London Road, Patcham

Villas and lodges

Reproduced with permission from the Encyclopaedia of Brighton by Tim Carder, 1990

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) OTHER VILLAS: From the 1850s onwards, about seventeen large, detached residences were built between Preston and Withdean Farm on both sides of the road, again encouraged by the removal of the tollgate to the north of Tongdean Lane in May 1854. Since the 1930s most have been replaced by flats and smaller houses, and only three now remain, including the Edwardian Tower House mentioned above.
On the eastern side of the road, at the bottom of VarndeanGardens, stands Withdean Hall, a two-storey building of 1861 which was once used as a girls' school but has now been remodelled as flats; there are two lodges at the rear. The other remaining villa, from the 1860s, is Grove Lodge, now St Bernadette's Primary School, which has a lodge opposite Clermont Road; the school opened when the adjacent Lourdes Convent (founded 1903) was demolished in 1972 and replaced by the Kingsmere flats. The lodges of Springfield or Hartford Villa (at Cliveden Court), Hatch Beauchamp or Withdean House (at Withdean Court), Laine House (at Varndean Park), and Miramichi (now Cedars Lodge) also remain. The octagonal Round House was the lodge to Withdean Lodge, the coach house of which remains in Varndean Road. {109,254}

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.