20-22 Marlborough Place

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The picture shows the front of a three-story building with three bay windows and four chimneys on the roof.
The building at 20–22 Marlborough Place from an east-southeast direction

20–22 Marlborough Place is an office building in the seaside resort of Brighton , part of the City of Brighton and Hove . It was built in the 1930s for the Citizens' Permanent Building Society . The elegant building in the style of neo-Georgian architectural premises is now used by a branch of the Allied Irish Bank (GB) that opened in the 1980s . The building was designed by John Leopold Denman , a "master of his kind in neo-Georgian mid-century architecture". It contrasts perfectly with its contemporary neighboring building, the King and Queen Pub. The bank's facade includes a series of stone carving reliefs by Joseph Cribb depicting construction workers, including a figure depicting the architect Denman himself. English Heritage , the building has for its architectural and historical significance in the Grade II listed .

history

Brighton developed into a glamorous seaside resort in the 18th and 19th centuries, with Old Steine as its center . It was at the southern end of a vast area that was poorly drained and later became known as Valley Gardens. The first residential development outside of the old settlement, which is limited by four streets, took place in 1771/72, when North Row was built on the west side of the open area. This was renamed Marlborough Place in 1819. An old building was incorporated into the street. It was an old farmhouse that was given a new Georgian-style front and became the King and Queen Pub .

The pub and most of the buildings north of it to the intersection with Church Street were rebuilt in the 1930s. One of the lots has been selected by the Citizen's Permanent Building Society as the location for its headquarters and office. In 1933 the company commissioned the architect John Leopold Denman to plan the building. He was a local architect who had practiced since 1909 and had planned several buildings in the area from the 1920s. Although he was considered an expert on neo-Georgian architecture, he was also able to design in other architectural styles; In the end, he decided on a neo-Georgian plan for his work on Marlborough Place, which forms a “stark contrast” to the eclectic and ostentatious restaurant next door, which had been planned the year before by Clayton & Black, another Brighton architecture firm .

The building was completed in the same year and was used by the housing association until the post-war period. In the 1980s it was taken over by the Allied Irish Bank (GB) and is still used as their branch today.

The office building was rated Grade II on August 26, 1999 by English Heritage . This category includes buildings of “special interest” that have a “national significance”. As of February 2001, this building was one of 1,124 Grade II buildings in Brighton and Hove .

The building is located within the Valley Gardens Conservation Area , which is one of the 34 Conservation Areas in Brighton and Hove . The Brighton & Hove Council describes the building as "an excellent single building" within a mix of structures from different ages that do not form a uniform composition, and noted that due to "understanding scale, wall thicknesses and proportions" it is well with the older ones from which 18th and 19th century buildings in the neighborhood. The council noted that if it ever fell vacant, there would be a "strong likelihood of [its] demolition" as it was important in the context of the conservation area.

architecture

Architect Denman holding a plan is depicted in this relief by Joseph Cribb. It's above one of the windows on the ground floor.

Denman designed the building "in a well-mannered but individual neo-Georgian style". The walls are made of red bricks in a stretcher bond , but the facade is interspersed with Portland stones. The roof, which houses storage rooms, is covered with S-shaped roof tiles. The facade is symmetrical and spans five bays , each with a window on the first and second floor. On the ground floor, entrance doors flank three large arched windows in the two outer bays, each of which is set back in the limestone-framed and slightly protruding middle section. The window above the entrances are larger than the intermediate and have on corbels seated window gable . The other windows are simple sliding windows. Below the attic is a stone cornice on which a brick parapet sits, at both ends of which there are stone urns. The mansard roof , into which three bay windows are inserted, gives the building “a Scandinavian touch”. An elaborately crafted clock with a decorative case protrudes from the facade on the first floor.

The building stands out due to a series of stone reliefs in the architraves of the arched windows on the ground floor. They depict the building trade and represent three workers who carry out building activities. In the area of ​​the left window you can see Denman in a hat, holding an architectural plan and talking to another man. The other reliefs show a man laying bricks and another man sawing a piece of wood. The executive sculptor was Joseph Cribb , who worked with Denman for many years, for example in the offices of the Brighton & Hove Herald newspaper in the Pavilion Buildings, which are just a short distance away. These reliefs are in good condition and are not subject to immediate risk of weathering.

literature

  • Nicholas Antram, Richard Morrice: Brighton and Hove (=  Pevsner Architectural Guides ). Yale University Press, London 2008, ISBN 978-0-300-12661-7 .
  • Brighton Polytechnic. School of Architecture and Interior Design (Ed.): A Guide to the Buildings of Brighton . McMillan Martin, Macclesfield 1987, ISBN 1-869865-03-0 .
  • Antonia Brodie: British Architectural Library (Royal Institute of British Architects) Directory of British Architects 1834–1914 . tape 1 : A-K . Continuum, London 2001, ISBN 0-8264-5513-1 ( books.google ).
  • Timothy Carder: The Encyclopaedia of Brighton . East Sussex County Libraries, Lewes 1990, ISBN 0-86147-315-9 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Carder: The Encyclopaedia of Brighton. 1990, § 189.
  2. ↑ a b c Brighton Polytechnic. School of Architecture and Interior Design: A Guide to the Buildings of Brighton. 1987, p. 33.
  3. ↑ a b ANTRAM, Morrice: Brighton and Hove. 2008, p. 25.
  4. ^ Carder: The Encyclopaedia of Brighton. 1990, § 17.
  5. ↑ Antram, Morrice: Brighton and Hove. 2008, p. 86.
  6. ↑ a b c d e f g h i Antram, Morrice: Brighton and Hove. 2008, p. 87.
  7. ^ Brodie: British Architectural Library. 2001, p. 527.
  8. ↑ Branch Locator. Allied Irish Bank (UK), 2011, accessed November 30, 2011 .
  9. ↑ a b c d e f g 20, 21 and 22, Marlborough Place, The City of Brighton and Hove. (No longer available online.) In: The National Heritage List for England. English Heritage , 2011, archived from the original on October 16, 2012 ; accessed on November 30, 2011 (English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / list.english-heritage.org.uk
  10. ↑ Listed Buildings. English Heritage , 2010, accessed November 30, 2011 .
  11. ^ Images of England - Statistics by County (East Sussex). (No longer available online.) In: Images of England . English Heritage , 2007, archived from the original on December 27, 2012 ; accessed on November 30, 2011 (English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.imagesofengland.org.uk
  12. ^ A b Valley Gardens Conservation Area Character Statement. (PDF; 168 kB) Brighton & Hove City Council (Design & Conservation Department), September 13, 1995, p. 17 , accessed on November 30, 2011 (English).
  13. ↑ Conservation Areas in Brighton & Hove. Brighton & Hove City Council (Design & Conservation Department), 2010, accessed November 30, 2011 .
  14. ^ Valley Gardens Conservation Area Character Statement. (PDF; 168 kB) Brighton & Hove City Council (Design & Conservation Department), September 13, 1995, p. 12 , accessed on August 11, 2011 (English).
  15. ↑ a b c Allied Irish Bank Reliefs. In: Public Sculptures of Sussex Database. University of Brighton , accessed November 30, 2011 .

Coordinates: 50 ° 49 ′ 30 ″  N , 0 ° 8 ′ 12.8 ″  W.