Visit Round Hill, Brighton Places

Welcome to Visit Round Hill, Brighton Places
The Walkfo guide to things to do & explore in Round Hill, Brighton

  

Round Hill, Brighton Places Overview: History, Culture & Facts about Round Hill, Brighton

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Round Hill, Brighton history

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Early history

In 1800, Round Hill was a steep-sided, round-topped hill rising to 223 feet (68 m) and ploughed up for use by farmers. Some poorly defined tracks crossed it, linking Preston village to the road to Lewes. Two of the largest landowners in the Brighton and Hove area, Thomas Read Kemp and William Stanford (an ancestor of Charles Thomas-Stanford of the Thomas-Stanford Baronetcy of Preston Manor), owned most of the land between them. In the late 19th century, the Stanford family sold some of their land—which almost completely encircled Brighton, Preston and Hove to the north—for housing development, and retained much of it to develop themselves. The earliest development in the Round Hill area was Ireland’s Pleasure Gardens on the southern slope in 1823. Also known as the Royal Pleasure Gardens, this venture by James Ireland was intended to be a profitable speculation, attracting the increasing number of visitors and short-term residents who had doubled Brighton’s population in the previous decade. Ireland, a rich businessman with interests in drapery and undertaking, bought a 10-acre (4 ha) site from Thomas Read Kemp in 1822 and opened the gardens on 1 May 1823. The vast range of attractions included an aviary, maze, formal gardens with a canal, Gothic-style tower, bowling greens, billiard rooms, assembly rooms with a roof promenade, a grotto and a lake. A cricket ground (the Royal New Ground) was also provided and was said to be “the best in the country” at the time. Despite the range of activities, and occasional high-profile stunts by associates of Ireland (such as a flying demonstration), the gardens never thrived, and soon fell into decline. Ireland sold them in 1826, and later owners presided over further decline until the facility was eventually closed in the 1840s. Only its south boundary wall and gate piers, decorated with copies of their original stone lions, survive. Another development of the 1820s, on Thomas Read Kemp’s landholding, was the Jewish cemetery and its chapel. Its location on Florence Place, off Ditchling Road just north of the railway line, places it marginally outside Brighton and Hove City Council’s definition of the Round Hill area, but the site has always been associated with Round Hill. In 1826, Kemp, who at the time was a member of parliament, donated a parcel of land on the north slope of the hill to the congregation of Brighton’s synagogue. The town had a large Jewish population—about 150 by 1840. An octagonal brick cemetery chapel (the Ohel), designed by the firm of Thomas Lainson and Son, was built in the burial ground in 1893. In accordance with Jewish custom, it had facilities for mourners to wash their hands upon leaving the “presence of death”. Money to build the chapel and a fence round the cemetery was raised in the 1890s by charging members of the Middle Street Synagogue two shillings per week for a year; some prominent members of Brighton’s Jewish community provided interest-free loans as well. Burials include Henry Solomon, Brighton Borough’s chief constable (murdered in 1844); Hyam Lewis, a Brighton Town Commissioner and the first Jew in England to hold such a high-ranking municipal position; Levi Emanuel Cohen, a radical journalist who helped Brighton achieve borough status; and Sir John Howard, an engineer. The cemetery has been full for many years and is now closed except for family burials where a tomb already exists. It is locked and in poor condition; many graves are overgrown. The foundation stone commemorating Kemp’s gift of the land survives, though. The cemetery chapel and its surrounding walls and gates are Grade II listed buildings. In 1838, a windmill was built at the top of the hill, where the northern end of the present-day Belton Road stands. Although it was demolished in the early 20th century, it has been called “probably the most well-known feature of the Round Hill area”. Its names included Rose Hill Mill, Round Hill Mill and Cutress’s Mill, but its most common name—alluding to the type of windmill it was—was Tower Mill. Ownership changed regularly, and the mill was rarely profitable—even after Charles Cutress converted it to steam power in 1880. Storm damage soon afterwards caused further problems. The mill was demolished in 1913, and its bricks were recovered and used in the construction of some houses in Belton Road. In 1854, the Diocese of Chichester selected an area of open land on the west side of Ditchling Road as the site of their Training College for Anglican Schoolmistresses, which had outgrown its premises in Black Lion Street in the old town. Viaduct Road was built in front of the Gothic Revival building’s south façade around the same time and was built up with terraced houses by the early 1860s. In the early 20th century, the Diocese bought three of the four villas nearby and converted them into accommodation for trainee schoolteachers. Before that, the trainee teachers slept in large rooms in the Training College.

Residential development in the 19th century

Between 1838 and 1840, the Colbatch family built four large detached villas in the former Rose Hill Park on a southwest-facing part of the hill. The site of the failed Pleasure Gardens then became one of Brighton’s most exclusive residential developments in the 1850s, when prominent and influential local architect Amon Henry Wilds conceived and built the three-part Park Crescent development.

Smallholdings and cat’s-creeps

Smallholdings and plant nurseries were common between houses and streets. A large nursery existed behind Park Crescent until 1883, when the Salvation Army Citadel was built on the site. Other areas of green space survive behind Richmond Road, between Wakefield Road and Roundhill Crescent.

