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Building opinions with Robert Stuart Nemeth, the man with a keen eye on Brighton’s architecture

From 7 October, Brighton Museum and Art Gallery will have an exciting new permanent exhibit – all the way from Brisbane, Australia.

“Martha Gunn was ‘queen’ of the dippers and friend of the Prince of Wales”

Sea-bathing had become extremely popular by the end of the nineteenth century and two new professions emerged – ‘bathing’ (the immersion of men by men) and ‘dipping’ (the immersion of women by women). The sexes were required to bathe separately and, indeed, this restriction remained in place in Brighton until the 1930s.

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Building opinions with Robert Stuart Nemeth, the man with a keen eye on Brighton’s architecture

Western Road, West Street, North Street, Eastern Road, King’s Road and London Road have all been widened over the years. One major street escaped though and is all the better for it.

“All of Brighton’s trademark architectural styles are represented on St. James’s Street – Georgian, Regency, Victorian and even a bit of Art Deco”

St. James’s Street was developed from the 1790s and probably takes its name from St. James’s Palace on Pall Mall in London. Although it would today be considered part of Kemp Town, it is technically not. It was in fact built as a shopping street to serve the flourishing East Cliff development before Thomas Kemp’s Kemp Town of Sussex Square, Lewes Crescent and surroundings was even conceived.

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Building opinions with Robert Stuart Nemeth, the man with a keen eye on Brighton’s architecture

The Old Royal Naval College at Greenwich and its glorious surroundings, including the world-famous Observatory, are best viewed from the Thames as I discovered during another maritime-themed trip out and about with the godfather.

“The beginnings of a new palace for Charles II were constructed by the river but the project never came to fruition”

The view is one of pure history. But looking back from the Queen’s House, the centrepiece of the development, things couldn’t be more different.

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Building opinions with Robert Stuart Nemeth, the man with a keen eye on Brighton’s architecture

As I write, I’m on the late train to work following a stressful move to my new home on Osborne Villas in Hove.

I bought my first house, in Hangleton, about eight years ago and although I have happy memories of the area, its 1950s architecture simply didn’t go hand-inhand with my interest in Regency, Victorian and Art Deco buildings.

“Cliftonville’s fine houses were largely influenced by Osborne House on the Isle of Wight”

For some time I’ve been on the lookout for something manageable with ‘a bit of character’. Osborne Villas offers reasonably sized pairs of early Victorian villas which fit the bill perfectly. The road was built in the 1840s as part of an area known as Cliftonville.

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Building opinions with Robert Stuart Nemeth, the man with a keen eye on Brighton’s architecture

“The work itself is an improvement. It will look nicer, not worse, when it is done.” So said the legal representative of Mehrvad Nikkah-Eshgi, the owner of 5-6 Western Road.

Think about how many dilapidated buildings there are on the Sussex coast in need of renovation. Of the many that spring to mind, some are in an appalling state. Of these, think of their potential. To define; if a particular development is worthy of considered support, should the test be whether or not the building is ‘nicer’ afterwards? Running west to east from Palmeira Square to Churchill Square, Western Road (which in fact took its name from the wealthy land-owning Western family) has many buildings that could do with tidying – and most are historic.

“Western Road took its name from the wealthy land-owning Western family”

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Building opinions with Robert Stuart Nemeth, the man with a keen eye on Brighton’s architecture

I was so fascinated by the subject of last week’s column, Earthship Brighton in Stanmer Park, that I decided to look into the subject of environmentally friendly houses further. My task couldn’t have come at a better moment.

“The house uses the sun to heat water, recycled newspaper for insulation, organic paint on the walls and sweet chestnut wood as cladding”

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Building opinions with Robert Stuart Nemeth, the man with a keen eye on Brighton’s architecture

Like the alien craft that dramatically landed on Horsell Common in H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds, Earthship Brighton at Stanmer Park was built for little green men. Environmentally ‘green’ obviously!

“The aim is ultimately to be non-reliant on local utilities and, therefore, be self-sufficient.”

In a nutshell, ‘Earthships’ are eco-buildings that are constructed in a particular fashion to embrace several key concepts.

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Building opinions with Robert Stuart Nemeth, the man with a keen eye on Brighton’s architecture

It’s not an unusual story – pedestrians look in shop windows; rarely at what’s above, however beautiful. This goes for North Street too, but take the trouble to look above La Tasca and you won’t be disappointed.

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