page_title: Mathematical tile
section_title: Black glazed tiles
hierarchical_section_title: Mathematical tile / Black glazed tiles
caption_attribution_description: Close-up of modern replacement black glazed mathematical tiles on the façade of 44 Old Steine, Brighton, England—an 18th-century building. These tiles, which resemble (much nicer original black tiles) brick, were popular in Brighton in the late 18th century.
context_page_description: Mathematical tiles are a building material used extensively in the southeastern counties of England—especially East Sussex and Kent—in the 18th and early 19th centuries. They were laid on the exterior of timber-framed buildings as an alternative to brickwork, which their appearance closely resembled. A distinctive black variety with a glazed surface was used on many buildings in Brighton from about 1760 onwards, and is considered a characteristic feature of the town's early architecture. Although the brick tax was formerly thought to have encouraged use of mathematical tiles, in fact the tiles were subject to the same tax.
context_section_description: The black glazed type is most closely associated with the Brighton's early architecture: such tiles had the extra advantage of reflecting light in a visually attractive way. Black mathematical tiles started to appear in the 1760s, soon after the town began to grow in earnest as its reputation as a health resort became known. When Patcham Place, a mid 16th-century house in nearby Patcham (now part of the city of Brighton and Hove), was rebuilt in 1764, it was clad entirely in the tiles. Royal Crescent, Brighton's first unified architectural set piece and first residential development built to face the sea, was faced in the same material when it was built between 1799 and 1807. When Pool Valley—the site where a winterbourne drained into the English Channel—was built over in the 1790s, one of the first buildings erected there was a mathematical tiled two-storey shop. Both the building (now known as 9 Pool Valley) and the façade survive. All three of these have Grade II* listed status, indicating that in the context of England's architecture they are "particularly important ... [and] of more than special interest". Other examples can be seen at Grand Parade—the east side of Old Steine, developed haphazardly with large houses in a variety of styles and materials in the early 19th century; York Place, a fashionable address when built in the 1800s; and Market Street in The Lanes, Brighton's ancient core of narrow streets.
  Lewes, the county town of East Sussex, has many buildings mathematical tiles in black and other colours. These include the Grade I-listed Jireh Chapel in the Cliffe area of the town which is clad in red mathematical tiles and dark grey slate. The timber-framed chapel was built in 1805. Elsewhere, a study in 2005 identified 22 18th-century timber-framed buildings (mostly townhouses) with mathematical tiles of various colours. Examples are the semi-detached pair at 199 and 200 High Street, the small terrace at 9–11 Market Street, 33 School Hill (an old building with a mid-18th century renewed façade), and the Quaker meeting house of 1784.
caption: Black glazed mathematical tiles—as seen here at 44 Old Steine—are a characteristic feature of Brighton's 18th-century architecture.
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