page_title: Buildings and architecture of Brighton and Hove
section_title: Structural and decorative features
hierarchical_section_title: Buildings and architecture of Brighton and Hove / Architectural characteristics / Structural and decorative features
caption_attribution_description: A highly decorative moulded stuccoed gable on the south face of the former Belgrave Hotel, corner of West Street and Kings Road, Brighton, City of Brighton and Hove, England. This building is now styled Umi Hotel Brighton.
context_page_description: Brighton and Hove, a city on the English Channel coast in southeast England, has a large and diverse stock of buildings "unrivalled architecturally" among the country's seaside resorts. The urban area, designated a city in 2000, is made up of the formerly separate towns of Brighton and Hove, nearby villages such as Portslade, Patcham and Rottingdean, and 20th-century estates such as Moulsecoomb and Mile Oak. The conurbation was first united in 1997 as a unitary authority and has a population of about 253,000. About half of the 20,430-acre geographical area is classed as built up.
  Brighton's transformation from medieval fishing village into spa town and pleasure resort, patronised by royalty and fashionable high society, coincided with the development of Regency architecture and the careers of three architects whose work came to characterise the 4-mile seafront.
context_section_description: Many of the city's old buildings have "butterfly roofs"—double-pitched, with a central depression between the slopes. The oldest roofs tended to be laid with handmade clay tiles; slate tiles and mass-produced clay tiles were popular later. Elaborately decorated gables characterise the roofs of many houses and villas of the Victorian and Edwardian eras, especially in suburban areas.  These are usually steep and triangular: curved and shaped gables are uncommon in the area.  Stucco, plaster, weatherboarding and woodwork were often used to decorate the face of the gable.
  Bow or bay windows were the "chief architectural feature" of Brighton's early houses. Vertical sliding timber-framed sash windows with glazing bars were usually inserted into these, although casements were sometimes used—typically on the oldest or most modest buildings.  Casements would sometimes be given glazing bars as well.  Such bars were usually slim and had mouldings in various patterns.  The combination of partly recessed sashes and bow windows is characteristic of Brighton's Regency-era residential developments. The Queen Anne Revival-style housing popular in Hove in the late 19th century had its own window pattern: two-part sashes with many panes on the upper section, separated by wider glazing bars than those used in earlier years. Casement windows were popular on interwar Tudor Revival houses, as at Woodland Drive (a conservation area) in West Blatchington; and steel-framed Crittall windows are found in interwar Modernist buildings such as Embassy Court and the Moderne-style mansion flats at 4 Grand Avenue, Hove.
  Elaborate doorcases and porticos with Classical-style details are seen on many 19th-century houses, especially those built in the Regency era.  A typical form consisted of two columns with decorative mouldings, an entablature and a straight roof, all stuccoed, supporting a cast-iron balcony. Suburban villas often feature brick and timber porches with gabled tiled roofs. In central areas, many old houses have been converted into shops and have lost their original doorways in favour of glazed shopfronts.
  Balconies and canopied verandas are often seen on larger Regency- and Victorian-era houses in central Brighton and Hove.  Typically at first-floor level, made of Portland stone or lead-coated timber and surrounded by cast iron railings with elaborate patterns, they sometimes span entire terraces of houses.  They were provided to extend the living space of the drawing room, considered the most important room in the house for socialising during that era; accordingly they extended some way beyond the ground floor.  Many terraces and squares faced central gardens or the sea, so balconies would give uninterrupted views of these. Queen Anne Revival and Arts and Crafts-style villas of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, especially in Hove and around Preston Park, featured wooden balconies with simple balustrades formed of upright timbers.
  Mouldings of various types were common external decorative features in the 18th and 19th centuries, especially on Regency-style buildings.  Many structural elements would typically feature moulded stucco work—pilasters, entablatures, pediments, brackets and courses—while other mouldings would be merely decorative.  Typical designs included shells, foliage (especially on capitals) and vermiculation.  The Ammonite Order is a Classical order found almost exclusively in Brighton and Hove, consisting of fluted columns topped by capitals whose volutes are shaped like ammonite fossils.  Architect Amon Henry Wilds used them extensively.  Pilasters and columns of the Corinthian order are also common.  Victorian and Edwardian buildings made use of intricately moulded courses and bracketed eaves. Elaborate carved reliefs are found on some of John Leopold Denman's buildings of the 1930s as a result of his collaboration with sculptor Joseph Cribb.  In central Brighton, 20–22 Marlborough Place has a series of reliefs showing workers in the building trade, and 2–3 Pavilion Buildings have Portland stone capitals with scallo
caption: This gable at the former Belgrave Hotel on Brighton seafront has ornate mouldings.
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