High rise flats

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.

c) FLATS: There are now several large blocks of flats in King’s Road, most of which have been erected on the sites of large villas. The most distinctive is Embassy Court, an eleven-storey block of 104 flats at the very western end of the borough. Erected in 1934-5 to the design of Wells Coates on the site of the former Brunswick Baths, Embassy Court was the first modern high-rise block in the town and was an especially controversial development as it stands adjacent to Hove’s Brunswick Terrace. However, it does possess some architectural merit of its own and is a fine example of the architect’s work. The 110-foot tall building has distinctive, continuous horizontal balconies of concrete which taper towards the top, and in 1984 it was listed as being of special architectural interest. {44,45}

Kingsley Court was erected in 1985-7 on the site of the neo-Georgian Abinger Hotel,which itself opened in May 1956 on the site of the mid-nineteenth-century Abinger House; the latter was the last private mansion on the sea-front and was demolished in 1948 {45,83,311}. Cavendish House, a fourteen-storey block in black brick, justifiably provoked intense criticism because of its colour when it was erected in 1966-7 on the site of the Union Club, a large bow-fronted house of 1865 {83,123}. Astra House is a ten-storey block of sixty-two flats and shops in yellow brick, erected in 1938 on the site of the New Club, a tall Palladian-style building of 1876. Abbotts, a plain eight-storey block, was built in 1961-2 at the corner of Regency Square on the site of the mid- Victorian Abbott’s Hotel. {45,83}

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

  • I was speaking to Sean the caretaker of Kingsley Court the other day, telling him about my memories of the Abinger, which in my heyday 1970s Brighton was a pub/steak restaurant with bars on the raised ground floor with brick divided nooks and crannies to drink and chat in, carpeted throughout, jukebox, and a vibrant foreign student clientele. It had I remember a discotheque below ground level and a steak house restaurant upstairs which was reached by a carpeted sweeping stairway. A lot of good memories.  

    By David Sanders (28/10/2009)
  • I was Chef at the Abinger, it had a restaurant on the ground floor and on the top floor, with a small bar in between as one went up the stairs, gazing at the huge pots which formed a waterfall suspended from the roof. As one entered the pub there was a bar on the right and the restaurant on the left. at the back there was a conference/function room. There was also a cocktail bar on the top floor for those awaiting a table – which was almost every evening.

    Favourites were T bone steak, Dover sole upstairs, and Rump and Scampi, downstairs. Plus of course many other dishes.

    I think that for families the favourite table was the Thruppenny bit, a multiple sided enclosed table upstairs.

    I have fond memories of the place as it is where I met my wife, now of 46 years.

    By Philip (19/08/2016)

Add a comment about this page

Your email address will not be published.