Carlton Hill is an inner-city area of Brighton, part of the English city and seaside resort of Brighton and Hove. First developed in the early and mid-19th century on steeply sloping farmland east of central Brighton, it grew rapidly as the town became a fashionable, high-class destination. Carlton Hill's population was always poor, though, and by the early 20th century the area was Brighton's worst slum: overcrowding, crime and disease were rife. Extensive slum clearance in the mid-20th century introduced high-density tower blocks, but some old buildings remain: in 2008, Brighton and Hove City Council designated part of Carlton Hill as the city's 34th conservation area. The area now has housing of various styles and ages, large offices and small-scale industry; there are also churches, a school and some open space.
Carlton Hill's pattern of development was defined by the long-established structure of land ownership around Brighton, whereby land was divided into long, narrow strips with many different owners. This encouraged the development of terraced housing—the predominant housing pattern until the council undertook large-scale demolition and high-density rebuilding in the mid-20th century. This work introduced more open space and varied land uses: Brighton Art College was able to expand into the area, and American Express opened a large, visually dominant headquarters.
Buildings lost during the 20th century include schools and several chapels serving various Christian denominations. The former St John the Evangelist's Anglican church was declared redundant and sold to Brighton's Greek Orthodox community; meanwhile, a distinctive Modernist church was built in the 1960s for Spiritualists. A cluster of historic early 19th-century houses and other structures survived the redevelopment, and several were awarded listed status by English Heritage. These buildings and their surroundings were afforded further protection in 2008 when the city council designated the Carlton Hill conservation area.
Location
Carlton Hill stands on high ground immediately east of the centre of Brighton. Its western boundary, Grand Parade, is part of the main road to London; Edward Street, a major road leading towards Kemp Town and the eastbound coast road, forms the southern boundary; the Queen's Park residential area is to the east; and the densely populated terraced housing of Hanover lies to the north. The main road through the area runs from west to east and is also called Carlton Hill. Albion Hill, another steeply sloping west–east road, forms the northern boundary between Hanover and Carlton Hill; the area north of Sussex Street is sometimes referred to as Albion Hill. The high ground of the area reaches a summit of at Windmill Terrace, between Albion Hill and Richmond Street. The latter was Brighton's steepest road until redevelopment in the 1960s severed it: its 1:5 gradient necessitated a full-width wall halfway along, to intercept runaway handcarts and other vehicles.
The area is not prominent on Brighton's skyline, but good views are possible from its streets, especially westwards and southwestwards towards the sea and across the valley floor in which Old Steine and the old town are situated. Tarner Park, an open space in the centre of the conservation area, offers long views through nearly 180°.
History
Brighton's origins lie in the Saxon fishing and agricultural village of Bristelmestune. The English Channel formed its southern limit, but on all other sides was farmland divided into open fields called laines. These were further subdivided into furlongs—wide parallel strips—and paul-pieces, which were much narrower strips. Despite their small size, neighbouring paul-pieces often had different owners. Wide paths (leakways) ran at right-angles to the furlongs, separating them. This ancient land-use pattern, which survived until the 18th century despite its unsuitability for contemporary farming methods, significantly influenced the pattern of urban development in 18th- and 19th-century Brighton.
Hilly Laine was one of Brighton's five laines. It was northeast of the Steine (later called Old Steine), the centre of fashionable society in the 18th century, and rose steeply eastwards from an area of sheltered flatter land close to the Steine. Some fields were used for small-scale activities such as limeburning and market gardening, but most were farmed by individuals. The laine had several furlongs; the second of these, which now forms the heart of the conservation area, was separated from its neighbours by which became Carlton Hill (the road) and Sussex Street. Much of the land in this area was owned by Dr Benjamin Scutt, whose landholdings extended into the neighbouring village of Hove (the Brunswick estate was built on land he sold in the 1820s). Starting around 1800, the land was gradually sold to developers; Edward Street was laid out in 1804 and quickly experienced a "mini building boom" with inns, stables and small workshops. John Street, on the first (westernmost) furlong of Hilly Laine, was built up by 1810: its developer, John Hall, laid out plots for houses and started building and selling them in 1805. Carlton Street, by another developer, followed by 1807. Meanwhile, development continued slowly on the second furlong: four paul-pieces were occupied with buildings by 1819.
Scutt's land sales helped him fund the development of Carlton Place, an architectural set-piece consisting of a 20-house terrace surrounding a riding school, the Royal Circus; the development took place between 1806 and 1808. Named after Carlton House, the Prince Regent's London home, the development was on a larger scale than the rest of Carlton Hill's houses: each plot measured . Each cost about £410 (£ in ) to build, and proved to be profitable: one sold for £700 (£ in ) in 1806 to a local vicar, who later bought two more to rent out. A survey of the town's housing by the Brighton Town Commissioners in 1814 valued Carlton Place within the top 25% of all houses in Brighton. Scutt laid out three more streets nearby at the same time: Carlton Mews, Carlton Row and Woburn Place were narrow roads crowded with small houses, stables and workshops. Meanwhile, a farmhouse was built at an unknown time in the early 19th century on nearby Mighell Street; it may have moved from agricultural to residential and commercial use later that century, and has an obscure early history.
