BPC00340
Aquatint engraving after George Earp Jnr, published by W H Mason c1850.
Belvedere was a house built c1837 for Mary Ann, the sister of the Rev Henry Wagner, the vicar of Brighton. Mary Ann never lived there and this engraving shows it as a girls’ school. It was on the west side of Montpelier Road, and this view is from the gardens at the back of the house. Mary Ann Wagner owned three acres of land in this area and developed Belvedere Terrace and parts of Montpelier Place and Montpelier Terrace. When she died in 1868 she left Belvedere to her brother’s eldest son, the Rev Arthur Douglas Wagner. He converted it back to a private house and lived there until his death in 1902. He is described as living a very simple life, collecting books and manuscripts. His library contained some 12,000 volumes and on his death in 1902 the auction sale took three days. The house then became the Park Royal Hotel: this was demolished c1965 and the present-day blocks of flats were built on the site.
Illustrated in The Victorian Development of the Clifton, Montpelier and Powis Estates of Brighton by Steve Myall. Pomegranate Press, 2008, p 160.
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