Marine Parade's Flat

Marine Parade's Flat - Brighton - East Sussex - England

From Wikipedia

Grade II listed building in Brighton:

As of February 2001, there were 1,124 listed buildings with Grade II status in the English city of Brighton and Hove. The total at 2009 was similar. The city, on the English Channel coast approximately 52 miles (84 km) south of London, was formed as a unitary authority in 1997 by the merger of the neighbouring towns of Brighton and Hove. Queen Elizabeth II granted city status in 2000.

In England, a building or structure is defined as "listed" when it is
placed on a statutory register of buildings of "special architectural
or historic interest" by the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, a Government department, in accordance with the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990. English Heritage, a non-departmental public body, acts as an agency of this department to administer the process and advise the department on relevant issues.
There are three grades of listing status. The Grade II designation is
the lowest, and is used for "nationally important buildings of special
interest". Grade II* is used for "particularly important buildings of more than special interest"; there are 69 such buildings in the city. There are also 24 Grade I listed buildings (defined as being of "exceptional interest" and greater than national importance, and the highest of the three grades) in Brighton and Hove.

This list summarises 129 Grade II-listed buildings and structures whose names begin with E, F, G or H.
Numbered buildings with no individual name are listed by the name of
the street they stand on. Some listings include contributory fixtures
such as surrounding walls or railings in front of the building. These
are summarised by notes alongside the building name.

Terraced houses, Early C19, top-lit picture galleries to no.53 added
between 1865 2 by Captain Henry Hill, a military tailor, when the
interiors were partly redecorated. Stuccoed with roofs obscured by
parapets.

EXTERIOR: 3 storeys and attic over basement. No 53 has 3 window range.
The ground floor and basement has banded and chamfered
rustication, and there is a single first floor balcony running across
the elevation. The latter has lost its railings but retains its
cast iron brackets. The elevation of No. 53 is treated as a
full-height and full-width segmental bay, with all windows flat-arched.
The second floor windows have architraves and cornices; the attic
windows have architraves alone. The round-arched entrance is set within a
prostyle porch which consists of Doric columns supporting an
entablature and blocking course. The stacks are to the party walls. Rear
elevations retain some sashes with glazing bars intact and no 53 has
mid C19 5-light square bay, a window wityh marginal glazing with Greek
key design and series of flat roofs to galleries with oval dome of glass
and probably cast iron.

INTERIOR: remains of C19 cornices,
ornamental doorcases and other decorative details to be found; these
damaged, first, by the block's conversion into a nursing home in the mid
to late C20, and, second and more recently, by squatters who, when the
group was vacant removed and destroyed many features, including
cast-iron stair rails. To the rear, the ground floors have been extended
in a series of top-lit picture galleries dating from 1865. One room has
a cornice with lilies, two round-headed niches, dado panelling, pair of
doors to another gallery and windows with stained glass to marginal
glazing, another has lily cornice, dado panelling and double doors and
the largest has double doors, coved ceiling, a large oval lantern
originally glazed, wooden dado panelling and two original radiators.
Further hanging space was utilised by the corridor and staircase ; the
grandest has a coved ceiling with a high light register. Cast iron
railings to stairs and areas. Nos 52 and 53 form a group with nos 50 and
51, and nos 54 and 55 Marine Parade (qv).

HISTORY: By the end of his
life, Captain Hill had amassed 400 canvasses, mainly French and English
contemporary paintings. At one stage he was thought to have the largest
collection of Degas in the world and he had a fine collection of
paintings by Frank Holl.

Captain Henry Hill, a collector of paintings who specialised in those
of Degas, owned number 53 in the late 19th century and altered it to
include indoor galleries with Greek
elements. This house is also fully bow-fronted, unlike number 52 which
is flat apart from single canted bay windows at ground- and first-floor
level. Above those are three straight-arched windows at second- and
third-floor level. At number 53, the windows are again flat-headed but
some are set in architraves.
Both houses have thin cast iron balconies; number 52's is topped by a
canopy. Squatters caused severe internal damage in the late 20th
century.

Survey and Renovation