52 feet (15.8 m)-high, 180 yards (164.6 m)-long viaduct, and beyond Round Hill there was another short viaduct and a long tunnel. Passenger services at Lewes Road station ceased on 31 December 1932, but coal trains continued to use its six-siding goods yard. The line closed completely on 14 June 1971, and the Lewes Road viaduct was demolished in part in 1976 and completely in 1983.
The main reason for the Kemp Town branch line's decline was the increasing popularity of buses. The three main roads running through Round Hill—London Road, Ditchling Road and Lewes Road—are used by many regular routes, mainly operated by the Brighton & Hove Bus and Coach Company. Routes 26, 46 and 50, which serve Hollingbury
Hollingbury
Hollingbury is an area of the city of Brighton and Hove, East Sussex. The area sits high on a hillside across the north of the city above Patcham which lies in a valley to the west, Coldean in a valley to the east, and the A27 bypass forming the northern limit...
and Hollingdean
Hollingdean
Hollingdean is a part of the city of Brighton & Hove.Hollingdean is in effect the older part of Hollingbury south of the park. It is bounded by Ditchling Road to the west, the Round Hill area to the south, and Lewes Road and Moulsecoomb to the east...
northbound and Brighton city centre, Hove
Hove
Hove is a town on the south coast of England, immediately to the west of its larger neighbour Brighton, with which it forms the unitary authority Brighton and Hove. It forms a single conurbation together with Brighton and some smaller towns and villages running along the coast...
and Southwick
Southwick, West Sussex
Southwick is a small town and civil parish in the Adur District of West Sussex, England located three miles west of Brighton and a suburb of the East Sussex resort City of Brighton & Hove...
southbound, run via Ditchling Road. Routes along London Road include the 5 (Patcham
Patcham
Patcham is an area of the city of Brighton and Hove. It is approximately north of the city centre, bounded by the A27 to the north, Hollingbury to the east and southeast, Withdean to the south and the Brighton Main Line to the west...
to Hangleton
Hangleton
Hangleton is an estate in west Hove, East Sussex. The estate was developed circa the late 1930s after the Dyke railway was closed.It contains both the oldest building in the city of Brighton and Hove, St Helen's Church, and the second oldest building: that which was Hangleton Manor and is now the...
) and 56 (Patcham to the Knoll Estate in Hove). Along Lewes Road, regular routes include 23, 24, 25, 28, 29, 38, 49 and 81 and their variants, serving places such as Sussex
University of Sussex
The University of Sussex is an English public research university situated next to the East Sussex village of Falmer, within the city of Brighton and Hove. The University received its Royal Charter in August 1961....
and Brighton
University of Brighton
The University of Brighton is an English university of the United Kingdom, with a community of over 23,000 students and 2,600 staff based on campuses in Brighton, Eastbourne and Hastings. It has one of the best teaching quality ratings in the UK and a strong research record, factors which...
Universities, Lewes
Lewes
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...
, Uckfield
Uckfield
-Development:The local Tesco has proposed the redevelopment of the central town area as has the town council. The Hub has recently been completed, having been acquired for an unknown figure, presumed to be about half a million pounds...
, Tunbridge Wells
Royal Tunbridge Wells
Royal Tunbridge Wells is a town in west Kent, England, about south-east of central London by road, by rail. The town is close to the border of the county of East Sussex...
, Moulsecoomb
Moulsecoomb
Moulsecoomb is a large suburb of Brighton, part of the city of Brighton and Hove. It is located on the northeastern side of Brighton, around the A270 Lewes Road, between the areas of Coldean and Bevendean and approximately 2¼ miles north of the seafront. The eastern edges of the built-up area...
, Bevendean
Bevendean
Bevendean is a district of the city of Brighton and Hove, in East Sussex, England.The estate lies to the north-east of central Brighton, and was largely developed after World War II with a mixture of council housing and private development. A large proportion of the council houses are now privately...
and Queen's Park
Queen's Park, Brighton
Queen's Park is an administrative ward and a public park in Brighton, England.The area lies to the east of the centre of Brighton, north of Kemptown and south-east of Hanover. It is largely made up of Victorian terraced houses, with a smaller number of detached and semi-detached houses...
. Several other routes use Union Road, the southern boundary of the Round Hill area.
Some bus services are based on old tram routes operated by Brighton Corporation Tramways between 1901 and 1939, and their trolleybus
Trolleybus
A trolleybus is an electric bus that draws its electricity from overhead wires using spring-loaded trolley poles. Two wires and poles are required to complete the electrical circuit...
successors. The Corporation ran eight tram routes, mostly from Brighton Aquarium, to various parts of Brighton. Routes B and D (a pair of circular services between the Aquarium and Beaconsfield Villas/Ditchling Road) used Ditchling and London Roads, and route L (Aquarium to Moulsecoomb) travelled along Lewes Road. Some routes also used tracks on Viaduct Road. The system's only fatal accident occurred in 1935 in Round Hill when a tram skidded outside the Diocesan Training College and hit a cyclist.
The three main roads—and Upper Lewes Road, which runs between the Ditchling and Lewes Roads—experience heavy traffic, but little through traffic uses the smaller residential streets such as Roundhill Crescent. Traffic calming
Traffic calming
Traffic calming is intended to slow or reduce motor-vehicle traffic in order to improve the living conditions for residents as well as to improve safety for pedestrians and cyclists. Urban planners and traffic engineers have many strategies for traffic calming...
measures installed in 2003 have acted as a deterrent. There are high levels of on-street car parking, though. Union Road and the Vogue Gyratory are also high-traffic routes. The Gyratory, "a fiendish maze of one-way systems, roundabouts and crossings", is the point at which Upper Lewes Road and Lewes Road meet two other routes. Named after the Vogue—latterly a pornographic cinema—it was built in 1983–84 on the site of the former Lewes Road viaduct, Cox's Pill Factory and surrounding buildings in connection with a Sainsbury's supermarket development. Demolition of the entire complex of roads was already being advocated in 2007.
