BPC00131
Detail taken from West view of Brighton from the top of the Old Church. (BPC00454)
Lithograph by J Newman and Co, London. Published by W Grant, Castle Square, c1850. The original watercolour is in the British Museum.
There are no views of this terrace in published Victorian prints of Brighton, so this detail shows it just a couple of years after it was completed, and before its cohesion was spoilt by the many and varied dormer windows. Dyke Road is in the foreground. Just below the Terrace is the large detached house, Norman Villa, which still stands today as an educational establishment.
In Clifton Place, at the far end of Clifton Terrace, there is a gap in the terrace of houses going down the hill. This gap, which is now filled, was the site of a proposed street, with the intended name of Alfred Place, that would have continued on in the direction of Clifton Terrace and joined up with Victoria Street, almost opposite Victoria Place. The street was never developed, but it explains the single house, halfway down Victoria Street, which is set back behind the main run of the terrace on the east side of the road.
Deeds to numbers 1 and 2 Clifton Terrace confirm that these two houses were built in 1846 by two local builders, G W Sawyer and Richard Edwards. The taller facades in the centre of the terrace were probably the first to be constructed and in the 1846 street directory number 14 is Miss Wakefield’s Ladies School. Brighton was well known for its schools: in the 1877 Handbook for Travellers to Sussex, published by John Murray of Albemarle Street, London, the editor writes ‘As one result of the healthy situation and favourable climate, boys’ and girls’ schools abound: probably there are not fewer than 200 private schools in Brighton’.
The whole print is illustrated in Old Brighton: A Collection of Prints, Paintings and Drawings by Eileen Hollingdale. George Nobbs Publishing, 1979, p 114.
Also illustrated in The Victorian Development of the Clifton, Montpelier and Powis Estates of Brighton by Steve Myall. Pomegranate Press, 2008, p 34.
The complete print is Images of Brighton 49 and illustrated on page 27.
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