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101a Gloucester Road

History of a flint building

Text from the 1994 My Brighton museum exhibit

This building was probably constructed between 1810 and 1850. Like many other Brighton buildings, it's faced with flint cobbles from the beach. The bricks are also local, and may have originated near Norfolk Square.

There's no record of the builder and architect. The house was probably first inhabited by a skilled artisan, working in one of the industries in the North Laine.

Flint was a common, cheap building material. The flint walls were coated with tar for protection against the sea salt since the cobbles are held together by a lime based mortar that was prone to corrosion.

This page was added on 22/03/2006.

Comments:

I am the current tenant of this building. The shop is numbered 101 Gloucester Rd,and has traded as Retail Therapy since May 2002. The flat above it is now known as 101a Gloucester Rd (or even 101 Tidy St. by some!). The building is not obviously of flint construction; no evidence of it remains, even in the unplastered cellar and attic. If it has been rendered over, that was done prior to the 1950's when it was Jen's hairdressers, and exterior photos show it rendered as it remains today. The flat surface on the upper parts of the building is now brightly painted with flames and bubbles, partly to enliven the corner, but mainly to overcome the modern day traffic problems of illegal parking and congestion that we have to cope with almost daily. How else do you make yourself visible when you are trying to sell to the public, but 'boxed in' by high-sided vans? How else do you persuade pedestrians to walk a different route through the North Laine?

By Joni Donoghue (06/12/2004)