Sussex Square and Lewes Crescent

Sussex Square and Lewes Crescent, together with their flanking terraces, Chichester Terrace and Arundle Terrace, form the largest set-​piece of Regency Architecture in Brighton’s famous Kemp Town.
The vision for this development was Thomas Read Kempe, a member of a distinguished Lewes family, whose father had been High Sheriff of Sussex and MP for Lewes. Kemp also became MP for Lewes, as well as a dissenting Minister. He started Kemp Town as a speculative development, close to the highly fashionable resort of Brighton, but at a discrete enough distance away for the owners of these huge houses to retain their social privacy.
Work began in 1823, under the architects Wilds and Busby. Among the builders was Thomas Cubitt, whose own house is today marked by a blue plaque. Unfortunately, the scheme was not a financial success, and Kemp fled England and his creditors in 1837. The project continued, however, under Cubitt and new sponsors, and was completed in 1855.
The square is huge: Sussex Square is larger than Grosvenor Square in London, and Lewes Crescent is the largest in Britain with a diameter two hundred feet greater than Bath Royal Crescent. The space is filled with lovely gardens, although the famous architectural commentator Pesvner pointed out that the scale means that the opposite sides of the Square and Crescent are too large to be ‘read’ together aesthetically — and it’s certainly impossible to get a photo which includes both sides from the ground. He also derided the weakness of the architectural detail, though others disagree.
Compared with many later developments, however, there is no question that this is a bold and impressive piece of urban design, and a must-​see for any student of architecture.
By the end of the 1800s, the area between Kemp Town and Brighton centre had been fully developed, and the area gradually fell into a genteel decline, although Princess Louise, daughter of Edward VII, and her husband, the Duke of Fife, lived in number one Lewes Crescent around the turn of the century: King Edward VII visited them several times, notably to recover from a ‘sore throat’ in February 1908.
Today, the area has been largely gentrified once again, and is a very popular (and expensive) area in which to live, although today most of the houses have been broken up into flats.