The Sussex Tavern

Details

BRIGHTON

TQ3104SW EAST STREET
577-1/64/227 (West side)
20/08/71 Nos.33 AND 34
The Sussex Tavern
(Formerly Listed as:
EAST STREET
The Sussex Hotel)

II

Formerly known as: The Spread Eagle.
House, now public house and restaurant. C18, extended in early
C19 to its present form. Stucco. Roof of main block obscured
by parapet. The roof of the low wing to rear of tile.
EXTERIOR: 3 storeys and attic over basement with an extension
to the right; the latter has 2 storeys, its first-floor
setting back; the main block steps down to a 2-storey return,
and up to 3 storeys in the extension at the rear to Market
Street.
2-window range to main elevation and the block to right.
2-window range also to rear block; scattered fenestration to
the return. Main elevation treated as a full-height and nearly
full-width segmental bay. There is a short flight of steps up
to a flat-arched entrance set in the right-hand quadrant of
the bay. Each of ground-floor openings has a floating cornice
supported by a pair of console brackets; this feature can also
be found on 2 windows to the return. A long cornice spans 2
windows and entrance in right-hand wing; the windows to the
setback first floor are segmental arched. All other windows
are flat arched. There is a C20 dormer to the roof of this low
block. All upper-floor windows have projecting sills. On the
main block, there is a broad sill band to second-floor windows
and another just below the sills of the attic windows. Topping
the attic storey is a projecting cornice which continues
around the return. On the ground floor of the return is a
shallow aedicule consisting of a pair of Tuscan pilasters with
entablature; built as an entrance, this is now filled by a
window. The corner range of windows on the return is blocked
as are left-hand windows in top floor of return.
The elevation to Market Street, which dates to the early C19,
is a front applied to an C18 building; the outer wall of the
present top floor masks a gable-facing roof. On the ground
floor there is a segmental bay with tripartite windows; its
metal roof is semi-domical. There is a cornice to the second
floor.
INTERIOR: not inspected.
Railings with fleur-de-lys heads to the right-hand entrance on
East Street and to alley.
HISTORICAL NOTE: the public house was known as The Spread
Eagle until 1816, and it is said to have been used by
smugglers. Nos 26-31 and 33-36 East Street (qv) faces onto
what is, in effect, a small square, which is formed by the
widening of East Street at its northern end. Legend has it
that this whole group was built on the site of a small wharf
on an inlet of the sea.
(Carder T: The Encyclopaedia of Brighton: Lewes: 1990-: 57).




Listing NGR: TQ3114804069

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

480660

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Carder, T, Encyclopaedia of Brighton, (1990), 57

End of official list entry

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