Built as Patriot Place in the mid-1810s, Tilbury Place (renamed in the 1860s) and its five houses stood next to the farm and formed a pocket of high-class residential development in a mostly working-class area of small houses. Number 1, also called St John's Lodge, was the largest, and was built for Edward Tarner (a merchant) and his wife Letitia, whose maiden name was Tilbury. It passed through the family until 1933, when Letitia Tilbury Tarner, a descendant, left it to her cousin Clara Isabella Bryan, who sold it in 1938 to Brighton Corporation for charitable purposes. It was converted into Tarner Home, a nursing and care institute for poor people, and later became a hostel. Nos 1-5 Tilbury Place are now owned by a housing association and used as housing.
Apart from some land north of Sussex Street that remained agricultural until the 20th century, the whole hillside was covered with (mostly terraced) houses, small workshops and industrial structures, inns and other modest buildings by the mid-19th century. As early as 1840, the area was considered to be affected by poverty and its high population density. Brighton Corporation undertook some slum clearance in the 1880s, when White and Blaker Streets were laid out between Carlton Hill and Edward Street. By this time, Carlton Hill was known as Brighton's "foreign quarter", where many Italian and French street vendors—who sold food of various types on Brighton beach, in the town centre and from door to door—settled. Brighton's fishing industry still thrived into the early 20th century, and many fishermen lived in Carlton Hill and used its workshops and warehouses to cure and smoke their herring catches. A contemporary writer, quoted by Brighton historian Clifford Musgrave, observed that "an aromatic and appetising pall would envelop the entire neighbourhood, kippering both fish and residents alike".
In the late 19th century and early 20th century, Carlton Hill's notoriety as a slum increased. Poverty, drunkenness, disease and low living standards were rife. Brighton's reputation was damaged by a disparaging article in The Lancet in 1882: making reference to Carlton Hill, it criticised the town's poor standards of health. Assisted by government funding, Brighton Corporation undertook extensive slum clearance from 1928 until the start of World War II, transforming the area's appearance. Two large blocks of flats—Brighton Corporation's first council flats—were built to rehouse many of the displaced residents. The Milner Flats, a long four-storey block, stand on the site of Woburn Place, and were completed in 1934. Alderman Hugh Milner Black, a Corporation member who campaigned for housing improvements in Brighton, was commemorated in the naming. Kingswood Flats, on the site of Nelson Place and a Primitive Methodist chapel, were built in 1938. The name refers to Minister for Health Kingsley Wood. Some displaced residents were moved out of the area: the new council estates of Whitehawk and Moulsecoomb, built in the 1920s and early 1930s on the fringe of Brighton, accommodated many former Carlton Hill residents. An earlier low-rise development took place in 1931, when the small Tarnerland council estate was built on empty land near Tilbury Place.
The corporation also provided non-residential buildings on the cleared land. The Circus Street Municipal Market, on a wide street built behind Scutt's Royal Circus riding school, opened in January 1937 and became one of Brighton's main markets. A former chapel and many terraced houses had stood on the site, whose redevelopment cost £75,000 (£ in ). A fish market, moved from a site near the beach, was added in 1960. The building closed in 2005 and has been empty since then, apart from its use as a temporary exhibition centre during the 2009 Brighton Festival—when sculptor Anish Kapoor showed a new work there. Two clinics, specialising in chest complaints and child welfare, opened on the north side of Sussex Street, opposite the market, in 1936 and 1938 respectively. The chest clinic closed in 1989. The lower part of Sussex Street was renamed Morley Street at this time. Brighton Corporation compulsorily purchased Carlton Place in about 1955 and demolished the houses and former riding school in favour of new housing. John Street became the site of two important civic buildings in the mid-1960s: Brighton's central police station was opened in 1965, followed by the new county court building two years later.
Clearances around Albion Hill began in the 1950s. From 1959, the narrow, densely populated terraces between Albion Hill and Morley Street were cleared and replaced with landscaped open space and seven tower blocks—Brighton's first such buildings. The first, Highleigh, opened on 11 May 1961. Like its later neighbours, it has 11 storeys. The steep Richmond Street was severed as part of this redevelopment; its lower section was replaced by a zig-zag path down the hillside and a short road called Richmond Parade, and new roads (Grove Hill and Ashton Rise) were built between the tower blocks and across the slope of the hill. Similarly, the lowest section of Carlton Hill was renamed Kingswood Street when it was redeveloped in the 1960s: Brighton Art College (now part of the University of Brighton) was extended in 1967 by Brighton borough architect Percy Billington, taking up a large corner plot.