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© Mr Derek Grieve LRPS

IoE Number: 482119
Location: ROYAL CRESCENT HOTEL AND ATTACHED WALLS AND RAILINGS, MARINE PARADE (north side)
  BRIGHTON, BRIGHTON AND HOVE, EAST SUSSEX
Photographer: Mr Derek Grieve LRPS
Date Photographed: 07 October 2004
Date listed: 20 August 1971
Date of last amendment: 20 August 1971
Grade II

BRIGHTON TQ3203NW MARINE PARADE 577-1/48/457 (North side) 20/08/71 Royal Crescent Hotel and attached walls and railings II The first 2 storeys built as a private house in the early C19; between 1848 and 1857 converted into a hotel; current appearance dates to the late C19. Stucco. Roof obscured by parapet. 5 storeys over basement. 3-window range on main elevation; left return has 9-window range and right 11-window range. Main elevation treated as 3 full-height bays, the centre segmental, the sides canted, all with tripartite windows. Ground floor has banded rustication taking the form of voussoirs and keystones in the window lintels; corner quoins rise full height. The ground-floor bay windows are flat arched with overlights filled with decorative wood pelmets; flat-arched windows to all floors but the first. Entablature blocks articulate each pier of the bay as a pilaster, the shaft of which is panelled. A 3-storey porch rises from the first to the third floors; cast-iron brackets to the first floor with heavy, square ones to the second and third; the railings and colonnettes are cast-iron; the third floor has a verandah roof of metal which is concave in section. Each first-floor bay window is arranged as a Venetian window, with round-arched centre and flat-arched sides; continuous architrave around each is interrupted by an entablature running across the window head. At the top is a broad entablature and high parapet; the parapet bears an escutcheon framed by rustication and topped by a Dutch. The parapet over each side bay is surmounted by stilted pediment. Raised panels decorate the parapet between the crestings of the bays, as well as balustrade. At the ground there are 2 low walls; area enclosed by cast-iron railings. The flat-arched entry is in the right return set within a prostyle porch consisting of 4 Tuscan columns; there is a marquee above bearing the words "Royal Crescent Hotel". The ground-floor windows are round arched with continuous architraves; first-floor windows are flat arched, except for the one over the entrance which is Venetian; all have continuous architraves; second-floor windows are flat arched with eared architraves, projecting sills supported by pairs of brackets; continuous sill band to third-floor windows; third- and 4th-floor windows have continuous architraves. The area between the third- and 4th-floor windows in the first, third and 5th bays of the right return is enclosed by pilaster strips, each area decorated with a garland. The windows in the second bay from the first to 4th floors are blocked. There is a break between the 5th and 6th bay of this elevation, the rear 6 bays are slightly lower than the front, the ground-floor windows round arched, the rest flat; ground- to second-floor windows have continuous architraves. 2 full-height bays to rear block, the first has segmental with Doric porch in antis, the second canted. The same arrangement of windows and architraves is found on the left return; the rear block here is very plain and has scattered fenestration. Cast-iron railings to areas and cast-iron window guards to first floor windows on the returns. Near the entrance on the right return is a white plaque bearing the following legend: " In a house now part of this building lived George Canning, Statesman, born 1770, died 1827".