Grand Parade

Please note that this text is an extract from a reference work written in 1990.  As a result, some of the content may not reflect recent research, changes and events.

j) GRAND PARADE: Lined with large three- and four-storey houses, now mainly commercial, Grand Parade was developed in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Some houses were demolished for road-widening in the 1930s and ’60s, but many interesting listed buildings remain.
The northern range of buildings dates from the 1810s and ’20s. Nos.9-10 and 12-13 are faced in black glazed mathematical tiles , while nos.14, and 18-19 (with giant Doric pilasters) are probably by Wilds and Busby. Nos.17, 20-23 and 26-27 are also listed. {44}
The central portion dates principally from the 1800s, and nos.30-32 and 34-35 have cobbled facades. No.47, Lancaster House, with its wide, yellow-brick bow front and ironwork balcony, is the grandest building in the whole parade and was refurbished as offices in 1989-90. It was the first home of the Brighton Grammar School and was probably designed by Charles Barry in about 1840. Nos.33, 37-38 and 40-41 are also listed. Roughly in the area of no.36 once stood the Royal Circus and Riding School, opened in August 1808 by a Mr Saunders with a billiards lounge, coffee-house and confectionery. It was not successful however, and closed in 1812, but it is commemorated by Circus Street at the rear. The Grand Parade Chapel stood at no.29 but was demolished in 1938 to provide for wider access to the new market. Built in about 1835 with a gable and small turrets, it was used by the Catholic Apostolic Church from 1853 until 1865, and in 1879 was converted into St James’s Concert Hall. It then became an auction room in about 1893, but from 1913 was used by the Christian Brethren. {3,44,62,83,108}
The southernmost range of Grand Parade dates principally from the 1790s and 1800s, and was originally called Town Parade, but it is now dominated by the polytechnic (q.v.). Nos.68-72 are listed buildings, some with balconies and good doorways, but nos.78-80 were demolished for road-widening in 1931. No.68 is faced with mathematical tiles, unusually in red; it houses the Lewis Cohen Urban Studies Centre of Brighton Polytechnic . {44}

Any numerical cross-references in the text above refer to resources in the Sources and Bibliography section of the Encyclopaedia of Brighton by Tim Carder.

Comments about this page

  • In 1851, my great great great aunt, Elizabeth Hobden, was 19 and was a servant to Sarah Harwood, and William Harwood, both aged 65, who lived at 23 Grand Parade. Does anyone else have information on the household? Thanks

    By Janet Ritchey (16/07/2010)

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