Buildings of interest: Part II

Please note that this text is an extract from a reference work written in 1990.  As a result, some of the content may not reflect recent research, changes and events.

Beyond the Metropole, the bow-fronted 125-126 and 128 King’s Road are listed buildings of the 1820s by Wilds and Busby; no.127 has been completely ruined. The Royal Sussex Regiment’s War Memorial stands alongside King’s Road at Regency Square, a Portland stone cenotaph erected to the 152 men of the regiment who perished in the South African or Boer War of 1900-2. It was unveiled on 29 October 1904 by the Marquess of Abergavenny, and is surmounted by a bronze bugler and four artillery shells. Now a listed structure, it also commemorates the men lost at Louisberg and Quebec in 1759, in Egypt in the 1880s, and in the two World Wars. {44,311}

No.131 King’s Road is a grade II*-listed building which, with 1 Regency Square, was once the home of the Duke and Duchess of St Alban’s (see “Regency Square“). The seventy-bedroom King’s Hotel is decorated with giant fluted Corinthian pillars and pilasters, and was erected as part of a proposed Oriental Terrace in the 1820s; the buildings were converted into a hotel in about 1864 by T.H.King, but were badly damaged by fire in 1967. Further west still, nos.146-148 are also listed buildings, with fluted Ionic pilasters and columns supporting delicate ironwork balconies and verandahs; they were originally nos.1-3 Bedford Square and date from around 1810. {44}

The King’s Road Bandstand stands on the Lower Esplanade opposite, but is raised to the level of King’s Road. Nicknamed the ‘birdcage’ bandstand, it is a light ironwork, listed building which was erected in 1884 with a public convenience in the base. Topped by an oriental dome, the roof is supported by eight delicate ironwork pillars, and there were originally shutters to shelter the performers from the breeze. In 1986 it was brought into use again. {24,44,123}

The boundary with Hove is reached at the Peace Memorial, which bears a portrait of Edward VII (q.v.), the arms of the two boroughs, and the following inscription: ‘In the year 1912 the inhabitants of Brighton and Hove provided a home for the Queen’s Nurses, and erected this monument in memory of Edward VII and as a testimony of their enduring loyalty’. Standing thirty feet tall, the listed memorial is surmounted by an angel of peace bearing an orb and olive branch, standing on a sphere supported by four dolphins. Designed by Newbury Trent in a competition, it was unveiled by the Duke of Norfolk on 12 October 1912, the same day as the nurses’ home was opened at 12-14 Wellington Road. {44,311}

Any numerical cross-references in the text above refer to resources in the Sources and Bibliography section of the Encyclopaedia of Brighton by Tim Carder.

Comments about this page

  • My Dad did the electrical work here for a number of years, he also had the job of rewiring after the fire.

    By John Cording (28/05/2011)
  • Interested in the different restaurants using basement of #128. Curious about usage and ownership in mid to late 1970s?

    By Neil Anderson (29/08/2023)

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