Introduction
Regency, Russell and Clarence Squares lie within the Regency Square Conservation Area, to the west of the old town centre of Brighton. The area was mainly open fields, known as west laines, until the end of the eighteenth century. Between 1801 and the late 1820s, but particularly during the mid 1820s, the area was developed as squares and terraces in a pattern which still largely survives today, although Clarence Square was not completed until about 1850. The area represents a particular phase of the expansion of Brighton in the early nineteenth century and a contrast to the grander developments like Kemp Town. Regency, Russell and Clarence squares have their own distinctive qualities and are a pleasant, closely-linked sequence of urban spaces. Many sections of original facade survive within the squares, often with very attractive bow fronted windows, canopies and cast iron balustrades. Regency Square is attributed to the local architect Amon Wilds and Russell Square to his son, Amon Henry Wilds.
Map of Brighton Parish 1740
Until the middle of the eighteenth century, Brighton (or Brighthelmstone as it then was) comprised the old town lying between West Street, North Street and the Steine. It was surrounded by arable land divided into large fields or laines, which were subdivided into narrow strips called paulpieces. From the mid-century onwards, expansion beyond the old town begun initially along the Steine, then the centre of fashionable Brighton, and subsequently to the east, culminating at the end of the century in the start of work on the Royal Crescent.
The land to the west of the old town remained mainly in agricultural use until the very end of the eighteenth century. Belle Vue Field, the site of Regency Square, was used for fairs, shows and military reviews and was the site of military camp between August and October 1793. There was a windmill in the field as late as 1797, when it was moved to Devil's Dyke to the north of Brighton. The first type of development on this western area was villas facing the sea, close to the coastal road which was rebuilt in 1822 as King's Road. Belle Vue villa on the site of the future Regency Square was built as early as 1794.
By 1830 the landscape of coastal villas and farmland had been completely replaced with a pattern of squares and terraces which, south of Western Road, has changed relatively little down to the present day. Ironically, it was after 1820, when the Prince Regent became George IV that the growth of 'Regency' Brighton accelerated with a peak of growth between 1822 and 1828. The 1820s were the boom years for the architects and builders Amon Wilds, Amon Henry Wilds and Charles Busby. Their major developments of this period included Kemp Town to the east of the old town and Brunswick Square just beyond the parish boundary in Hove. Amon Wilds is thought to have been the architect for Regency Square, which was developed between 1818 and 1828. However, the only evidence cited for this is that the buildings are of the Wilds-Busby style, but lack the flair that the latter brought to the partnership. Russell Square was developed between 1818 and 1825, perhaps by Amon Henry Wilds.
There were cast iron railings around the houses, usually of the same pattern as those around the 'enclosure' which occupied most of the square, and a brick pavement around the perimeter. By the 1850s there was shrubbery, a path and central lawn within each enclosure, although it is possible that Regency Square originally just had lawns. The gates to the enclosures were locked and only the surrounding householders had rights of access. The householders formed enclosure committees to manage the squares, and the committee at Clarence Square survived until 1952.
The character of the squares remained largely unchanged until World War II when the railings were removed for scrap metal, air raid shelters were dug and some of the squares were used for storage. By the end of the war there was very little left of the original designs.
To the north, Clarence Place had been developed originally as a row of four-storey houses in the 1800s. This, too, was further developed in the mid 1820s, but Clarence Square, which included Clarence Place on its north side, was not built until the mid 1800's.
The character of the Brighton squares in general in the first half of the nineteenth century is apparent from contemporary accounts. Wallis' guide of 1838 refers to 'enclosures surrounded with iron railings and mostly covered with grass plats, while the whole are adorned with shrubs and flowers tastefully disposed'. The Comte de la Garde in 1834 admired 'the spectacle of the succession of squares built round lawns or gardens of flowers and shrubs', noting that 'each of the gardens is enclosed by an iron fence and only the occupants of the neighbouring houses have the keys of the gate and the right of entry'. He was even more taken with the appearance of the surrounding houses: 'but that which I like above all is the "veranda" a sort of iron trellis work of various designs which projects from each floor like a balcony and is surmounted by a zinc tent shaped in different colours. Over most of them rambler roses and other climbing plants are trained, seeming to transport the onlooker to some tropical clime and giving to the houses of Brighton the indolent gaiety of the Indes'.
This old engraving shows a view towards Regency Square from the West Pier shortly after it was opened in 1866.
Houses with rights of access to the enclosure within the squares were known as 'privileged houses'. The householders were responsible for the upkeep of the enclosures and formed committees to manage them. Ownership of the squares was generally vested in a trust and in at least one case the trustees were only too anxious to avoid the responsibilities that this entailed. At Regency Square, the trust was for a limited term. Under the Brighton Corporation Act of 1884 title to many of the squares passed to the local authority, but management was handed back to enclosure committees which levied a local rate. The enclosure committees at Russell Square and Regency Square survived until the inter-war period. Clarence Square remained in private hands until 1952 when its enclosure committee was wound up.
There were few changes to the Russell and Clarence Squares until World War II, but the setting of Regency Square was affected by the development of the Brighton seafront, which was an almost inevitable consequence of the change from aristocratic to popular resort that followed the arrival of the railway in 1841. In 1866 the West Pier was built in front of Regency Square, despite the vigorous objections of residents that the toll houses would block their views of the sea. The memorial to the Royal Sussex Regiment's casualties in the Boer War was erected at the southern end of Regency Square in 1904.
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