Employment and industry in the 19th and 20th centuries

Brighton and Sussex Laundry Works catered for large institutions such as hotels and schools. Cox’s Pill Factory, which took over the former laundry factory, moved to Hove in 1910. Another important 20th-century industry was the manufacture of golf balls.

Health

In 1905, the first hospital for the treatment of mental illness was opened in the large house at 101 Roundhill Crescent. The Lewes Road Hospital for Women and Children was the first such facility in England. The hospital expanded in 1911 and moved to Ditchling Road, and later split into two parts housed in Brighton and Brunswick Town area of Hove respectively.

Roundhill in the postwar era

Four villas erected by the Colbatch family were demolished after the Second World War. The family drew up plans to replace the four villas and the gatekeepers’ cottages with flats. Brighton Borough Council bought the land using a compulsory purchase order and redeveloped it with council flats based on the family’s designs.

You can visit Round Hill, Brighton places with Walkfo Round Hill, Brighton to hear history at Round Hill, Brighton’s places whilst walking around using the free digital tour app. Walkfo Round Hill, Brighton has 222 places to visit in our interactive Round Hill, Brighton map, with amazing history, culture & travel facts you can explore the same way you would at a museum or art gallery with information audio headset. With Walkfo, you can travel by foot, bike or bus throughout Round Hill, Brighton, being in the moment, without digital distraction or limits to a specific walking route. Our historic audio walks, National Trust interactive audio experiences, digital tour guides for English Heritage locations are available at Round Hill, Brighton places, with a AI tour guide to help you get the best from a visit to Round Hill, Brighton & the surrounding areas.

“Curated content for millions of locations across the UK, with 222 audio facts unique to Round Hill, Brighton places in an interactive Round Hill, Brighton map you can explore.”

Walkfo: Visit Round Hill, Brighton Places Map
222 tourist, history, culture & geography spots

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Round Hill, Brighton historic spots	Round Hill, Brighton tourist destinations	Round Hill, Brighton plaques	Round Hill, Brighton geographic features
Walkfo Round Hill, Brighton tourism map key: places to see & visit like National Trust sites, Blue Plaques, English Heritage locations & top tourist destinations in Round Hill, Brighton

  

Best Round Hill, Brighton places to visit

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Round Hill, Brighton has places to explore by foot, bike or bus. Below are a selection of the varied Round Hill, Brighton’s destinations you can visit with additional content available at the Walkfo Round Hill, Brighton’s information audio spots:

St Luke’s Church, Queen’s Park, Brighton St Luke’s Church is an Anglican church in the Queen’s Park area of Brighton. It was designed in the 1880s by Sir Arthur Blomfield in the Early English style. It has been given listed building status because of its architectural importance.

Greek Orthodox Church of the Holy Trinity, Brighton The Church of the Holy Trinity is a Greek Orthodox church in Brighton. Built in 1838 in one of Brighton’s most notorious slum districts, Carlton Hill. It was an Anglican church for most of its life until it was declared redundant in 1980. It has been listed at Grade II since 1971.

St Mary the Virgin, Brighton St Mary’s Church is an Anglican church in the Kemptown area of Brighton. The present building dates from the late 1870s and replaced a church of the same name which collapsed while being renovated. The Gothic-style red-brick building is now a Grade II* listed building.

Church of the Annunciation, Brighton The Church of the Annunciation was built in the 1860s on behalf of Rev. Arthur Wagner. It served a new area of poor housing in what is now the Hanover district. The church is a Grade II listed building.

Royal Crescent, Brighton Royal Crescent is a crescent-shaped terrace of houses on the seafront in Brighton, part of the English city of Brighton and Hove. Built in the late 18th and early 19th century as a speculative development on the open cliffs east of Brighton by a wealthy merchant. English Heritage has listed the crescent at Grade II* for its architectural and historical importance.

Waste House Waste House is a building on the University of Brighton campus in the centre of Brighton on the south coast of England. It was built between 2012 and 2014 as a project involving hundreds of students and apprentices. The materials consist of a wide range of construction industry and household waste. It is the first public building in Europe to be built primarily of such products.

St Wilfrid’s Church, Brighton St Wilfrid’s Church is a former Anglican church in the Elm Grove area of Brighton, part of the English city of Brighton and Hove. It was declared redundant after less than 50 years as a place of worship, and was converted into sheltered housing with minimal alteration to the exterior.

Dorset Gardens Methodist Church Dorset Gardens Methodist Church is the third Methodist place of worship on the site. It replaced an older, larger church which was in turn a rebuilding of Brighton’s first Methodist church. Between them, the churches have played an important part in the history of Methodism in Brighton.

The Blind Tiger Club, Brighton The Blind Tiger Club was a mixed music, arts and community venue in Brighton, England, which opened in 2010. Time Out described the venue as “semi-legendary”, in its round-up of Brighton’s live music scene that year. Gigwise included the club in their list of the UK’s Greatest Lost Venues.

St Joseph’s Church, Brighton St Joseph’s Church is a Roman Catholic church in the Elm Grove area of Brighton, part of the English city of Brighton and Hove. It is one of eleven Roman Catholic churches in the city. The church was built in several stages, and outstanding debts meant that its official dedication took place in 1979.

Visit Round Hill, Brighton plaques