Park Crescent

Designed by Brighton architect Amon Henry Wilds

by John Blackwell, St. Peter's Area Editor

The houses in Park Crescent were designed by the eminent Brighton architect Amon Henry Wilds and erected over a period of several years from 1849. They form a chain of linked villas around a private garden which was formerly the site of the Royal Garden's cricket ground.

The Royal Gardens were laid out in 1822 on the northern part of the Level. James Ireland had purchased the Level from Thomas Read Kemp, the founder of Kemp Town. The gardens included not only the cricket ground but also assembly rooms with reading, refreshment and dressing rooms on the ground floor and an elegant promenade above. There were also pleasure gardens, an aviary, a maze, a grotto and a small lake. The grounds extended back to where St Martin's church in Lewes Road now stands.

Despite the attractions and special events, the Gardens were not a financial success and fell into decay. The flint wall, now a listed structure, on the northern side of Union Road was the southern boundary and is all that now remains of the gardens.