Kemp Town

Lewes Crescent and its private gardens.

Kemp Town is a 19th-century residential estate in the east of Brighton in East Sussex, England, UK. Conceived and financed by Thomas Read Kemp, it has given its name to the larger Kemptown region of Brighton. The majority of the original estate is now demarcated by the modern Kemp Town Conservation Area as defined by the local authority, Brighton and Hove City Council.

Kemp Town Estate was designed by Charles Busby and Amon Henry Wilds and constructed by Thomas Cubitt. Building work started in 1823 on Arundel Terrace, Chichester Terrace, Lewes Crescent and Sussex Square. Chichester Terrace incorporated the earlier Chichester House. In 1837 Thomas Kemp fled the country to escape his creditors. The project continued under Cubitt with the support of the Fifth Earl of Bristol. It was completed in 1855, with Sussex Square larger than London's Grosvenor Square and at the time the biggest housing crescent in Britain. The original estate is a good example of Regency architecture. A history of the residential occupation of the Estate has been collected as part of a local project called "Who's been living in my house?".

The gardens which form Sussex Square and Lewes Crescent, separated by Eastern Road, are known formally as the Kemp Town Enclosures. Work began on the Enclosures in 1823. Early works led by Henry Philips included the landscaping of the gardens and the addition of a tunnel to the esplanade. The Enclosures are owned communally by the freeholders of the 105 houses which make up the Kemp Town Estate.

At around the same time, Brighton's neighbour Hove was expanding on the western boundary of Brighton, with the development of the Brunswick Estate which featured similar though smaller Regency-style properties, and its own market, police station, riding school and (as in Kemp Town) small mews streets for staff housing. These mews now provide very attractive private accommodation which can fetch similar prices to flats in the grand houses they once served.

Below and to the east of Kemp Town, at beach level, is now Brighton Marina and a proposed redevelopment at Black Rock, site of a former lido.

Gallery

• 
  West side of Lewes Crescent
• 
  West side of southern half of Sussex Square
• 
  Blue plaque commemorating Thomas Cubitt's residence at 13 Lewes Crescent
• 
  East side of Lewes Crescent
• 
  Arundel Terrace
• 
  Back of Sussex Square

References

• Detailed history of (all of) Kemptown