Building Opinions: Robert Nemeth
Bath Court
With so much development intended for the Hove seafront, it’s worth looking at what does work architecturally.
It’s fair to say that the plans that we have seen for the King Alfred and Texaco garage, along with the PortZED and Sackville Hotel sites, leave much to be desired. The same could be said though for many of the blocks on the town’s western seafront.
David Vincent was kind enough to show me around Bath Court recently. He is the residential manager of the building, and a well-known and popular character in the area (a taxi driver even mentioned him to me last week as the building’s best feature!). The block sits between Medina House and St Aubyn’s Mansions – two very different buildings. On the face of things, it “fits in” which is an often-used moniker to say that a building isn’t horrific (similar to “better than what was there before”). These are low benchmarks and insulting in the case of Bath Court.
Bath Court, that was completed in 1981, does have architectural integrity. It was built by the developer R. Green Propertie: a firm that was responsible for many similar blocks around Hove such as Fairlawns and Edward House. The building was designed by Michael Bartlett who was responsible for Fairlawns (and perhaps Edward House which has exactly the same internal sepele doors as Bath Court), whose son Irving Bartlett was immensely helpful in providing background information.
Bath Court echoes the physical form of the old Medina Baths (of which nearby Medina House was once a small part). Its beige bricks are pleasant and appropriate for the seafront, as are the multitude of balconies whose corner profile is a most pleasing feature against a blue sky behind. Many of the Hove blocks just fit in. Bath Court deserves its place.
