Middle Street

Earliest development of the Old Town

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.

p) MIDDLE STREET : Middle Street was the earliest street to be developed in the middle of the Old Town , on the area between East Street and West Street known as the Hempshares; it was built up by the sixteenth century {2}.
A number of interesting listed buildings remain in Middle Street . On the western side, no.19 has a pedimented doorway but unfortunately one bow has been removed; the passageway on the southern side once led to the ten Hayllar's Cottages, the subject of a 1937 slum clearance. The adjacent no.20, a bow-fronted, yellow-brick house with a fluted Doric porch, dates from the early nineteenth century and was the home of William Friese-Greene (1855-1921), pioneer and patentee of many cinematographic devices. He carried out many of his initial experiments there, and erected one of the first film 'studios' in the garden. He died in poverty, but has a monument by Lutyens in HighgateCemetery and was the subject of a 1951 film tribute, The Magic Box.
On the eastern side, no.60 is an attractive town house probably of the eighteenth century; it was rendered with stucco in the nineteenth century, but its original knapped flint facade was restored in 1989. No.69 is a new, brick building but retains the original Doric doorway of a plain but listed eighteenth-century house, an example of nominal conservation. Nos.74-76 are four-storey, early-nineteenth-century buildings with bows and glazing bars. {44,296,311}
Brighton Synagogue, no.66, was built in 1874-5 by Thomas Lainson in Byzantine style. It was consecrated on 23 September 1875, and further improvements and enrichments were made until 1914, largely through the munificence of the Sassoon family. It was also the first synagogue to be lit by electric light. The yellow-brick building has a very large pediment with Composite pilasters, and Corinthian columns on the doors and windows. However, it is listed because of its sumptuous interior which has galleries on three sides supported by red marble columns bearing capitals of fruits mentioned in the Bible. The windows are decorated with late-nineteenth-century stained glass, and there are also splendid iron and glass railings. {44,66}
Also listed is the former Hippodrome , which opened in 1897 as the Brighton Ice-Rink but was enlarged and converted into a circus and theatre by Frank Matcham in 1901 and renamed. The Hippodrome became the town's principal variety theatre, playing host to many stars, and was enlarged again in 1939 by taking in two houses to the north. In October 1964, concerts by the Rolling Stones and the Beatles both attracted capacity audiences of 4,000, but the theatre closed the following year and after a brief period as a television film studio became the Mecca Bingo Club in 1967. The building has arched doorways, pediments and decorations above the side doors, but the exterior is otherwise rather plain, in contrast to the highly-decorated horseshoe-shaped interior. {5,44,123}
At the corner of South Street stands the former Sea House public house, originally known as the Ship-in-Distress. Until the construction of King's Road in 1822 the Sea House stood at the cliff edge, but it was rebuilt and renamed in that year. The large public room was used by the magistrates and town commissioners for several years. In September 1830 William IV visited Nelson's widow Viscountess Bronte there, and the inn became the Royal Sea House. When it was rebuilt in the 1870s, the inn business was restricted to the corner of South Street only, the southern part being converted to a toy and fancy goods repository. {15}
Other interesting buildings in Middle Street include no.25, Vesuvio's Restaurant, the home of the Brighthelmston Dispensary from 1819 until 1849, and of the Y.M.C.A. from 1854 until about 1872. Annie's Restaurant, a cobble-fronted house at the end of a passageway opposite no.43; nos.43-45, an attractive pair with glazing bars and a bow window, probably dating from the eighteenth century; nos.46-47, three-storey red-brick houses with classical doorways, date from a little later.
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.