Conservation area
On 6 January 1977, 29.78 acres (12.1 ha) at the heart of Round Hill was designated as a conservation areaConservation Area (United Kingdom)
In the United Kingdom, the term Conservation Area nearly always applies to an area considered worthy of preservation or enhancement because of its special architectural or historic interest, "the character or appearance of which it is desirable to preserve or enhance," as required by the Planning ...
; as of it is one of 34 such areas in the city of Brighton and Hove. Its boundaries are (clockwise from north) Prince's Road, Mayo Road, D'Aubigny Road, Roundhill Crescent, Upper Lewes Road, Wakefield Road, Prince's Crescent and Ditchling Road. This area includes all the Grade II-listed houses of Roundhill Crescent (described by Brighton and Hove City Council as "the most important architecturally"), two pubs (including the Tudor Revival-style New Vic, built in the 1920s and representing a late addition to the mostly late 19th-century streetscape), and four paired semi-detached villas on Ditchling Road which were some of the earliest houses in the area—they date from about 1850.
The area's character derives from its "tight urban form" and lack of 20th-century redevelopment, resulting in a homogeneous streetscape of mostly residential buildings in long terraces; its steeply sloping land; and the swathes of trees and gardens which can be seen in long views into the area, which help to "define the unaltered Victorian
Victorian era
The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...
streetplan" when seen from a distance. Roundhill Crescent "both curves and changes height dramatically along its length". The houses, which on the northwest side of the road are not a continuous terrace and which date from the 1860s to the 1880s, vary in height and the extent of their architectural detailing; canted
Cant (architecture)
Cant is the architectural term describing part, or segment, of a facade which is at an angle to another part of the same facade. The angle breaking the facade is less than a right angle thus enabling a canted facade to be viewed as, and remain, one composition.Canted facades are a typical of, but...
bay window
Bay window
A bay window is a window space projecting outward from the main walls of a building and forming a bay in a room, either square or polygonal in plan. The angles most commonly used on the inside corners of the bay are 90, 135 and 150 degrees. Bay windows are often associated with Victorian architecture...
s and original cast-iron balconies feature prominently. Some pairs of semi-detached villas of the 1860s survive on Richmond Road. Prince's Road, where the 223 feet (68 m) summit of Round Hill is located, has a long, well-defined frontage of rendered terraced houses dating from the 1880s, with an older flint and brick house with decorative bargeboard
Bargeboard
Bargeboard is a board fastened to the projecting gables of a roof to give them strength and to mask, hide and protect the otherwise exposed end of the horizontal timbers or purlins of the roof to which they were attached...
s and gable
Gable
A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of a sloping roof. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system being used and aesthetic concerns. Thus the type of roof enclosing the volume dictates the shape of the gable...
s breaking up the composition.
Building materials vary greatly. Brick was rarely used at the time Round Hill was developing (although a few houses in Belton Road were built of it); bungaroosh
Bungaroosh
Bungaroosh is a composite building material used almost exclusively in the English seaside resort of Brighton between the mid-18th and mid-19th centuries, when it grew from a fishing village into a large town...
was often used for walls instead. Characteristic of Brighton but almost unknown elsewhere, this consisted of random assortments of materials such as low-quality brick, cobbles, flints, pebbles, rubble, wood and sand, set in hydraulic lime
Hydraulic lime
Hydraulic lime is a variety of lime, a slaked lime used to make lime mortar. Hydraulicity is the ability of lime to set under water. Hydraulic lime is produced by heating calcining limestone that contains clay and other impurities. Calcium reacts in the kiln with the clay minerals to produce...
and shuttered
Formwork
Formwork is the term given to either temporary or permanent molds into which concrete or similar materials are poured. In the context of concrete construction, the falsework supports the shuttering moulds.-Formwork and concrete form types:...
. Bungaroosh was often faced with render or stucco to make it weatherproof. Some flint buildings survive on Prince's Crescent. When built, most windows in the conservation area's houses were sashes
Sash window
A sash window or hung sash window is made of one or more movable panels or "sashes" that form a frame to hold panes of glass, which are often separated from other panes by narrow muntins...
, and roofs were of Welsh slate
Slate
Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. The result is a foliated rock in which the foliation may not correspond to the original sedimentary layering...
.
The area retains many original boundary walls, often in brick and flint or cast iron. Some pavements were laid with blue-brick paving slabs
Paver (flooring)
An interlocking concrete paver is a pre-cast piece of concrete or brick commonly used in exterior hardscaping applications. Pavers were developed in Europe and introduced into the United States in the early 1970s....
, and a few survive. Elsewhere, granite
Granite
Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...
kerbstones, stone-dressed gutters and road crossing points laid with limestone and brick remain from the 19th-century development of the area, and some cast-iron lamp-posts have survived.
Gallery
See also
- Cemeteries and crematoria in Brighton and HoveCemeteries and crematoria in Brighton and HoveThe English coastal city of Brighton and Hove, made up of the formerly separate Boroughs of Brighton and Hove in East Sussex, has a wide range of cemeteries throughout its urban area...
- List of conservation areas in Brighton and Hove
- List of demolished places of worship in Brighton and Hove
- List of places of worship in Brighton and Hove