page_title: Carlton Hill, Brighton
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Carlton Hill, Brighton / History
caption_attribution_description: 34 and 35 Mighell Street, Carlton Hill, City of Brighton and Hove, England. An early 19th-century farmhouse which is now in residential use. It survived the wholesale redevelopment of the Carlton Hill area between the 1930s and the 1960s. Listed at Grade II by English Heritage (IoE Code 482161)
context_page_description: Carlton Hill is an inner-city area of Brighton, part of the English city and seaside resort of Brighton and Hove. First developed in the early and mid-19th century on steeply sloping farmland east of central Brighton, it grew rapidly as the town became a fashionable, high-class destination. Carlton Hill's population was always poor, though, and by the early 20th century the area was Brighton's worst slum: overcrowding, crime and disease were rife. Extensive slum clearance in the mid-20th century introduced high-density tower blocks, but some old buildings remain: in 2008, Brighton and Hove City Council designated part of Carlton Hill as the city's 34th conservation area. The area now has housing of various styles and ages, large offices and small-scale industry; there are also churches, a school and some open space.
  Carlton Hill's pattern of development was defined by the long-established structure of land ownership around Brighton, whereby land was divided into long, narrow strips with many different owners.
context_section_description: Brighton's origins lie in the Saxon fishing and agricultural village of Bristelmestune. The English Channel formed its southern limit, but on all other sides was farmland divided into open fields called laines. These were further subdivided into furlongs—wide parallel strips—and paul-pieces, which were much narrower strips. Despite their small size, neighbouring paul-pieces often had different owners. Wide paths (leakways) ran at right-angles to the furlongs, separating them. This ancient land-use pattern, which survived until the 18th century despite its unsuitability for contemporary farming methods, significantly influenced the pattern of urban development in 18th- and 19th-century Brighton.
  Hilly Laine was one of Brighton's five laines. It was northeast of the Steine (later called Old Steine), the centre of fashionable society in the 18th century, and rose steeply eastwards from an area of sheltered flatter land close to the Steine. Some fields were used for small-scale activities such as limeburning and market gardening, but most were farmed by individuals. The laine had several furlongs; the second of these, which now forms the heart of the conservation area, was separated from its neighbours by leakways which became Carlton Hill (the road) and Sussex Street. Much of the land in this area was owned by Dr Benjamin Scutt, whose landholdings extended into the neighbouring village of Hove (the Brunswick estate was built on land he sold in the 1820s). Starting around 1800, the land was gradually sold to developers; Edward Street was laid out in 1804 and quickly experienced a "mini building boom" with inns, stables and small workshops. John Street, on the first (westernmost) furlong of Hilly Laine, was built up by 1810: its developer, John Hall, laid out plots for 11 by 15 feet (3.4 m × 4.6 m) houses and started building and selling them in 1805. Carlton Street, by another developer, followed by 1807. Meanwhile, development continued slowly on the second furlong: four paul-pieces were occupied with buildings by 1819.
  Scutt's land sales helped him fund the development of Carlton Place, an architectural set-piece consisting of a 20-house terrace surrounding a riding school, the Royal Circus; the development took place between 1806 and 1808. Named after Carlton House, the Prince Regent's London home, the development was on a larger scale than the rest of Carlton Hill's houses: each plot measured 17 by 60 feet (5.2 m × 18.3 m). Each cost about £410 (£33,000 in 2020) to build, and proved to be profitable: one sold for £700 (£57,000 in 2020) in 1806 to a local vicar, who later bought two more to rent out. A survey of the town's housing by the Brighton Town Commissioners in 1814 valued Carlton Place within the top 25% of all houses in Brighton. Scutt laid out three more streets nearby at the same time: Carlton Mews, Carlton Row and Woburn Place were narrow roads crowded with small houses, stables and workshops.  Meanwhile, a farmhouse was built at an unknown time in the early 19th century on nearby Mighell Street; it may have moved from agricultural to residential and commercial use later that century, and has an obscure early history.
  Built as Patriot Place in the mid-1810s, Tilbury Place (renamed in the 1860s) and its five houses stood next to the farm and formed a pocket of high-class residential development in a mostly working-class area of small houses.  Number 1, also called St John's Lodge, was the largest, and was built for Edward Tarner (a merchant) and his wife Letitia, whose maiden name was Tilbury. It passed through the family until 1933, when Letitia Tilbury Tarner, a descendant, left it to her cousin Clara Isabella Bryan, who sold it in 1938 to Brighton Corporation for charitable purposes. It was converted into Tarner Home, a nursing and care institute for poor people, and later became a hostel. Nos 1-5 Tilbury Place are now owned by a housing association and used as housing.
  Apart from some land north of Sussex Street that remained agricultural until the 20th century, the whole hillside was covered with (mostly t
caption: The former Mighell Farmhouse stands on the stub of Mighell Street. Amex House now occupies the rest of the site.
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